Homestead Airmen conduct live ordnance loading area operations

by Ross Tweten
482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

5/14/2013 - HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. -- Homestead Air Reserve Base recently conducted a series of live ordnance loading area operations.

More commonly known as LOLA, the operations consist of loading live ordnance on F-16s in an authorized area on the flightline away from people and buildings. The munitions are loaded in an isolated location in case of, in so many words, inadvertent blasts or firings.

"Safety plays an integral part in determining how far away the LOLA has to be," said Lt. Col. David Sundlov, 93rd Fighter Squadron commander. "The weapons are usually loaded on a remote portion of the runway. Currently we are working on a new LOLA across the runway that will have room for a few more jets."

The 482nd Fighter Wing's F-16s then dropped their ordnance on Pinecastle Bombing Range in northern Florida.

Once the flying schedule calls for live munitions on flying sorties, the aircraft are positioned on the LOLA and weapons load crews are dispatched to perform the live loading operations. The aircraft remain on LOLA until takeoff or until live munitions have been downloaded.

The recent operations consisted of eight sorties, dropping more than two dozen MK-82 500-pound bombs, all hitting their intended targets on the bombing range.

Aircraft maintenance Airmen have requirements to be trained on loading live ordnance just as pilots have requirements to drop live ordnance.

"LOLA ops are important from a maintenance prospective in that it gives our weapons personnel valuable training in handling and loading live munitions; munitions they would normally only see in a deployed environment," said Master Sgt. Desmond Ojeda, 495th Fighter Group, Detachment 93, Weapons Flight chief.

According to Lt. Col. Adam Meyers, 482nd Fighter Wing Chief of Safety, the LOLA is the one place on base where all three safety disciplines - ground, weapons and flying - converge.

"There's zero room for cutting corners when we're talking about literally tons of explosives being loaded on jets," said Meyers. "It's a good thing we've got diligent professionals doing it right."