Col. John D. Posner, left, commander of the 27th Fighter Wing and Cannon Air Force Base, Clovis, N.M., talks with Jeff McNaughton, center, during Thursday’s live radio broadcast from Misawa Air Base, Japan, at the Misawa Inn. (Jennifer Svan / S&S)
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — Unless you’re trying to book lodging, eat at Grissom Dining Facility or go on a ski or snowboard trip sponsored by the base, it’s easy to miss the 250 airmen deployed here from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M.
Since their arrival in January, the F-16 pilots, planes and maintainers have stepped quietly into the daily operations of the base, working side-by-side on the flight line and in the skies with their counterparts in the 35th Fighter Wing.
The Cannon airmen are here for four months as part of an Air Force Aerospace Expeditionary Force rotation to support war-fighting requirements from Pacific Combatant Commander Navy Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, officials said.
While the deployment to northern Japan may be far from the frontlines of the war on terrorism and less austere than the typical desert tent city, the Cannon airmen say it’s still a long way from their base in Clovis, N.M.
“It’s not the Middle East, but it’s still a long deployment,” said Tech. Sgt. Jeff Anderson, a maintenance crew chief with the 523rd Air Expeditionary Squadron, who left behind his wife and two children, ages 5 and 1. “Yeah, that’s a big deal for me.”
But last week Clovis came to Misawa when “Rooney and Moon” — morning-show radio DJs Steve Rooney and Jeff McNaughton, whose on-air name is “Duffy Moon” — visited the base and broadcast a live show three nights via a high-speed Internet connection back to New Mexico from the Misawa Inn.
“We were looking for a way to show support for the base and the airmen and what they do,” McNaughton said.
On their commercial flight from the States, McNaughton and Rooney carted about 72 pounds of cards, letters, banners and a few boxes of Girl Scout cookies from schools around Cannon, as well as written and audio greetings for specific airmen from family and friends, they said.
The Misawa Inn conference room-turned-makeshift radio station was hopping during the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. broadcast Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Airmen trickled in throughout the evening to hear the taped messages and had the chance to greet listeners back home live on the radio.
“It’s awesome that they care enough about us to come over here,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher Craig, an armament craftsman.
The letters from home were plastered on the walls: “It blows my mind how brave people like you are,” wrote one fifth-grader. Another student wrote, “I hope we win in Iraq.”
Craig and Staff Sgt. Shannon Tabor, a structural maintenance craftsman, said they never dreamed they’d get the call to deploy to Misawa, far from the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It was different to find out we were coming here and not going to the desert,” Tabor said.
Though Cannon F-16 pilot Capt. Nate Ott goes by the call sign “Bullet,” he’s perfectly happy not having to worry about getting shot at during this deployment.
“From a flying standpoint, this is making us better aviators,” he said. “We’re all in the same dorm; we’re spending a lot of time together. It not only gives us a chance to bond but a chance to talk about what we do and the way we fly.”
Col. John D. Posner, commander of Cannon’s 27th Fighter Wing, also paid a visit to Misawa last week with Rooney and McNaughton. He said AEF deployments to Misawa are just as vital as those to other parts of the world. It builds the confidence of his airmen and demonstrates not only to them “but also a would-be adversary our capabilities,” he said.
