Friday, May 31, 2002
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Friday, May 31, 2002 |
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Local man helps war effort from remote post The son of a Newnan man serves his country on a watery edge in the war on terror. His new albeit temporary, home is a narrow tropical jungle reef in the Indian Ocean about 1,000 miles south of the southern India coast. Air Force Senior Airman David Abelt, son of George Abelt of Newnan, says that despite the tropical feel to the reef, this is no Margaritaville. It's more of a stationary aircraft carrier for the coalition aircraft who have dropped more ordnance on Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan than any other unit during the current war on terror. "People on the ground in Afghanistan depend on protection from our aircraft," said the 1998 graduate of Griffin High School. "I'd say we are definitely making it safer to be an American with every plane that takes off from here." The mission of putting bombs on target almost 4,000 miles away in Afghanistan is comparable to flying from Chicago to Rio de Janeiro. Success falls on the back of bomber and aerial refueling aircraft that commute together from the tropics to Afghanistan. But it takes more than flyers to pull these missions off, said Abelt, a B-52 bomber chief. "I'm part of the ground crew that's responsible for the entire aircraft and the pilot that flies it," he said. "I'm responsible for daily flying operations like changing broken parts from small screws to whatever the pilot tells us. After I fix my jet I go home to my tent dirty, greasy and tired." All in all, job satisfaction can be high for the people sending the aircraft on their long journeys. "It's nice to see a fully loaded B-52 take off," said Abelt. "But it's better to see it come back empty because then we know our hard work has paid off and that we're one step closer to winning the war." "The worst thing is being so far from home," said Abelt. "I miss being on U.S. soil being around family and having the time to do the things I enjoy. I keep in touch with my family, mostly through e-mails, phone calls and the only post office in the Indian Ocean. This is a beautiful, tiny tropical island, and that's a plus there are definitely worse places to be." Even though there may be better and also worse places to serve in the war on terrorism, Abelt knows none of them packs quite the punch of a Margaritaville with bombs.
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