Air Force's newest mobile air shelter part of Rodeo

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Amber Kelly-Herard
  • Rodeo 2009 Public Affairs
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. (AFNS) --  Contingency response Airmen competed using the Air Force's newest mobile air shelter during the Air Mobility Rodeo July 20 here.

The hardside expandable light air mobile shelter is a command and control mobile air shelter designed to be set up on a new airfield within 48 hours and is teh first year this shelter has been used in Rodeo since its induction into the Air Force inventory in 2003.

Two units competed in the HELAMS event, the 615th Contingency Response Wing from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., and the 621st Contingency Response Wing from McGuire AFB, N.J.

Tech. Sgt. Steven Holcomb, a HELAMS subject matter expert assigned to Air Mobility Command's air, space and information operations section at Scott AFB, Ill., explained the competitions are judged on how the teams set up the structure. 

"The clock stops when they establish satellite communications with headquarters," he said. "They also have to take it back down as if they were deploying again."

HELAMS replaced the Air Force's previous mobile shelter the mobile air reporting communications used since the mid-1980s.

"It's 50 percent bigger, 30 percent lighter, and it can hold (small package initial communications element)," Sergeant Holcomb said.

The weather resistant and climate-controlled HELAMS can also be used as a triage or a secure place for classified briefings and communications and operations security.

"This has been a great training opportunity for us," said Staff Sgt. John Olson, from the 819th Global Support Squadron at McGuire AFB. "We normally only use HELAMS for exercises and displays, but this lets us use it more like in a deployed situation."

Sergeant Holcomb said having this event in Rodeo helps build on the lessons learned for future use with HELAMS in the field. 

"It ensures that we train the way we fight," he said. "We gain lessons learned and training from this. That alone justifies having this event in Rodeo."