BACK TO IRAQ: AFA grad takes 911 calls to new level

BALAD, Iraq - Flying in slow circles four miles above Baghdad in the back of a four-engine C-130, the Air Force Academy’s Capt. Linda Thorstenson waits for a call.

It could be from a convoy under attack, or just someone checking a radio. She’s their security blanket, ensuring that when they pick up their radios, someone will hear them on the other end.

“We’re 911 operators at 20,000 feet,” said Thorstenson, who teaches cadets the basics of flying in Colorado Springs and helps coach the academy’s gymnastics team.

“We’re there if they need us.”

Thorstenson’s job at Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad, grew from the physics of FM radio signals, which the Army and other military units use to communicate on the ground in Iraq. The signals usually work well, but distance, terrain and even the buildings of a city can block communications, leaving units isolated and out of touch with the people who can help in an emergency. That’s where the Air Force comes in on one of dozens of new roles for the service created to help in Iraq.

Thorstenson’s C-130s fly well above the city and can listen in on the convoys. If someone can’t reach headquarters, crews in the back of the plane can relay the message.

For Army units, the Air Force assistance can bring extra firepower from fighters or send medical evacuation choppers to soldiers who would otherwise be alone in battle.

It’s more than just theory for Thorstenson, whose husband, Capt. Craig Thorstenson of Peterson Air Force Base, is an electronics expert assigned to help the Army here and at any time could be rolling in one of those convoys.

“I obviously have a very personal interest in making sure we catch all the calls,” she said Wednesday. “Not just for my husband, but for all the people on the ground.”

The Thorstensons are among thousands of airmen in Iraq. Some fill familiar jobs, such as dropping bombs in close air support missions, and running passengers and cargo around the country, while others have relatively new roles such as manning machine guns, escorting convoys and helping the Army counter radiocontrolled bombs.

“It’s behind the scenes, and that is completely OK as long as we are there when we are needed,” the captain, a 2000 Air Force Academy graduate, said of her work.

Thorstenson, a Dillon, S.C., native, has flown over Iraq at the controls of a KC-135 tanker that fueled fighters and bombers early in the war. At the academy, she flies T-41 Cessna trainers used to give cadets their introduction to powered flight.

She said the cadets were surprised that their teacher was going back into combat.

“I told them, ‘It’s going to be you someday, and with what you’ll learn in four years at the academy, you’ll be ready when it comes,’” she said.

At Balad, Thorstenson and other airmen live in trailers converted to barracks rooms like the accommodations given their Army comrades. It’s safer here than it once was, but alarms sounded several times Tuesday to warn of mortar attack.

She volunteered to take the job as assistant operations director of Joint Air Battle Staff, a unit at Balad that includes Army and Navy service members.

Much of her work centers on keeping the radio crews trained and making sure the unit’s paperwork is straight.

But about twice a week she climbs into the cargo hold of a C-130 for a long day of listening to radios.

Most days are quiet for the crews as they listen to the chatter from the units on the ground during flights that last hours.

“There are days when you wonder if you’re really helping out,” she said.

The radio crews in the sky jump into action when frantic calls for help come in.

If a unit in trouble doesn’t get a response from their Army headquarters, Thorstenson steps in, walking soldiers through the basics of what they need and relaying the 911-like call to those on the ground who can give aid.

“When things go wrong, we make sure we stay calm,” she said.

She’s sometimes approached by the soldiers who have been helped out through the airborne radio connection. Their gratitude is deep, but Thorstenson tells them she was just doing her job.

She’s scheduled to return next month to the academy, where she plans to pass her war experience on to the next generation of officers.

“I’m going to be able to take this experience right back to them,” Thorstenson said. “I’ll be able to give them a fresh look at what it’s like.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: tom.roeder@gazette.com