Often referred to as the "ADAC of the airways" AFOD assists aviators in much the same way as automobile clubs support motorists on the road. AFOD serves pilots by advising them which flight paths to follow, alerting them to special problems they might encounter during a flight and getting them help when something goes wrong.

AFOD's services begin when a pilot is planning his flight. Since flight regulations and procedures differ widely depending on what country you're flying in, AFOD's library of flight regulations for all countries in the world is the place pilots can call to get answers to almost any question they might have.

Once the flight is planned, AFOD's teletype section goes to work. Technicians dispatch information about the flight on a teletype that's hooked into a worldwide network of civilian air traffic control facilities. These "air safety messages" give needed information to other pilots planning flights. It works the other way around, too. The more than 2,000 messages daily that pass through AFOD's teletype terminal assist Army pilots in planning their flights.

Carl Lutz, teletype supervisor, explains, "Anything the aviator wants to know, we can find out for him. If he needs to fly to Spain, we can coordinate with the French Air Force for permission to stop in France for refueling. And when a pilot flies to England from Germany, he passes over three different countries. We provide the national radar unit of each of those countries with flight data so they can guide the pilot safely over their territory.

"Once we had a case where an airman broke her leg on a ski trip to Davos, Switzerland, high up in the Alps. We contacted Swiss officials and arranged for a SwissAir pilot to accompany the MedEvac flight and guide the pilot through the narrow valleys to Davos so they could pick her up to fly her back to Heidelberg," Lutz remembers.

AFOD also provides an important aid to aviators embarking on routine flights. When a pilot files a flight plan, he receives a NOTAM (Notice to Airman) briefing. This briefing is based on information in AFOD's constantly-updated NOTAM file, from teletype messages received from other locations and from U.S. Air Force weather forecasters who are also stationed with AFOD.

The briefing tells pilots what flying conditions to expect and alerts them to potential problems they'll encounter, things like: closed runways at their destinations, availability of fuel enroute, recently built towers and buildings along the way, tall construction cranes that might block the flight path and hundreds of other details that pilots need to know before taking off.

At the same time, AFOD personnel clear the pilot's flight plan with civil aviation authorities who in turn assign the pilot an airspace for the mission.

AFOD's assistance continues while the pilot "earns his pay." The flight-following section keeps flight plans on file during the mission (Webmaster Note: see article on beginning of Flight Following Service in USAREUR). When a pilot arrives safely at his destination, the air traffic controllers there inform AFOD. If no word is received 30 minutes after a flight is due at its destination, AFOD begins a search.

The first phase of the search is always a communications hunt, and a telephone call usually clears up the problem. Since AFOD has no direct radio contact with the pilots, the unit relies on others to relay information, and sometimes they aren't notified immediately when a flight lands at its destination. Occasionally, the problem stems from a pilot having to make an emergency landing somewhere else, or an enroute flight plan change that requires the pilot to make an unscheduled stop.

Every once in a while, an aircraft is truly missing and in trouble. That's when AFOD goes into action as the Army's search and rescue representative. AFOD personnel call the Joint Rescue Coordination Center at Ramstein Air Base and pass the flight plan on to them.

Peter Freese, a 26-year veteran with AFOD, says it's AFOD's job to inform the rescue authorities that the aircraft is missing, but the JRCC's responsibility to locate it.

AFOD also serves as a liaison agent between German civil authorities and U.S. medical evacuation units. If there's a serious accident on the autobahn, for instance, or a transplant organ that needs quick transport, AFOD can dispatch Army Medevac choppers to assist the German authorities.

When injured Marines were airlifted for medical treatment from Beirut to Frankfurt after last year's bombing, AFOD staffers were responsible for the coordination involved in obtaining 20 Medevac choppers from all over Germany to fly the injured from Rhein-Main Air Base to military hospitals.

During the past year, AFOD assisted in more than 100 search and rescue operations, provided assistance and flight service to 1,438 Medevac flights and engineered 36 medical evacuations. The switchboards at AFOD's dilapidated Heidelberg airfield headquarters logged 393,975 incoming and outgoing calls during the same period. Needless to say, things rarely get boring at AFOD.

Because speed and accuracy are of the utmost importance in most of what AFOD does the various sections must be able to work quickly and efficiently with each other.

Tony Brunner, a flight follower with AFOD for more than 20 years, says precise timing and exacting calculations are the keys to keeping the unit's operations running smoothly.

Keeping things flowing smoothly in an operation like AFOD's is far from an easy task. Most detachment staffers attribute their continued success to the fact that they've been doing it for so long. The majority of civilians working at AFOD have been there for a number of years - many have already passed the 20-year mark. Says Freese, "All of the local nationals here have made a career of aviation services and everyone, all the way down to School (who sweeps the floors), is dedicated to Army aviation."

The military personnel at AFOD run the entire operation at night and on weekends, when things are usually quieter. During day shifts, they mostly handle search and rescue operations and flight-following responsibilities.

PFC William Jensen, a flight operations coordinator with AFOD for the past two years, says, "The military people generally aren't here long enough to master every aspect of the operation, so we draw a wealth of knowledge from the civilians who've been here for a while. I can always turn to one of them if I need help with something."

Besides their long-term experience with AFOD, the civilian staffers also provide the detachment with another invaluable resource. Perhaps one of the greatest support functions AFOD provides in its coordination capability with other air traffic services, both military and civilian, is the ability to communicate across language barriers. More than a dozen languages, from Dutch to Turkish, are spoken by the civilian workers at AFOD. Every local national working in the detachment speaks at least two languages, and the majority feel comfortable with three or more.

The detachment has long been recognized as an outstanding asset to the aviation field by the pilots who constantly utilize its services. Recently, AFOD's continually superior performance was also recognized by the entire military aviation field when the detachment was chosen as the winner of the Army Aviation Association of America's "Support Unit Of The Year" award.

According to CWO 4 Robert Rector, Flight Operations Officer at AFOD for the past 18 months, "The main reason we won the award is because we not only provide an important service to the aviation community in Europe -- we do it well. We're a real communications asset, and winning the 'Quad-A' is just a reflection of the high degree of expertise everyone at AFOD has, especially the civilian workers."

Flight operations coordinator Jensen says, "AFOD is unique: we're the only unit of our kind in the entire world and the mission we do here is very important to the aviation field. If it weren't for AFOD, 1 think Army aviation in Europe would come to a standstill."