here we go...from NYT...
ABOARD A C-17 GLOBEMASTER, $ From the darkened cockpit of this giant Air Force cargo plane, Captain J.J. Grindrod peered through his night-vision goggles at the Iraqi airstrip ahead and prepared early Monday to make a steep, high-speed landing, a tactic used to thwart surface-to-air missile attacks.
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Grindrod and his five-member crew were flying 71,200 pounds, or 32,300 kilograms, of cargo and equipment from Germany into Balad airfield, a sprawling base 45 miles, or 70 kilometers, north of Baghdad where the army has built its major logistics center in Iraq.
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"Coming in high and fast keeps the bad guys from reaching out and touching you," said Grindrod, 31, of Orlando, Florida, the wisecracking commander of this C-17 mission. The task of sustaining military operations in Iraq and the 155,000 American and allied troops here falls to an unsung supply lifeline of ground convoys from Kuwait and a complex air bridge of cargo flights from the United States and Europe.
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The bulk of the supplies and equipment into Iraq come by ship into Kuwait and are trucked overland, but the air bridge is crucial to delivering 500 tons a day of cargo into Kuwait and Iraq. Flying materiel into Balad reduces the number of convoys that have to drive risky routes to reach the big logistics base. More than 40,000 tons of supplies have been lifted into Iraq alone since the end of major combat operations in May, Air Force officials said.
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From the air side, keeping the Army ground forces in Iraq well stocked in ammunition, parts and other supplies is the job of three Air Force cargo planes - the C-17 and C-5 Galaxy, for oversize loads across the ocean, and the C-130 Hercules for shorter intra-theater flights.
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The air cargo operation is a complicated choreography of planes and crews. Chartered commercial aircraft and C-5's depart from Dover, Delaware, switch crews in Spain and head to Kuwait. Most of the C-17 missions originate in Charleston, South Carolina, and stop to refuel and swap crews at Rhein Main Air Base in Frankfurt.
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The C-17 hub at Rhein Main is a 24-hour operation, and Grindrod's four-and-a-half hour mission from there overnight Sunday carried cargo that ranged from tires and batteries to rations and office paper. Packed in boxes and in crates, the materiel was then wrapped in plastic to prevent water damage and lashed to huge aluminum sleds called pallets that are rolled on and off the aircraft.
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The gray, four-engine C-17 is about as long as a Boeing 767 jetliner but much wider. It can airdrop 102 paratroopers. And it can refuel other aircraft in midair. The massive C-5 can carry more than twice as much cargo but the C-17 needs only one-third the runway, or about 3,000 feet, or 915 meters, to land and take off, a big advantage when picking up or dropping off cargo at austere airfields.
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The C-17 is also built to fly into harm's way. The C-17's cockpit floor is sheathed with Kevlar to protect the pilots against ground fire. The plane is equipped with flares designed to fool heat-seeking missiles. Newer aircraft have an infrared sensor that can fire a laser at a streaking missile to blind its guidance system.
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The $200 million plane is agile enough to execute combat landings with tight turns to avoid enemy fire and crews use the cover of darkness to avoid attacks. "The night is our friend," said Major Phillip Durocher, 39, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, who was one of three pilots on board the mission.
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So it's little wonder that when the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade needed to airdrop nearly 1,000 paratroopers into northern Iraq last march to open a northern front in the opening week of the war, 15 C-17's were dispatched from Italy to carry out one of the largest air drops since World War II.
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Hundreds of C-17 missions have also seen combat operations and humanitarian missions in landlocked Afghanistan.
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"We are the lifters of choice," said Grindrod, an Air Force Academy graduate.
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Those kinds of demands can be grueling. Units like Grindrod's 16th Airlift Squadron, based in Charleston, and reserve squadrons that have been called up have found that 24-hour workdays are not uncommon. Some C-17 pilots are on the road from 200 to 250 days a year, crew members said.
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With no end in sight to the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is not a pace that is likely to ease up.
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"This is an endurance contest," said Lieutenant Colonel Shane Hershman, who deployed two months ago to run the C-17 hub at Rhein Main. "This is for the long term."
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The New York Times
