Blog Blurb...MV-22's, a couple of Marine Infantry Battalions and maybe a Ranger Battalion were on call for TRAP missions for this strike!

I'm musing about the strike on Syria and right now they're under the label of Blog Blurbs but I'm thinking of renaming them Strike Thoughts...just explaining how I'm titling these things...

Back on task.

What did we see with the strike?  A massive expenditure of firepower on a few targets in Syria.

What didn't we see?

We didn't see all the assets they had to move into theater to make this thing possible.

I won't go into the Command and Control that was airborne to coordinate this whole thing.  I'll leave aside the number of Tankers that the USAF put into the air to support this whole thing.  I'll even leave aside the crews aboard ship went thru to launch their missiles.

I won't even talk about the maintenance done to aircraft that actually hauled those missiles to their launch point and how crew chiefs were sweating bullets that the plane worked like they were suppose to and hoping like hell that they made it home...and if they didn't that the reason why isn't because they missed something on the checklist.

Nope.

We're gonna focus on the boys you call when and if an "oh shit moment arrives".

We'll probably never hear about it because Defense Reporters don't have the knowledge, curiosity or commonsense to ask but the TRAP mission for this thing must have been insane.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall for the pre-strike briefing and actions to be taken if they (aircrew) were forced down.

Even better would be to know how many Marine Infantry Battalions were tasked with the mission.  My guess is that they had at least a Ranger Battalion spun up to fly in and rescue pilots if they went down too.

This is the part of the story that the Pentagon will never be asked about but I'd love to know.

But take a moment to do the math/risk calculations in your own head.

If a US or allied pilot was shot down, and they're in the midst of probably the most chaotic battlefield we've seen in the last 40 years how do you get them out?  We've seen the weaponry used by terrorists, rebels...whatever you want to call them and you know they're just under nation state status.

MV-22's or CV-22's would be the aircraft of choice because of the distance involved but they're slow landing and would be vulnerable to RPGs that are all over the place over there.

Additionally we know that if they capture aircrew, they kill aircrew.  So max effort must be exercised or this limited strike turns into a huge shit sandwich.

The TRAP Mission.  Forever lost in history because things worked out right but the planning for it....That's what I'd love to know about.