Members of an Iowa Air National Guard unit will get the chance to put their training to the test in an overseas trouble spot. The Des Moines-based132nd Fighter Wing is being sent to Iraq in a few months, sometime this summer. Some 200 Iowa Guard members will be assigned to the northern no-flyzone where attacks on Iraqi air & ground forces have come almost daily. The guardsmen include maintenance crews & combat pilots who’ll be flying F-16 fighter jets. They’ll be based in Turkey & will be joined by British warplanes. One Iowa commander says there’s concern but that ‘each person knows they have a job to do.’ This’ll be the wing’s third mission over Iraqi skies. The 185th Fighter Wing, based in Sioux City, has also flown patrols in the Persian Gulf.
Iowa's Radio News Network
