[Scan-DC] Middle Atlantic Milcom, 31 Oct 02

[ROCKONYC@flash.net]

OPEC is a classic KC-10 callsign. It's been a static 
c/s for more than a decade.

In the "There I was" department: I was a air refueling 
(AR) controller on board AWACS during Desert Storm. 
ARs were (and are) a crucial necessity in order to 
execute an effective air campaign. Needless to say 
there were many AR tracks (long straight AR routes) 
and anchors (racetrack patterns) situated along the 
Saudi-Iragi border airspace. The air planners decided 
to name them after berrys..."strawberry", "raspberry", 
etc. Well, as the campaign progressed and it was quite 
evident how lopsided..and thus anticlimactic...was the 
air battle, the planners, in an effort to break the 
monotony, became more creative with the AR call signs. 
Thus emerged the famous "Berry Berry" and "Marion 
Berry" AR tracks. Remember DS was in or about Marion's 
hey day.

The tanker aircraft callsigns were not the standard 
peacetime gas-related callsigns but were fish--Tuna 
and Bass were static KC10 for the duration of DS. And, 
in the name of deception, the callsigns typically 
associated with tankers were applied to air-to-air 
fighters (F15s, in particular). Thus we saw four-ships 
of Eagles with callsigns of Mobil, Exxon, Opec, and 
Chevron)   

For what its worth...