A-10s over Kosovo

43

HQ/USAFE Initial Report, The Air War over Serbia: Aerospace Power in Operation Allied Force (Ramstein AB, Germany: USAFE Studies and Analysis, 25 April 2000), 9.

44

R. Jeffrey Smith and William Drozdiak, “Anatomy of a Purge,” Washington Post, 11 April 1999, A1.

45

Unpublished war diary of Maj Phil M. Haun. F-16CG (Block 40) AFACs with LANTIRN targeting pods were also used primarily as night AFACs. AFAC duties eventually expanded to include US Navy F-14s and Marine F/A-18D Hornets.

46

HQ/USAFE Initial Report, 15.

47

MOD, Kosovo: Lessons from the Crisis, 34.

48

HQ/USAFE Initial Report, 16. By the end of the war the number of USAF aircraft alone would rise to over 500.

49

US State Department, Erasing History: Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo, 6.

50

Steven Lee Myers, “Serb Forces under Attack as Weather Clears,” New York Times, 6 April 1999. By this time over 400,000 Kosovar Albanians had crossed the border into Albania and Macedonia.

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Comments

1

A note to our readers who may not be familiar with standard tactical radio transmissions. It is critical that radio transmissions be clear and as short as possible. A radio transmission generally follows a standard format of call sign, call sign, and message. The first call sign in the sequence is normally the person being called, followed by the call sign of the person making the transmission, which, in turn, is followed by the substance of the transmission.

Often, the person making the call omits his own call sign after the initial call in a series of transmissions. The person receiving the call can then recognize the voice of the caller—particularly when the people communicating already know each other. In communications between flight members, the call sign is often abbreviated to just the position in the flight (One [or Lead], and Two) rather than the flight call sign and position (Sandy 51, Two). Another exception is when a wingman acknowledges that he has understood the direction by simply transmitting his position, for example “Two.” In the text, all call signs will be capitalized.

Call signs appear in text and quoted dialogue. When a call sign, such as Sandy 31 appears in text, it will be written “Sandy 31.” When it appears as a spoken quote it will be written the way it is said, “Sandy Three-One;” its numbers will be spelled out, hyphenated, and capitalized. When a series of communication transmissions are quoted and the call sign is abbreviated, it will be written, “Three-One,” or “Two.”