Into the Fire - Leading C-141s Into Besieged Sarajevo (A thread) 1) In the spring of 1994, I found myself in command of a C-141 Starlifter squadron deployed to Rhein-Main Air Base outside Frankfurt, Germany. We were there for Operation Provide Promise, the long-running humanitarian airlift supporting the people of Sarajevo and other besieged areas in Bosnia -Herzegovina. The Bosnian War was grinding into its third brutal year. Serb forces surrounded the city, shelling it daily while snipers picked off civilians. The United Nations and NATO had cobbled together an air bridge to deliver food, medicine, and supplies. Not surprisingly, almost all of it provided by the US. The C-130s had been doing the heavy lifting from Rhein-Main, but a fragile, temporary cease-fire allowed our larger C-141s to join the rotation. We could haul quite a bit more. I had been pulled from my home base in Northern California and given the squadron. As the commander, I made it a point to fly the first mission in every day and the last one out. We operated in a combat environment even though the mission was humanitarian. The Serbs made no secret of their displeasure with outside interference. They’d already brought down aircraft from other nations, and they took shots at us whenever they could. Our days started very early in our makeshift command post, which we had carved out in the basement of the on-base hotel. It doubled as a briefing room, scheduling hub, and—after hours—a bar and movie theater. Morale mattered. These were long, tense days, and there was steam to bleed off. We loaded pallets of aid, sometimes troops or journalists, and launched into the unknown. Sarajevo’s airport sat in a narrow valley surrounded by hills held by hostile forces. Approaches were steep and fast. We flew with Kevlar cockpit armor and missile-warning systems because we knew small-arms fire and surface-to-air missiles were real possibilities. One mission in particular still stands out. The Pentagon directed us to fly three U.S. senators—Joe Biden (D-DE), Bob Dole (R-KS), and John Warner (R-VA)—into Sarajevo so they could see the situation firsthand and return with stories for the folks back home. We would carry our usual load of humanitarian aid and passengers, then bring the senators out. I thought it was a questionable idea, but orders were orders. As squadron commander, I took the flight myself. We descended toward Sarajevo under a gray sky. We planned very specific routes designed to avoid the threats. As we dropped lower, small-arms fire began cracking from sniper positions on rooftops and shelled buildings. Rounds pinged off the airframe. An occasional one would pierce the fuselage.  We kept the approach stable and put the Starlifter down on the pockmarked Soviet runway. The moment the cargo ramp opened, the crew and ground teams moved fast—unloading pallets while keeping engines running for a quick exit. The senators stayed aboard. They were just along to say they’d been there.  Once the cargo and most passengers were clear, we taxied back toward the runway almost at our liftoff speed. Biden asked to come forward and watch the takeoff from the jump seat right behind the pilots. I told him, sure—he was a senator. We lined up and rolled. Small-arms fire was still coming in as we accelerated.  Just after rotation, the missile-warning system lit up. Serbian surface-to-air missiles had locked onto us. The defensive suite kicked in immediately—loud warnings, flares, and chaff blooming behind us. I pulled the aircraft into a hard, climbing turn toward the nearest cloud deck while the crew ran the checklists. We punched through the weather and climbed out clean.  When things settled, I looked back at the jump seat. Senator Biden’s eyes were wide. He didn’t say a word the rest of the way. We diverted the senators to Split, Croatia, where they could link up with the rest of their party, then continued on to Rhein-Main. (Continued…)