F-16 fighter pilot wins award

 

Maj. Beau Diers, an F-16 fighter pilot, is shown in front of an aircraft in March in Afghanistan. The former Fremonter has served his country in South Korea and Iraq and a successful mission over Libya.

Maj. Beau Diers has a fast-paced job. 

Really fast-paced.

The former Fremonter is an F-16 fighter pilot and what he flies can go twice the speed of sound.

Diers has served his country in South Korea and Iraq. He led a mission in which NATO aircraft bombed multiple targets in Libya — removing the remaining components of a pro-Gaddafi air defense system. He’s helped protect special operations forces in Afghanistan.

Diers now teaches at the weapons school at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

And recently, he received the Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault Award for significant achievement in fighter warfare tactics and development. Diers was awarded for redesigning exercise scenarios while deployed to South Korea and for his work as the wing weapons officer in Afghanistan.

Although a high-flying pilot, Diers is down to earth when discussing the award.

“I knew I’d been submitted for it, but I didn’t know I ended up receiving it, then I won. It was really cool,” he said.

Diers’ interest in flying has familial roots: His late grandfather, Tracy, was a civilian pilot as is his dad, Brent.

A 1999 Fremont High School graduate, Beau Diers’ resume includes graduation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., in 2003, and from pilot training at Shepherd Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he flew the T-37 Tweet and T-38 Talon.

He went to Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix for F-16 training. He flew training sorties in South Korea, then went to Spangdahalem Air Base in Germany, before beginning a five-month deployment in Iraq in January 2008.

“It was interesting, showing up to a nation at war,” he said. “There was a lot going on, constant 24-hour activities on the air field. … We got mortared a lot from the bad guys.”

By the time Diers returned from deployment in 2008, he was a flight lead.

Diers enjoyed living in Germany, where he met his future wife, Lela, who is a U.S. Air Force captain. He returned to Iraq in 2009, came home the next year and graduated from the F-15 weapons instructor course that December.

He later became chief instructor pilot at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

Diers had another combat deployment in August 2011 for Operation Unified Protector — a NATO-led, humanitarian support operation in Libya.

The goal was to make sure coalition air forces could fly safely within Libyan air space. That meant dismantling an integrated air defense system — the main part of which involved surface-to-air missiles.

Assigned to the 55th fighter squadron, Diers became commander of a mission that targeted two surface-to-air missile systems in the Libyan city of Sebha.

“There were 29 NATO aircraft (including support planes) allocated and there were 41 targets,” he said.

“I specifically remember getting shot at on the way to Sebha from anti-aircraft artillery. … You could tell it was low caliber and wasn’t going to make it to the altitude we were flying at,” he said. “It was kind of unnerving knowing they were shooting at us, but it was nice to know they weren’t going to be able to hit us.”

It was the first time Diers was shot at while airborne.

“When we got closer to the city of Sebha, we were the first jets over the targets,” he said. “We dropped our bombs first. … We got shot at again with a lot of anti-aircraft artillery. It was closer to us, but it wasn’t going to hit us.”

The mission was successful. No coalition aircraft were lost. All targets were hit.

Diers returned home in mid-November 2011 and was deployed to South Korea in January 2012. He got home that April.

He left for Afghanistan in September 2012. There, he was wing weapons officer at Kandahar Air Field. He was lead weapons and tactics representative for the base.

“I flew combat sorties, close air support for troops on the ground,” he said.

At one point, special operations forces were tracking a highly valued individual responsible for the deaths of several coalition members.

“We were providing support for them from the air in case they ran into trouble,” Diers said.

The forces ran into trouble.

On the way to a target area, they began taking fire. They were pinned down and couldn’t move.

“We were talking to them on the radio and they told us what direction the fire was coming from and we found the guys who were shooting at them,” Diers said. “We marked the location for a coalition strike against the bad guys’ position and neutralized the threat. The good guys never got shot and they were glad we were there.”

Sorties in Afghanistan were challenging, in part, due to vast differences in terrain — from flat desert areas to mountains.

“Tracking the good guys and providing support on the ground is very difficult; you can’t really see them if they’re in the mountains,” Diers said. “It’s the same for weapons. You have to try and figure out a way to get the weapons where you want them to impact without flying into the mountain or having it block the bomb.”

Weather poses another challenge. Winter lasts from September to April. Storms, clouds and snow can keep pilots from seeing the ground.

Tense situations add to the challenge.

“There was a lot of the time when you’d get re-tasked to support a bad situation on the ground — so you’d show up in the area without knowing what was going on, but the people needed help, because they’re getting shot at,” he said. “It’s a very intense couple of minutes. They’re worried and trying to get you to find out where they are and help them and you want to do it as fast as possible, but it sometimes takes a little time to find out what’s going on to help them appropriately.”

Diers came home in April 2013. He and Lela moved from South Carolina to Nevada, where he trains new weapons officers. The Diers, who are expecting their first child in January, will remain in Nevada for the next 2 ½ years. They don’t know what will follow that.

“Being in the air force, you never really know what you’re going to do next or when you’re going to do it,” he said.

The job is exciting.

“I enjoy being a pilot, because no mission or no flight is ever the same,” he said. “There’s always something that’s different or challenging.”

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