Spangdahlem airlift hub still growing

  • Published
  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany --  Nine months after setting up shop at this long-time fighter base, the 726th Air Mobility Squadron continues to set up a key airlift hub.

Squadron Airmen are easily handling the sometimes sporadic traffic of heavy transport aircraft that transit through this hilltop base, whether coming from the United States or from some base in Southwest Asia, said Lt. Col. Gary Grape, squadron director of operations.

But it will probably take up to another year to “get all the little tweaks and processes worked out,” the colonel said.

“On Oct. 1, we took control of an awesome ramp and great facilities,” he said. “But since then, we have been working to turn the facilities into a squadron.”

That doesn’t mean the squadron of 135 people is idle, the colonel said. Its Airmen receive and launch from two to eight airlift missions a day and handle 50 to 300 passengers a week.

Colonel Grape said the squadron started working at full speed the day it became operational. Now all that’s left is doing the little things associated with moving.

“We have all the necessities done,” said the colonel from Holcombe, Wisc. “Now we’re just doing the niceties.”

The unit and its sister unit, the 723rd AMS at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, assumed the airlift support mission from Rhein-Main AB, Germany, when it closed Oct. 1. Rhein-Main, located outside Frankfurt, had been famous as the “gateway to Europe” since the end of World War II. It had a big mission.

But when the United States agreed to return the base to Germany, it did not want to give up the capability the base provided the Air Force -- especially since airlift is one of the Air Force’s biggest jobs supporting the war on terrorism.

The plan was for Ramstein, about 80 miles southeast of here, to handle two-thirds to three-quarters of the Rhein-Main mission. Spangdahlem would handle the rest, and any overflow. The plan to close Rhein-Main was a long process. But the assumption of the airlift mission was an overnight move.

“We had to do a light-switch transition. We handled missions at Rhein-Main until the end of September. The next day we had to handle missions coming here,” Colonel Grape said. “It was a unique opportunity, something very few squadrons in the Air Force have ever gotten.”

As the transition took place, a contingency response group -- whose job is to set up aerial port operations -- arrived at the base, set up and started moving transports in and out of the base. At the same time, an advanced team from the squadron arrived from Rhein-Main and began setting up shop. Their mission was to get squadron programs established, support agreements hammered out and starting the unit’s bed down process.

“We were doing all the administrative stuff needed to run an organization,” said Master Sgt. Spike Speigner, superintendent of aircraft services.

He arrived in June with the advanced team. That’s when the team started to help the 52nd Fighter Wing prepare for the base’s new mission and the incoming heavy jets.

“The main thing was to make people aware across the base -- give folks a better picture of what we were bringing to Spangdahlem,” said Sergeant Speigner, of Rock Ledge, Fla. “There was no mobility experience here. So we stood it up.”

Today, the squadron gets total support from the fighter community across the flightline. Colonel Grape said wing leaders do not consider the squadron a tenant unit, but part of the team. He said through dialog, wing leaders now understand the squadron’s mission.

The mission, as outlined in the unit’s original operations plan, called for it to handle four to six takeoffs or landings each day, the colonel said. That meant handling two or three jets daily -- a gas-and-go operation. That is what the squadron’s facilities can handle.

But on some days, the squadron handles eight aircraft -- and on other days it gets no aircraft.

“That’s one of the problems we’re working out -- another one of the growing pains,” Colonel Grape said. “But we’re trying to establish a C-17 (Globemaster III) hub here.”

But to do that, there has to be a more predictable air flow. The unit is working on a plan to maximize the number of aircraft the squadron can handle without having its Airmen sitting idle. To do that requires choreographing what the colonel calls “a ballet of aircraft and people.”

“In theory, with an aircraft being on the ground for about four hours -- with our gas-and-go ops -- we could be working two aircraft every four hours,” he said. “To do that requires smooth flowing of the missions. So if scheduled properly, we could work six to eight aircraft a day.”

Colonel Grape said that’s a reachable goal. But the problem is that because of flying times, maintenance, scheduling and weather problems four or five aircraft could land at the base and want to take off right away.

“We can only work two at a time,” the colonels said. “So we’re coordinating constantly with Air Mobility Command and downrange trying to keep aircraft spread out in a nice, even steady flow.”

That is a planning process that’s hard to do when the players are a continent apart. But, things will get better -- the airflow will stabilize -- with time, he said.

That’s a good thing, because the squadron is literally in the bullpen -- it must be ready to handle missions as they come in, said Master Sgt. Rob Ezell, the superintendent of passenger services and the air terminal operations centers.

“When a plane lands, or something diverts here, we have to react,” he said. “We know how to do that. So it’s not a big setback for us.”

But that kind of hit-or-miss operation can take a toll on the Airmen who service the transiting jets and passengers, the sergeant said. Everyone in the squadron does more than one job. So, the squadron is doing what it takes to establish a more workable schedule.

In the meantime, the sergeant said, “We know what to do when a plane comes in or how to deal with any kind of issue that may come up.”

Colonel Grape said things are looking brighter. The unit is slowly building up with the goal of having 155 people. By August, he hopes there will be people to work three aircraft at a time.

The planes continue to land. Today, there were three C-17 Globemaster IIIs on the line. The Airmen who handled the transports -- they must be able to work on C-5 Galaxy aircraft, too -- rushed to service them. They fueled them, cleaned them and took care of their aircrews.

In the passenger terminal, a planeload of Soldiers waited to re-board their ride to Iraq. The squadron’s Airmen helped the troops as much as they could and provided them with box lunches for the final leg of their journey. But all the squadron facilities are still not open.

As it continues to build a framework for squadron operations, the unit is working on expanding, honing its processes and increasing its capabilities. So, change is afoot.

“There are a few expansion projects in the works,” said Sergeant Ezell, who is from Baltimore. “We’re trying to expand the passenger terminal holding area. Right now it holds 115 people. We’re going to add another level to it that will add about 100 seats.”

The small terminal, while state-of-the-art, cannot handle the passenger load and provide some comfort to transiting troops and families, the sergeant said. And it will have to expand to provide work areas for the Airmen expected to arrive to boost squadron operations. Although the building still smells new, open areas will soon undergo construction to build storage facilities or offices.

Colonel Grape said the one-year mark will tell what the unit’s capability really is. But he is optimistic results will show the unit is not only doing its job, but can do even more.

“If we have the proper manning and scheduling we can really continue to progress a lot farther than the original plan,” he said. “We set up as a gas and go, an overflow operation. But everyone is realizing we can do so much more than that.”