Flying deep into Middle East, from a cockpit in Fargo

A new world of air combat is unfolding inside a secretive facility in Fargo, N.D., where pilots sitting in front of video screens and clutching joysticks are conducting missions over Iraq and Afghanistan -- and then driving home to the wife and kids at the end of their shift.

For the first time ever, the U.S. military will train more pilots to fly unmanned drones this year than it does pilots for jets and bombers. And a storied group from the North Dakota Air National Guard is helping to usher in the historic transition.

It's a far cry from the halcyon days of the Happy Hooligans, the name given the North Dakota Air National Guard fighter wing and its award-winning, Right Stuff jet pilots. Old-timers from the unit admit the switch from being strapped into an F-16 to controlling what at first glance looks like a high-tech video game has been a test of the ego.

But military officials see unmanned aircraft as a future face of air warfare.

Col. Rick Gibney, who will assume command of the North Dakota air wing next year, said the new missions can be more intense than traditional flights.

"I can honestly say that people would rather stay flying the fighters," Gibney said. "That being said, having been in the mission for a length of time, the type of flying we do is very rewarding."

Flying drone Predators, which are armed with laser-guided missiles and can reach speeds of 135 miles per hour, requires a flight plan, communication with air traffic control and other planes in the air, and contingencies for diverting to another landing field, the same as a manned aircraft.

The Fargo facility has about 30 three-person crews operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as they are known, are being promoted for their ability to stay in position and maneuver for long periods of time (some suggest for as long as five years), with the opportunity to simply watch or strike with either of two hellfire laser-guided missiles. They can conduct missions undetected and operate in dangerous environments. The Air Force is flying both Predators and the newer, faster Reapers in both Afghanistan and Iraq in 35 simultaneous orbits.

Much of the work involves high-tech flying and monitoring of ground movements for troops in the field, but the aircraft are also capable of attacking from the air. A Predator was used in an attack that is reported to have killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in August.

"We've spent the last hundred years as airmen trying to figure out how to hit any target, anywhere on the surface of the Earth, all weather, day, night, rapidly and with precision. We can do that today," Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, said in a Pentagon briefing about the future of unmanned flight this year.

But the Predators also have become a symbol of what some call a failing strategy for counter insurgency, particularly when they have been used for missions that result in collateral civilian damage, which has happened in Pakistan as well.

Missing jet noise

After 60 years in the air, the Fargo group converted from the F-16 jets to the unmanned Predators in 2007 and flew its first missions shortly afterward. Fargo is one of six centers operating in the United States. The Fargo unit keeps two of the aircraft in the air at a time.

Gibney said the missions go on every day, year round, adding to stress levels of pilots and their crews. More traditional 120-day deployments had a train-up period, the actual time in the theater of operation, a reconstitution period, and then a maintenance period and downtime before the next mission.

"You kind of have to keep a close eye on personnel and stress levels to make sure we're not pushing people too far," Gibney said.

Fargo has always been a little feisty about its fighter pilots. The sound of the fighters in the skies overhead was as common to a kid growing up in Fargo in the 1960s as putting on a new pair of Red Ball Jets. The Fighter Wing has been estimated to contribute more than $64 million a year to the Fargo economy.

The unit has three times won the prestigious William Tell competition, a worldwide weapons meet that tests the skills of pilots and ground crews. The Hooligans are the only National Air Guard unit to twice win the Hughes Trophy, which recognizes the most outstanding air-to-air unit in the U.S. Air Force.

They're also the only F-16 unit ever to win the trophy, flying in a competition designed for other, beefier aircraft.

"These units are made up of people who can fix anything,'' said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who has fought to keep the Air Force interested in North Dakota.

The arrival of the drones has brought new vitality to a facility that could have been mothballed with the retirement of the F-16s. Now, the state's congressional delegation and governor are urging top level Air Force brass to increase the state's complement of new cargo planes and to put the state in line to fly the successor to the Predator, the Reaper, which can fly up to 250 mph, carries more sophisticated monitoring equipment and is more heavily armed.

"I lived and grew up in this area and the airplanes were ever present, always in patterns overheard," Gibney said. "Some people were annoyed by it, some people were comforted by it. Now they miss the jet noise."

At places like the Auger Inn, a club on the base for Happy Hooligan members and alumni, the old days are often recalled fondly and the talk almost always gets around to the new way of doing things.

"The Guard in Fargo is a family," said Alexander Macdonald, retired adjutant general for the North Dakota Guard and himself a former fighter pilot. "We went to school together, we went to church together, we took our vacations together. We did everything as a family and that included being part of the Air National Guard. I used to kid the people that came through Fargo that everyone is, was, or will be a Happy Hooligan."

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636