Remote airstrips are hell on wheels

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  C-130 maintainers are in a Herculean battle against enemies that have been around since the dawn of time: dirt, rocks and dust.

While C-130 Hercules perform the tactical portion of the airlift mission by bringing in troops and supplies to remote locations, called forward operating bases, they have to land on rough dirt or gravel airstrips.
 
“The dirt strips with gravel are hard on the tires,” said Senior Master Sgt. Harold Wood, a C-130 maitenance superintendent in the 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron.

Every time a C-130 returns from a mission, maintainers inspect all the tires like crime scene investigators. 

The airstrips are small, too small for bigger, heavier aircraft to land. They’re even small by C-130 standards, forcing pilots to stand on the brakes so they don’t roll off the end of the runways. Thus, worn brakes. 

And it isn’t just the brakes that are affected. To stop in time, pilots also put their engines into “max reverse,” changing the pitch of the propellers so their thrust is forward, which slows the plane. 

“That throws up a dust cloud in front of the plane that gets sucked into the engines, the air conditioning, every where,” said Sergeant Wood, deployed from the 176th Wing at Kulis Air National Guard Base, Alaska.

“These aircraft make some hard landings,” said Tech. Sgt. Dale Durham, a C-130 crew chief. “We end up replacing a lot of antennas and lights (damaged by) the gravel and rocks that get kicked up.” 

Sergeant Durham, a member of the Texas Air National Guard's 136th Airlift Wing at Fort Worth, said they inspect every plane, front to back, every three days. 

“The dust is brutal,” Sergeant Durham said. “It gets into everything. So we cover everything we can with tape or a sealant, and we blow out dust from air filters once a week.” 

Airmen from squadrons at four stateside bases constitute the 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron. In addition to the Alaska and Texas National Guard, they include the Tennessee Air National Guard's 118th Airlift Wing in Nashville and the Delaware Air National Guard's 166th Airlift Wing in Newcastle.

The C-130 Hercules is the tie that binds them all together. Although a C-130 from Alaska is no different than one from Texas, the squadron tries to keep crew chiefs with “their” C-130s.

“We keep the crew chiefs on their planes because they know their planes. The specialists work on all the aircraft and everybody pitches in when there’s a problem” said Maj. Michael Griesbaum, commander of the C-130 maintainers here. 

Getting all the troops to work together as one isn’t a problem for the 455th C-130 community. 

“There is always a challenge with different squadron personalities, but everyone is getting along pretty well,” the major said. “In fact, several of our (home) units have deployed together before, so it’s kind of like a reunion.” 

Despite the short runways, the difficult landings, the rocks and the dust, the major said he enjoys telling the commander, “Sir, we’ve had a good day in maintenance.

"That’s because the maintainers work so terribly hard,” he said. “Dedication doesn’t even half describe what they do.”