About Lakenheath

(italicized text is from the base website)

Mission Statement  
To provide responsive air combat power, support and services to meet our Allies' and our nation's international objectives.

Without wishing to sound pessimistic about anyone's motives, it would appear that these objectives bear a marked resemblance to those of Italy in its 1935 "pre-emptive" attack on Ethiopia, or Japan's spirited "defense" of Manchuria in the same decade.  The effects on international peace and stability are likely to be somewhat similar, in the long run.   The fact that the US has now secured Security Council backing from the United Nations does not make the war more legitimate in the eyes of the world;  it will probably only make the UN less legitimate.


Location  
Royal Air Force Station Lakenheath, United Kingdom, is located 70 miles northeast of London and 25 miles from Cambridge. Nearly 5,000 U.S. military personnel and 2,000 American and British civilian employees are assigned to the base. RAF Lakenheath is the largest U.S. Air Force-operated base in England and the only U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) F-15 fighter wing.

We would add only that Cambridge is a 45 minute train ride from King's Cross tube station, and that if you give Cambridge people advance notice that you're coming they will do what they can to provide transportation to the base itself.


Mission  
Historically, the 48th Fighter Wing has been the foundation of USAFE's combat capability and remains so today. The Liberty Wing led the El Dorado Canyon raids into Libya in 1986 and was the first F-111 fighter unit to deploy to the Gulf during Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM. We flew in the nation's two most recent combat contingencies: Operation NORTHERN WATCH and Operation DELIBERATE FORCE. NATO and U.S. leaders have asserted that if America is needed in this region, the 48th Fighter Wing will be called out first.

In other words, these men have been in the forefront of many of the most serious breaches against the peace of nations of the last twenty years.  At virtually no risk to themselves, they have destroyed the civil infrastructure of several countries - water stations, electricity grids, sewage treatment plants, and all of the other necessary technologies that sustain civilian life in modern economies.  While no one has exact figures, the death toll in Iraq last time probably came to about 100,000 civilians; bombing of infrastructure coupled with the effects of sanctions has probably knocked off another million or so, not counting the half-million children under the age of 4.   The consequences of the anti-Muslim crusade of the 48th Fighter Wing are quite clear - less security for the West, more money for some of the most vicious and ecologically destructive organizations in our society (oil corporations and the military), the imposition of  of a national security state in the United States, the fuelling of imperial appetites in Washington, and an ever-renewed hatred of the West across the Muslim world.

Sparky the Fire Dog visited Lakenheath Elementary School students for Halloween Oct. 31. Senior Master Sgt. Donald Lane, 48th Civil Engineer Squadron, helped hand out candy to the LES students as part of an RAF Lakenheath fire department initiative to remind children about Halloween safety.