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Gateway To Afghanistan

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  3. Manas coverage in print editions

Manas coverage in print editions

Here's an electronic recap of the Manas-related articles published over the past week in The Spokesman-Review's print editions:

Tuesday (10.19.2010): Front-line support -- A look at a typical refueling mission over the rugged battlefields of Afghanistan.

Thursday (10.21.2010): Rebuilding hope -- A look at the humanitarian assistance efforts of U.S. military men and women deployed at Manas, many of them Fairchild volunteers.

Sunday (10.24.2010): A two story package examining the base's uncertain future amid Kyrgyzstan's political turmoil, and the teamwork that keeps KC-135s in the air and Manas on the move.

And, here's an SR article from 2009 examining Fairchild's links to creation of the U.S. base at Manas amid an eventually scuttled eviction notice. Among the tidbits: So many Fairchild airmen were deployed at the base that they staged a makeshift Bloomsday run one year; and an unfortunate mishap involving a fiery collision between a KC-135 and a commercial airliner.

Fairchild Air Force Base supplies 80 percent of the military aircraft and flight crews operating out of Manas Transit Center, a key hub along one of the primary NATO supply routes into Afghanistan. The small base, located outside the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek, is barely 400 miles from the Afghan border.