Rescue unit faces moving challenges

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  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England (AFPN) --  It will be a while before the 56th Rescue Squadron fully transitions into operations at this fighter base and begins its new mission in Europe.

The combat search and rescue unit arrived here in May from Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, where it served 35 years. It left as part of the U.S. military pullout from the island nation.

Since arriving, the unit has literally been living out of a suitcase. It is struggling to move into a new home and train for operations here. And it is doing this with only half its 29 people and two of its five helicopters, said Lt. Col. Steve Huss, the squadron's director of operations.

Half of the squadron and two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters will continue to operate from Keflavik until September, the colonel said. The unit's other helicopter is undergoing a major modification.

"Right now, as you can image, there is a bit of turmoil," he said. "But we're making do with what we have and flying when we can. So we show up every day, make a game plan for the day, the week, the month and start plugging away."

But the colonel from Fargo, N.D., is optimistic. The move presents the unit with tremendous opportunities. The squadron can now join the air expeditionary force rotations and deploy to locations where it can bring its combat search and rescue expertise. And as the only Pave Hawk unit in European Command, it could deploy anywhere in the commands area of responsibility, which stretches from the Arctic Circle to South Africa and from the Atlantic to the Middle East.

Now the squadron will be able to take part in exercises in and outside of England. And it will get to work with British and NATO counterparts.

"We fully expect to deploy and support the global war on terrorism as soon as we're able to get up to speed, get everybody trained, get all our manning squared away -- and finish all those things you need to deploy and fight," the colonel said.

By December the unit should be at full strength with 59 people. However, its helicopters will all need modification. So it will be longer than that before the unit is ready to deploy. But European Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe officials are aware of the unit's shortcoming as it transitions, he said.

The unit needs its troops to return from Iceland and others to arrive for duty from other bases before it can truly complete its transition, Colonel Huss said. Currently, aircrews rotate in and out of Keflavik every three weeks. But when they end their Iceland duty, they will bring with them the equipment the unit left behind to support their operations.

"That frees up aircraft and crew members to concentrate on combat training," the colonel said. "It will take months, but we anticipate -- hope -- being ready by mid 2007."

Meeting that deadline will not be easy because of the challenges the unit faces.

One is that there is almost zero continuity to rely on, said Master Sgt. Ken Howk, the squadron's pararescue superintendent. The squadron has always been part of Lakenheath's 48th Fighter Wing. But from Keflavik, most communication was via telephone, fax or e-mail.

In its new home, the unit's Airmen will have to learn everything from scratch. That includes setting up accounts to get spare parts and learning how to book airspace to fly and ranges on which they train.

"Luckily, our people have always been part of the 48th, so we've worked with people here. We can just go to their offices," said Sergeant Howk, a pararescueman from Hudson Falls, N.Y. "But it's going to take a lot of work."

Another challenge is that the unit has inexperienced aircrew member that can only get the training they need with practice and flying on a regular basis. But doing this will first take integrating their helicopter operations into a fighter community and scheduling time on British training ranges.

That is a task helicopter pilot Capt. Danielle O'Neill finds a bit daunting. But the squadron's operations flight commander and training officer said the fighter wing has been helping do that.

"They've been great about getting us ready," the captain from Elko, Nev., said. "This transition is a learning process for everyone."

The captain said the unit is flying once a week now. The flights are so aircrews can get their local qualifications training, like departure and arrival procedures. And they get to know the training areas -- about one hour away -- where they will train. The crews fly two daytime and one nighttime mission to qualify. Without the flights, they cannot fly, the captain said.

"That's the first process in getting all the flyers up to speed," she said.

Getting the helicopters in the air is another challenge. The maintenance troops -- some 50 members of the 56th Aircraft Maintenance Unit that are now part of the 48th Maintenance Group -- are having problems keeping the helicopters in the air, Colonel Huss said.

Most are minor fixes. But they keep the helicopters on the ground. The colonel said the period of inactivity when the aircraft did not fly is the main cause of problems.

"When these aircraft don't fly for weeks at a time, they don't want to fly. So we have to wring then out and get them back up to speed," he said.

Pave Hawk crew chief Airman 1st Class Danny Doughty is in charge of one of the helicopters. His job is to make sure his bird flies. That included getting all the maintenance problems fixed. But he said it is tough when doing that at a new unit where not everyone knows all the ins and outs of the supply system and ordering parts.

"So when we have a hard break, that's when we feel the heat," the Airman from Pasadena, Calif., said.

The Airman moved with the unit from Iceland. He said some of his co-workers are caught up in the move and settling their families. He said that's normal. But he said many of his co-workers have put moving in on the back burner to get the helicopters flying. The troops put their jobs first.

"It's always about service before self," he said. "But that's a big hurdle for some."

At the moment, the Airman said both the unit's helicopters are broke. That means nobody is getting the training they need. Plus, maintainers had to take a part off one helicopter and ship it to Iceland to keep one of the birds there flying.

"They needed it more than we did," Airman Doughty said. "But if things go according to plan, we won't have these problems in a few weeks."

Colonel Huss said the unit's problems and challenges are not over. And though the unit had a good idea of what it was going to take to make the transition, when it arrived at Lakenheath other things popped up they had to deal with.

"When you combine all these things, and add that we only have half our folks, it's a huge challenge," the colonel said. "But our folks are doing an outstanding job adapting."

The unit moves a step closer to full operations each day. And by December the colonel expects to be able to start the big push towards the unit being operationally ready to do its combat search and rescue job by mid 2007.

"We're in a period of rebuilding right now," Colonel Huss said. "Our chain of command fully understands that. All we need are a few things to happen before we can pull the trigger and deploy."