SADDAM

Note : for some reason, this particular trip has "stuck" to my mind. I was not much into "politics" in these days. An other day, an other flight, an other " adventure"...

On September 22, 1980, formations of Iraqi MiG-23s and MiG21s attacked Iran's air bases at Mehrabad and Doshen-Tappen (both near Tehran), as well as Tabriz, Bakhtaran, Ahvaz, Dezful, Urmia (sometimes cited as Urumiyeh), Hamadan, Sanandaj, and Abadan. Their aim was to destroy the Iranian air force on the ground--a lesson learned from the Arab-Israeli June 1967 War. They succeeded in destroying runways and fuel and ammunition depots, but much of Iran's aircraft inventory was left intact. Iranian defences were caught by surprise, but the Iraqi raids failed because Iranian jets were protected in specially strengthened hangars and because bombs designed to destroy runways did not totally incapacitate Iran's very large airfields. Within hours, Iranian F-4 Phantoms took off from the same bases, successfully attacked strategically important targets close to major Iraqi cities, and returned home with very few losses.

Simultaneously, six Iraqi army divisions entered Iran on three fronts in an initially successful surprise attack, where they drove as far as eight kilometres inland and occupied 1,000 square kilometres of Iranian territory.

On October 1, 1980, The Flying Tigers completed the acquisition of Seaboard World Airlines.

In the late spring of the following year, Operation “Opera” was launched by the Israeli Air Force. Operation Opera also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on 7 June 1981, which destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometres (10.5 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The operation came after Iran's unsuccessful Operation Scorch Sword which had caused minor damage to the same nuclear facility the previous year, the damage having been subsequently repaired by French technicians. Operation Opera, and related Israeli government statements following it, established the “Begin Doctrine », which explicitly stated the strike was not an anomaly, but instead “a precedent for every future government in Israel.” Israel's counter-proliferation preventive strike added another dimension to their existing policy of deliberate ambiguity, as it related to the nuclear capability of other states in the region.

(The Israeli Air Force crews who have participated into "Operation Opera", the bombing of the nuclear reactor "Osirak")

(Operation Opera has taken place in Irak. The nuclear program is " halted" for a while)

(Impact pictures of "Operation Opera", the bombing of the Osirak nuclear site in Irak, June 7th 1981)

In 1983, "A covert American program during the Reagan Administration provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance, highly classified program in which more than 60 officers of the Défense Intelligence Agency were secretly providing detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for airstrikes and bomb-damage assessments for Iraq....The American intelligence officers never encouraged or condoned Iraq's use of chemical weapons [against Iran], but neither did they oppose it because they considered Iraq to be struggling for its survival, people involved at the time said in interviews." (Patrick E. Tyler "Officers Say U.S. Aided Iraq in War Despite Use of Gas," New York Times, Aug. 18, 2002.

"Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations..”.

(Baghdad Airport)

Why is this information of importance ? Probably to explain a bit more why on that very day, I found myself on a DC 8 flown by one of Ned Wallace’s “cow boys”, flight crews, in company of an American charter mechanic, en route from Milano (Linate) to the airport of Ciampino, located 15 kilometres away in the south-east of Rome. I was familiar with the city, having been involved previously in the Alitalia/Seaboard cargo run as well as with our cargo operation for Saudi Arabian Airlines but my base in these days had been the “newer” airport of Rome-Fiumicino, replacing Ciampino in January of 1961, as THE International airport in Rome. I remember the smell of the “rubber floor” in that place, as well as the smell of the early morning “Segafredo” expresso coffee floating around near the boarding gates. Many hours of great happiness had been spent in “La Citta Eterna, the Eternal City, between my “home” in Hotel Excelsior, the small restaurants in the Trastevere Area, Ostia harbour with the various place serving “Spaghetti alle Vongole” (Spaghetti with clams). Rome was not so much of a quiet place in these days and on many occasions, exploding bombs set up by the Brigate Rosse, the Red Brigades, a far-left political organisation, could be heard in the middle of the night.

(Brigate Rosse : a far left Marxist-Leninist terrorist group operating in Italy in the 70's)

The short hop between Milano and Ciampino was one hour and fifteen minutes and we landed there under the Roman sun in the early afternoon. The charter briefing indicated that we would be picking a load of military supplies. It was not unusual for Flying Tigers to be involved into this kind of operation. Flying Tigers, like many other US cargo or charter airlines held contracts with the MAC and was also a “member” of the CRAF (Civil Reserve Air Fleet). As such, Flying Tigers conducted many transport operations for the DOD (Department of Defense) and usually, these were swift, clean, quick, easy and well-organized flights. But this was not the case on that day, the contractor was an Italian shipping company and I assumed that Ciampino Airport had been chosen as an easier airport to swiftly load cargo.

