Eric Tadsen
Jaime Denner knows she’s doing a good job when nobody knows she’s there.
Denner is a tech sergeant for the Joint Incident Site Communications Capability System (or JISCC), stationed out of Truax Field. What the JISCC does is “interoperability” during times of crisis. It receives, coordinates, and patches together a wide mish-mash of communication and data channels — whether phone, radio, video, satellite or Wi-Fi.
“I always say that we’re winning when no one knows we are here and everything works great,” she says.
Denner’s team helped bring order to the chaos of Hurricane Maria. The team, part of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, arrived in Puerto Rico after the hurricane hit when “flights were coming in blind to that airport,” she says. “We were on the flight line or near it. You could see that it was like a ghost town the day before. And as soon as we got everything set up, there were flights moving in and out, in and out, and that was great for relief items and getting people in and out of the island.”
Like Denner, Truax also operates in relative obscurity. If not for the occasional loud planes training above, few people would be aware of the base.
Eric Tadsen
Sgt. Jaime Denner: “We’re winning when no one knows we are here and everything works great.”
This year is the 70th anniversary of the 115th Fighter Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. Its fighter planes have patrolled and trained over a huge swath of the upper Midwest since 1948.
But at Truax, all eyes are on the future, and on the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II. The Air Force announced Dec. 21 that Madison is one of two — and only two — Air National Guard bases to receive the next wave of fighters: aircraft so advanced they will not dogfight; rather the F-35’s abilities allow it to engage opponents over the horizon. The other F-35 Air National Guard base finalist is Dannelly Field, in Montgomery, Alabama.
It’s not quite a done deal — an environmental impact statement will have to be completed before the decision is finalized, likely in the summer or fall of 2019. But if it is approved, the new aircraft are expected to arrive in early 2023.
Guard officials and the Madison Chamber of Commerce argue that it is necessary to replace Truax’ aging fleet and that, without the F-35, the continued existence of Truax could be in jeopardy. The base’s 18 primary aircraft are F-16 Fighting Falcons. Most of them were “brought onto the line” in 1987. Each on average has logged around 6,000 flight hours.
Long beneath our social and civilian radar, even native Madisonians would be hard pressed to identify the wide variety of missions the wing performs — or where its front gate is.
For the record, Truax is at 3200 Pierstorff St. Once past the guards and serpentine entry, away from the flight line, Truax Field looks downright sleepy. It could be a pleasant industrial park or vocational campus. The parking lots are filled with ordinary SUVs; well-spaced buildings and broad, deep-green lawns are framed by sidewalks. The only immediate sign of military precision is a complete absence of dandelions that flock just outside the fence.
Smaller than when it was established during World War II, the wing’s Truax Field is still sizeable, with 44 buildings on approximately 130 acres. Runways are shared between the Guard and the Dane County Regional Airport. On weekdays, around 400 people serve at Truax. During Unit Training Assembly weekends, that number swells to around 1,000. There are no barracks. Those who need to stay over are put up in area hotels. Most, however, live in the immediate area.
In all, the 115th employs more than 1,200. The traditional guard member serves one weekend per month, but nearly 500 of the members assigned to the wing are civilian, full-time. If it were a company, it would be among the five largest in the area.
Eric Tadsen
Capt. Leslie Westmont (left) and Maj. Penny Ripperger, chief of public affairs, in the operations briefing room.
“The men and women who serve in the Wisconsin Air National Guard live here, raise their families here, and many are contributing to the local community through their civilian or education careers here,” says Maj. Penny Ripperger, the 115th’s chief of public affairs. Besides serving the nation and state, “these individuals are vital members of our community.”
The official mission of the base is “to effectively and rapidly project F-16 combat power anywhere in the world to perform wartime or peacetime missions as well as operations other than war,” adds Ripperger.
Closed after World War II, Truax Field was reactivated in 1948, as the Cold War began to heat up. The U.S. Air Force had been created only the year before, split off from the Army Air Corps. Today’s 115th Fighter Wing was initially organized here as the 176th Fighter Squadron, and its pilots flew the legendary P-51 Mustang. Renamed the F-51, it still may be the fastest piston-driven aircraft of all time.
