Herald Link

Navy pilots hone skills in S. Florida

BY JENNIFER BABSON, jbabson@herald.com

Published Thursday, October 11, 2001

BOCA CHICA NAVAL AIR STATION, Key West -- It's a good bet that before the end of this year, Lt. Cmdr. ``Jumpin' '' Joe Gelardi, a Navy F-18 pilot, will have navigated the skies under the auspices of Operation Enduring Freedom.

``Everybody knows that it's likely we will see our share of action,'' he says. For the past several weeks, Gelardi -- and scores of other Navy combat pilots normally attached to the Norfolk-based USS George Washington aircraft carrier -- have been honing their combat skills over the Florida Straits near Key West.

On Wednesday, pilots and support crew gave reporters a rare glimpse inside Boca Chica Naval Air Station, the airfield from which they've been taking off lately.

Boca Chica is considered one of the premier Navy aviation facilities, in part because its sparsely populated air space and thousands of miles of adjacent ocean make it perfect for practice.

``Once you go over the water you can go supersonic without bothering anybody,'' said Lt. JG Mark ``Rawhide'' Rowland, a pilot who flies an E-2C Hawkeye.

F-18s, which have roughly a 1,000-mile range before refueling -- which they can do in the air -- fly about 30,000 feet above ground at speeds of up to 1,000 mph. F-18s are used to drop a number of different kinds of bombs, including those guided by lasers and Global Positioning Systems.

A number of the pilots and crews flying as part of Enduring Freedom likely spent time at Boca Chica, which is a routine refresher stop before deployment.

``If they trained on the East Coast, they trained here at our facility and at this airfield,'' said Capt. Lawrence Cotton, commanding officer of Naval Air Station Key West, which is made up of five annexes, including Boca Chica.

Last year, Gelardi and his colleagues spent about three months in the Persian Gulf on the George Washington, which was used as a launching pad to enforce the southern no-fly zone over Iraq.

There, he encountered hostile fire, though he was never hit.

Said Gelardi: ``Almost every mission, they would shoot at you.''

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001