(A radio-active container under road transport)

Our load was waiting for us. From a loadmaster’s standpoint, it was a wonderfully easy load of cargo to be quickly palletized on the 96”x125” pallets that we carried in the aircraft, stacked in two bunches. There was no need to worry, we had enough straps on board to ensure a safe tie-down. The load was made of eight yellow cylinders placed on metal cradles. Although the length of the cylinders over hanged the cargo pallets by 15 or 20 inches, we had plenty of space to load them. As I was finalizing the placement of the cylinders on board the airplane, I asked myself all kind of questions, about the presence of the “trefoil” on these containers. As a “loadmaster” with enough years of experience behind me to be considered “seasoned”, I had never seen these symbols on any cargo I had been entrusted with. But I was just an aircrew member on a civilian aircraft tasked with the safe loading, transport and unloading of aerial cargoes and cargo would come in all kind of shapes, volumes, types… True enough, I was by far more interested in the “technical aspects” of the job, along with the challenges, rather by reflexion, even if I had my own ideas about the various conflicts taking place in these days in the Middle-East. (*) .

(Our load was yellow containers, eight of them, but longer than theses shown on the picture. The cylinders were on " cradles" for an esay "forking-up or down and easy transfer)

(Trefoil symbol, internationally recognized as in relation with " radio-activity)

As the cargo documents packed in a sealed envelope were given to me and the cargo and passengers doors were closed, the crew went through the “before-start” check list, taxi-check and pretty soon, as the before take-off checks were conducted, we were lining up on runway 11, a released by Ciampino Tower:

“Tigers 9672, Clear to take-off, the wind is 220° for 7 knots, after take-off contact Roma Departure on 130.90, Good day! “

It was indeed going to be a good day, or rather a good night as taking-off at 5 PM, we would probably be in Baghdad four hours and fifty minutes later. It would be a night landing in Baghdad, and a night offload. About one hour after take-off, the weather radar went-out. The weather was clear over the Adriatic Sea, right under our wings, but the crew worried a bit and as the flight engineer started looking into the MEL manual, the charter mechanic addressed the captain:

“I never had that happening in flight, but I recall that if this was discovered on the ground, this would have been a No-Go item”

The captain answer was:” Well, we have a choice here, turning-back to Rome or keep-pressing on and see to this in Baghdad, what do you say, can you fix the damn equipment?”

The mechanic, with an amused expression on his face, simply replied:

“Let me have a look at the problem, I guess I can find some way to fix it”

(Ciampino Airport, in the south-east of Rome, formerly THE airport in Rome till January 1961 when the NEW airport (Fiumicino) was inaugurated.

I was already in a worrying mood. Turning the airplane back to Italy would be a pain in the neck, and even if I had been through similar situations before I had the feeling that my own “first law of Murphy” applied to load mastering was again being demonstrated : 1. If your mission schedule is very tight and you must return a charter airplane to scheduled services, there will be an incident or an accident delaying you and making impossible said timely return to scheduled

services. If you are in no hurry and stress, your mission will go as smoothly as possible. A quick calculation led me to anticipate that we would probably be twenty-four hours late to return the airplane to “schedule services” with an important domino effect even if the crew accepted to take a “minimum crew rest” somewhere in Baghdad.

(A wheather radar in a "modern age" jet airplane, a vital instrument)

(unrelated to this post, but shown as a "pedagogical" document : an emergency check-list used by Seaboard World Airlines crew members flying the -55 in the 70's)

The charter mechanic was a smoker. In these days, some of the personnel on board our planes did indulge, officially, and when in need of a nicotine shot, would leave the cockpit and get to the galley area to “light one” …the cigarette smoke would quickly fade away, caught by the ventilation system of the airplane. After a while, as he held on his knees a technical manual of some kind showing electrical diagrams, the gentleman picked-up his pack of cigarettes separated the “aluminium like” wrapping paper from its support, and went to the fuse box, behind the flight engineer’s station. The weather radar lit-up like a Christmas tree.

(Baghdad International Airport from the air...)

“Looks like you did something to it” said the first-officer

“Yes, you see now that it can be good to have smokers around you, yes?”

Baghdad was now under two hours away and the night was definitely on. The dim lights of the cockpit were pleasant and the all thing was giving off a feeling of safety and security. It was a pleasurable regular experience flying with Tigers, and this time was no exception. About forty minutes before landing, as the Spaghetti and Veal provided by the Ciampino catering company, were already old memories, Baghdad Airport was contacted for landing instructions.

The ATC came back to us with a short answer in a heavily accented English:

“Tiger 9672, expect runway 15L. After landing, proceed to Kilo 1 parking and wait for further instructions.

Landing in Baghdad was uneventful. Proceeding to the assigned parking area was a bit touchy as half of the airport was unlit. An air force “follow-me” vehicle showed-up and directed the crew to the correct parking area in a kind of secluded area. Eight military trucks were waiting for us, along with basic DC8 compatible cargo loading equipment. Truck’s headlight was on, olive green uniforms identified the personnel as being military-only.

