Andersen, Yokota Airmen train for disaster relief operations

  • Published
  • By Capt. Andrew G. Hoskinson
  • 36th Wing Public Affairs
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFNS) --  Members of the 36th Contingency Response Group here and aircrews from the 374th Operations Group at Yokota Air Base, Japan, participated in a mock deployment to rehearse time-critical actions for disaster relief operations Feb. 17-18 at Northwest Field.

Airmen from the 36th CRG hosted two aircrews from Yokota AB in order to plan and prepare for any future disaster response in the Asia-Pacific region.

"This is an opportunity for (Airmen from) the 374th Airlift Wing and the 36th Wing to work together to provide 13th Air Force, Pacific Air Forces and Pacific Command with a much faster ability to get to a location when a disaster occurs in the theater," said Col. Daniel Settergren, the 36th CRG commander.

Planned and executed by the Andersen Air Force Base and Yokota AB wings, the exercise was designed to incorporate lessons learned from recent disaster relief efforts in Indonesia and Haiti.

Citing the aftermath of the recent Haiti earthquake, Colonel Settergren said that the massive amount of relief supplies arriving at a location can quickly overwhelm an airfield. He emphasized that it is important to provide support with an initial communications, ground control and survey capability that opens the door for follow-on relief efforts.

"The first thing to do is to make sure that the aircraft coming in with relief supplies can be unloaded and moved out of the way as quickly as possible, so that things don't back up on the airfield," Colonel Settergren said. "To help within the first few hours and first few days after a disaster is absolutely critical to saving lives."

By scaling down equipment and people to a bare minimum, this capability is adequately prepared to deploy to a natural disaster zone at a moment's notice, according to Colonel Settergren.

During the 36th CRG Airmen's deployment to Indonesia last fall, the unit was part of a larger entity known as the humanitarian assistance rapid response team. The HARRT is a 60-person team designed to deploy via two C-17 Globemaster IIIs or six C-130 Hercules aircraft.

But the team ran into some delays due to limited capacity at the Padang airfield in Indonesia following the relief effort there of the Sept. 30, 2009 earthquake. It would have been useful to put a smaller advance team in place, prior to the HARRT's arrival, augmenting the airfield and air traffic control capacity, Colonel Settergren said.

Initial surveys of the Haiti earthquake relief efforts indicated similar problems.

The two C-130s in this exercise provide sufficient airlift capability for the 36th CRG Airmen to put six to 10 people on the ground, along with basic equipment such as radios and a forklift. This contingent would support host nation airfield operations and prepare the way for the arrival of the HARRT and other organizations participating in relief efforts, Colonel Settergren said.

Because C-130s at Yokota AB are the most forward-positioned airlift assets in PACAF, they are ideally located to provide the airlift capability that is needed to respond quickly and effectively in a crisis, said Col. Mark Hering, the 374th OG commander.

"It's a balancing act," he said. "There is never enough airlift, and one of the objectives of this exercise was to determine the optimal mix of CRG capability and maintenance equipment that we could deploy using two C-130s. One of the biggest successes of this event was validating this mix and then actually deploying from Andersen (AFB) to set up in another location."

The two C-130s simulated a deployment by taking off from Andersen AFB's airfield and then landing at Northwest Field, only a few miles away.

"In essence, the only thing we're missing from the real thing is hours of flight time," Colonel Hering said. "This is an ideal setup to execute and practice what we will potentially be asked to do."

For the 36th CRG Airmen, the opportunity to plan and execute a mock deployment using Yokota AB's aircraft was tremendous.

"Anytime you execute with the aircraft, you learn something new," Colonel Settergren said. "We're getting some training here that is tough for us to get. It's training that we need to have and this is great."

The 36th CRG members and C-130 aircrews set up a base camp and remained overnight at Northwest Field, near Anderson AFB.

"This has been a tremendous success," Colonel Hering said. "We look forward to continuing to build on this partnership and to be ready to respond to future crises in our region. The bottom line is that we're postured to respond if a disaster comes up."