A-10s over Kosovo (illustrations removed)

The CAOC seemed poorly organized to act quickly when the ROEs required its approval. When an AFAC independently found a target in a restricted area or close to a village, it usually took 15 to 20 minutes to obtain approval. For example, using Lt Al Smith’s intel imagery, Maj Goldie Haun discovered what he thought to be a radar-missile launcher in an area south of Pristina. I flew there the next morning and found the small, wooded area just on the southern edge of a square village. From 15,000 feet I looked down through the trees with my binoculars and did not see any launchers. I did, however, see about 10 rectangular metal canisters stacked on a flatbed trailer in the center of the woods. They were about 15 feet long and the size of radar-guided missiles. I had two problems: the canisters were less than 100 meters from the nearest house in the village, and a low deck of clouds had begun to move in and would soon block my view of the target area. The trees prevented success when I tried to lock up the trailer with a Maverick, and the low clouds to the east ruled out an airburst Mk-82 attack flying on a heading parallel to the houses—the only attack axis that would minimize the risk to the occupants of the house. I still had my 30 mm cannon, which would work just fine. Moving off to the west to mask my interest in the area, I called ABCCC on secure radio to request approval to attack the trailer and had to wait 25 minutes for a response. During that time, the low clouds moved into the area around the trailer. I made several more calls to help expedite the clearance. I finally got the CAOC’s approval to attack, and with it came the direction to “use the gun and not hit any houses!”

The delay and the tactical direction were absurd and a clear violation of the principle of “centralized control and decentralized execution.” The expert on the weapon systems’ capabilities and limitations had been sitting in the cockpit, looking at the target, fully capable of making a real-time execution decision consistent with ROEs that centralized control had generated. During those 25 minutes, the low clouds moved in and obscured the northern end of the target area. Because the clouds limited my options, the only attack heading I could then use was south to north—pointed directly at the village. My bullets could have ricocheted off the trailer and into the houses. The policy to centralize execution decisions had caused the delay, which had allowed the weather to change, the Serb missile canisters to escape attack, and the missiles in those canisters to remain part of the enemy’s combat capability. Perhaps those missiles were some of the many that were subsequently shot at our pilots.

The CAOC’s actions indicated that its personnel were under colossal pressure to produce results and avoid collateral damage. They regularly interrupted our attacks—even those authorized by the ROEs. In their zeal to ensure we had the most up-to-date ROEs, the CAOC prompted ABCCC crews to remind us of what and where we could and could not attack. Unfortunately, these calls were sometimes made over the strike frequencies that Serbs monitored, allowing them to hear, “You cannot attack any targets within 10 miles of the Macedonia border,” “you cannot attack any trucks, civilian vehicles, vehicles painted white,” and other similar transmissions. The unintended consequences of these in-the-clear transmissions were that Serbs began moving their forces south to within 10 miles of the Macedonian border and started transporting their troops in civilian vehicles instead of APCs—we saw white charter buses everywhere.

Even when AFACs were directed to enter restricted areas to find specific CAOC-identified targets, they were still required to receive CAOC approval before they attacked. On one occasion the CAOC tasked Capt Jim Meger to find and destroy a Serb command post. After locating it he requested approval to attack. It then took the CAOC 20 minutes to approve the strike against the command post it had sent him to destroy. These delays not only allowed some targets to escape attack, but also put our pilots at greater risk. On this occasion, it took the Serbs a lot less than 20 minutes to locate Jim, draw a bead, and fire two missiles at him (see chap. 4).