(If I remember, the military trucks used to pick-up our "strange cargo" did look just like this one)

(Saddam Hussein Abd-Al-Majid-Al Tikriti, a picture taken during "his glorious days")

(Saddam Hussein during his trial. He was sentend to death and hanged on December 30th 2006, about 20 years after my "visit" to Baghdad)

An officer came to me asking for the “cargo documents” and the offload started and was completed in about 45 minutes. The containers, on their respective cradles, were “forked-up” and loaded, one each, on a military truck, while now empty cargo pallets were being stacked, ready to be reloaded on the airline once the operation would be over. There was an eerie atmosphere around us, and I was eager to get the whole thing done. With the last military truck gone, the officer in charge turned us to “civilian” personnel, and then, after filing the flight plan to Frankfurt, it was time to get the airplane ready for departure.

(A DC 8 compatible tow-bar. The one used in Baghdad got stuck....the only solution was a sludge hammer.. I can still remember the banging...It felt like if the nose gear was going to be totally destroyed....but the charter mechanic knew exactly what he was doing....)

The DC8 needed to be pushed-back and there was not “tow-bar” compatible with a DC8 nose landing gear. Other operators going though Baghdad had brought their own equipment but none of them operated with a DC8. No one had a solution for us till a discussion came up about the types of airplane transiting in Iraq….

“There are many B 707, but there are even more Russian made aeroplanes coming through”

I remember that during its “best” period, Swissair had been operating DC8 to Baghdad. The Swiss airline had 8 Of them in activity for long haul. The airport personnel were sent in all direction to look for the possible “remnants” of a DC8 compatible tow-bar, and soon enough it was there, rusty but looking strong enough to be used for just one more push.

( A DC-8 cockpit...the Flight Engineer is having a smoke in the back, may be ? or simply gone for a coffee ?)

Airplane all tanked-up, doors closed, it was time to return to “civilization” and the air conditioning of the Intercontinental in Frankfurt.

“Hello cockpit, we are ready to push. Can you release the brakes?”

“Brakes are released, push us west please”.

The airplane moved back, gently, nothing could happen now, and as the engines started being fired-up, the ground crew asked:

“Hello cockpit, can you set the brakes please?”

“Brakes are set, when tow bar will be disconnected, please come with the tow bar and personnel to the captain sight and give us the all clear”.

But ten minutes after, the tow bar was not yet disconnected.

“Hello ground, are you disconnected yet?”

“We cannot disconnect, the tow bar is stuck”

Was a rusty, unmaintained tow bar, going to prevent the airplane from returning to Germany and “schedule services?”

A ladder was quickly brought to the side of the airplane, the passenger door opened, and a quick briefing took place in the beams of flash light. There was only one solution: using a sludge hammer, under the supervision of the Flying Tiger charter mechanic.

( An unlikely solution, but it worked out well enough....)

It took 47 minutes of efforts to get free for the tow bar, and other 8 to close the passenger door, 6 to get to the threshold of Runway 33 R . The DC.8 rushed along the runway and lifted in the dark Irakian night.

“Positive rate” said the first officer

“Gear-up” , climb power, instructed the captain.

Baghdad was behind us, we were back to the “normal world”....

(*) In 1983, following the setback of the Israeli Operation Opera attack on the reactor at Osirak, the Iraqis continued to work on building a full processing cycle for uranium and plutonium, primarily using Italian equipment.[10] On 5 April 1976, Iraq signed a contract for a radiochemistry laboratory with Italy, to be done by four Italian firms. Work was completed in 1978. A second contract, signed in 1978, covered a fuel fabrication laboratory, a radioisotope production laboratory, a materials testing laboratory, and a chemical engineering laboratory. While the CIA report was partially redacted, Iraq had some contact with Italy regarding laser enrichment of uranium.

While the CIA did not assess that Iraq had an actual nuclear weapons program at the time of the report, suggesting the activities were more to develop Iraq's general level of nuclear technology. Unless Iraq obtained significant foreign help with the high explosive implosion systems for nuclear weapons using fission; the overall design, fabrication and testing of nuclear weapons; and the acquisition of a nuclear reactor, they could not create weapons until the 1990s. That date assumed no further interference in their programs.

CIA assessed that neither Italy was likely to stop work on nuclear-related contracts, as Italy saw Iraq as a source of oil and a strong market for both military and civilian goods. Stronger non-proliferation requirements, however, were likely.

The CIA report said "...Italy will remain the major supplier of the Iraqi nuclear program. Despite the proliferation risks, Italy will probably continue helping Iraq in numerous areas of nuclear technology, possibly even including reprocessing and plutonium chemistry. Because Italy is a major Iraqi arms supplier, it probably could impose additional safeguards without endangering relations with Iraq.