But today, it’s the F-16 that is becoming obsolete.
“The expected service time of the F-16 is 9,000 flying hours,” says Capt. Leslie Westmont. “You can see that we’re really coming up on that service life of these older aircraft, which why the F-35 is such an important thing for us, because eventually our jets are going to reach the point where they’re not flyable anymore.”
The F-35 technology is a leap forward. The planes feature advanced in-helmet display, a satellite communications system, tactical data links, sensors that create a sphere of situational awareness around the aircraft, and next-generation stealth capabilities.
The work that goes on at Truax directly benefits local and state authorities, who call on the guard for domestic crises. For example, “We’ve had several requests for EOD support from the local communities, from northern Illinois all the way to Bayfield, Wisconsin,” says Senior Master Sgt. Gilbert Holcomb.
Eric Tadsen
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, which uses a robot, responds to emergencies around the state.
EOD stands for Explosive Ordnance Disposal. It could be a pipe bomb or something grandpa brought back from the war. One time, “Marathon County called us up because they didn’t know what they were dealing with,” recalls Holcomb. It turned out to be a 75mm projectile. He adds, dryly, “It has a high explosive in it.”
The Dane County airport benefits by having the 115th Fire and Emergency Service unit based at Truax, which provides fire and emergency services to both the 115th unit and the civilian airport.
“We’re civilian employees,” says Deputy Chief Brad Ingersoll. Funded by the federal government through a cooperative agreement, the emergency unit provides free services to the civilian airport. The crew watches over ordnance, provides EMT service to the civilian terminal — and is trained to go into a blazing cockpit.
“We know how to shut it down,” says Ingersoll. “How to stop fuel flow. We know how to open different doors to get in there and pull people out.”
Eric Tadsen
Truax is one of 27 bases in the country with CERF-P which can be dispatched to assist in disasters.
CERF-P stands for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive Response Force Package. It’s very much like the television show M.A.S.H., with a complete hospital town of tents that, when deployed, would cover a football field. There are only 27 like it in the country. Nineteen different medical specialties are represented in its members.
“We respond to events such as Super Storm Sandy, Hurricane Harvey as well as Hurricane Maria,” says Master Sgt. Evan Gilbertson.
Tech. Sgt. Samuel Keizer serves closely with CERF-P, as a member of FSERT, Fatality Search and Recovery Team. Besides the obvious, “We also provide a proper recording of all the remains, location, any identifying marks. Call it CSI: Truax.”
Eric Tadsen
Tech. Sgt. Samuel Keizer, helps with disaster recovery efforts. “Call it CSI: Truax,” he says.
The team sometimes works with civil authorities. “If there is an accident in Dane County, the medical examiner, the coroner would give us our operating procedure,” says Keizer.
Closer to the Operations Building, you become aware of an arching, keening sound, like 1,000 dentist drills plus 100 fingernails on 20 blackboards. It’s the noise of a couple idling F-16s on the flight line just beyond; slim, gray and needle-nosed, like a syringe set crosswise on a blade.
Ever since Sept. 11, two are kept ready on alert at chosen airbases 24-7, 365 days a year. Truax protects the Upper Midwest, ready to intercept potential threats such as wayward passenger planes meant for destinations like Minneapolis-St. Paul International, Chicago O’Hare and, just across the way, Madison’s airport.
In all, “It’s a massive effort,” says Lt. Col. Charles “Skipper” Merkel, a Brookfield resident and an F-16 pilot. He has three daughters and a boy: oldest 15, youngest 8.
Eric Tadsen
Since 9/11, two F-16s are kept idling at Truax, ready to intercept threats. Lt. Col. and pilot Charles “Skipper” Merkel calls it a “massive effort.”
The Milwaukee native knows well that he stands atop a pyramid of 1,200 personnel, all of whom work to pitch him and his peers into the sky. Merkel has just come back from airspace over Volk Field in Juneau County.
Ninety minutes by car, he made it in “Oh, about 10 minutes.” Trim, close-cropped, with keen eyes and a soft, assured voice, “Skipper” comes across as Top Gun cool.
“Tell my wife that,” he says, laughing.
This story is part of a series. You can access the full series here.
