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Pentagon's Radio Afghanistan Goes Off the Air
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
(7:39 AM ET)
The Associated Press

One of the planes used to broadcast Pentagon messages in Afghanistan after returning to the U.S. Tuesday.
Image Credit: Paul Vathis -- The Associated Press.

"Attention Taliban! You are condemned. Did you know that?"



"Our forces are armed with state-of-the-art military equipment. What are you using, obsolete and ineffective weaponry?"



MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- AP
One of Afghanistan's most popular radio stations for the past few months has gone off the air.

The 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard arrived home Tuesday after six months of flying day and night around Afghanistan, broadcasting messages and music to Afghans as part of the Pentagon's psychological warfare against the Taliban.

"They've pretty much been on the air in the Middle East for the last several months, nonstop," said Col. Jim Lillis, the squad's vice commander, one of a couple hundred people on the guard's home tarmac at Harrisburg International Airport as the crews disembarked.

Some of the crew members flew home in the same planes they flew in Operation Enduring Freedom: 40-year-old C-130s equipped with thousands of pounds of broadcasting equipment.

The unit flew over 300 missions, each lasting nine hours. Its motto: "Never seen, always heard."
(More: USA Today News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan