Airman Sutton builds bombs that won't come back

By Rose Hooper

Watching a B-52 come back empty is the ultimate in job satisfaction for this member of the 9th Munitions Squadron.

Temporarily stationed at Fairford Royal Air Force Base in England as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Sutton builds bombs.

This 19-year-old, a 2001 graduate of Smoky Mountain High School, left Jackson County Oct. 15, 2001, to begin basic training.

The Air Force Combat Ammunition Center at Beal Air Force Base, Calif., - his home station - is closed while the ammo troops are deployed in the war effort. For Sutton's 40-member squadron, the classroom at "Ammo U." has switched from munitions flight into the real fight.

The camaraderie of the team intensifies from the classroom setting to wartime operation, said Sutton, son of Linda Goldsmith of Cullowhee and Ronnie and Michele Sutton of Sylva.

Throughout the war Goldsmith has been in contact with her son via e-mail.

"What I am doing now gives me the opportunity to see how things work in the real world," he told her.

"He's keeping up his sense of humor," said Goldsmith. "I work at Trillium Links and Village in Cashiers, and on one of the bombs Jake wrote, 'To Saddam - from everyone at Trillium.'"

Part of Sutton's training, though, has been preparing to deploy, so his squadron was ready, both physically and mentally, when the call came.

Sutton describes his job as "part of a large team that contributes to the success of a larger team." If they don't build the bombs correctly and the bombs don't function, then the whole mission could be a failure.

But seeing the empty racks and getting a "thumbs up" from the returning pilots is one of the best feelings an ammo troop can experience, said Sutton.