Airmen in the CERAP Box:

Sitting in an isolated, small facility on Balad AB, Iraq, are airmen of the Combined Enroute Radar Approach (CERAP) who maintain air traffic—military and civilian—in central Iraq. The enlisted controllers man their radar scopes on two-hour shifts, handling more than 500 operations per day. They monitor altitude, direction, and separation of all aircraft. Each member of a six-person crew may handle 10 to 30 operations at a time. The work gets more complicated when they have to “weave air traffic” around an activated tactical battle airspace, controller SSgt. Brandon Oyen told Balad’s Red Tail Flyer.