USAF 71st ERQS Patch / Operation Northern Watch
The 71st Rescue Squadron (71 RQS) is part of the 347th Rescue Group at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. It flies HC-130 Hercules aircraft conducting search and rescue missions.
Operation Northern Watch, the successor to Operation Provide Comfort, was a U.S. European Command Combined Task Force (CTF) charged with enforcing its own no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq. Its mission began on 1 January 1997.
The coalition partners of the United States, United Kingdom, and Turkey provided approximately 45 aircraft and more than 1,400 personnel to support Operation Northern Watch. The joint U.S. forces of some 1,100 U.S. personnel, included sailors, soldiers, as well as sorties from every arm of the United States Armed Forces.
The original mandate from the Turkish government allowed the operation to continue for six months. Turkey subsequently approved two 6-month extensions, but indicated that it would not become a permanent mission.
For the first year of the mission, northern Iraq was quiet, with no combat between Coalition aircraft and Iraqi forces.
Operation Northern Watch forces did not take part in Operation Desert Fox in December 1998. After Operation Desert Fox, Iraq announced they would no longer recognize the no-fly zones and urged their troops to attack Coalition aircraft. From December 1998 to March 1999, U.S. aircraft over northern Iraq came under almost daily fire from Iraqi surface-to-air missile sites and anti-aircraft guns. U.S. aircraft responded by bombing Iraqi air-defense sites which fired on them, utilizing laser-guided bombs as well as AGM-88 HARM missiles and AGM-130 long range air-to-surface missiles
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