Hopes flew with lame jet

A four-star general pinned medals Monday on 12 airmen and nine civilians from Tinker Air Force Base for their role in salvaging a B-1B bomber after an engine fire left the jet crippled on an airstrip in Afghanistan.

The plane landed at an airfield in Afghanistan in mid-August after a fire warning went off during a mission. The jet's No. 4 engine was in flames, and firefighters had to extinguish the blaze after the plane landed.

The Air Force had a tough choice. The fire caused significant damage that couldn't be repaired at a field air base in hostile territory. Commanders considered junking the craft. But scrapping a $283 million bomber is a last resort if the plane can be salvaged.

Three units based at Tinker would team up to save the plane by conducting field repairs and flying the jet on three engines in the face of possible enemy fire.

‘Not a natural thing'

Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command, pinned medals Monday on the Tinker airmen and civilians. The plan to fly on three engines worried him.

"This has actually been done two other times in Air Force history, but never with as much damage as was suffered in this case,” Carlson said. "I'm a fighter pilot, and a lot of my time has been spent in single-engine aircraft, so flying without one engine is not a natural thing. I wasn't inclined to go along with this.”

Members of Tinker's 654th Combat Logistics Squadron, which specializes in repairing battle-damaged B-1 bombers, convinced Carlson it could work.

With help from the civilian 555th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron, an engineering unit also based at Tinker, the airmen came up with a plan for making what repairs they could in Afghanistan before flying the jet out of hostile territory.

The airmen flew to Afghanistan in mid-September and began making the repairs.

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