Stage facility provides aircrews one-stop support

  • Published
  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) --  A management team at this base is helping aircrews spend less time preparing for flying with a streamlined, one-stop approach to en route mission planning.

The result is an increase in mission velocity, said Lt. Col. James Kirk, commander of the 726th Air Mobility Squadron. That leads to a more effective airflow and more on-time delivery of cargo and troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said mission velocity is the buzz phrase, “the name of the game,” in the Air Force airlift business today. Everyone is working to cut mission times.

“Anything we can do to reduce the amount of preparation for a flight -- ground time wise -- makes it a lot easier for the crews to perform their duties,” he said.

So the new air mobility squadron at this longtime fighter base, with the help of a detachment of C-17 Globemaster III crew management specialists, is finding ways to cut the pre-flight processes aircrews must go through before each mission. The squadron’s new home, built specifically for the airlift support mission it performs, is the first innovation in the process.

“We’re a unique location because we have everything under one roof,” said Colonel Kirk, from Lithonia, Ga. “We provide one-stop shopping at its finest.”

When aircrews arrive, the team begins preparing them for their departure. Squadron members have already found crews a place stay, either on or off the base, and transportation to get there and back. Before leaving, crews also turn in all their classified materials, weapons and mobility bags for storage at the squadron, something that once could take hour or more to do.

“That way aircrews don’t have to go all over the base to do these things,” the colonel said. “They go straight to their hotel.” That benefits aircrews because they can immediately go into the 12 hours of crew rest they must get before their next mission.

When aircrews return to continue their flight -- or take over for another crew -- another group of Airmen help them get in the air faster. These troops are from Detachment 5, 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. Their job is to further cut aircrew preflight preparations to the minimum.

“And when other little things come up, we deal with them -- put out the fires,” said C-17 pilot 1st Lt. David Thompson. A crew management team member deployed from the 7th Airlift Squadron at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., he knows what it’s like to arrive at a base after of flying missions that can last more than a day.

“Crew member expect certain things,” the captain from Novi, Mich., said. “Being crew members ourselves, we understand their needs.”

That’s one premise behind the management teams. Members know what aircrews need. So to the squadron, based at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, has detachments at five stage bases that handle C-17 traffic arriving from stateside bases for destinations in Southwest Asia and returning home. Besides Spangdahlem and Incirlik, there are teams at Ramstein AB, Germany; Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan; and one base in Southwest Asia.

At Spangdahlem, the detachment’s seven Airmen are part of the air mobility squadron and share space in its nerve center, the air mobility control center.

“We consider them part of our squadron,” Colonel Kirk said.

Acceptance into their foster squadron allows the team to provide their services without the hassles associated with being an “outsiders,” Lieutenant Thompson said.

“We work hand in hand with the AMCC because we’re all trying to do the same job,” he said.

The team helps aircrews with preflight preparations. The aim is to do everything possible to keep aircrews from having to worry about doing them, so they can concentrate on their mission, the lieutenant said. The team gives aircrews tactics and intelligence briefings. These provide them better situational awareness of the areas into which they will fly. It allows them to get a better feel for operating in those areas and the procedures for keeping out of harms way, he said.

Staff Sgt. Tony Marquez, an intelligence analyst deployed from the 305th Operations Support Squadron, McGuire AFB, N.J., provides intelligence briefings. He said it can be a tedious job. But he goes into minute details to provide the best briefing possible.

“You have to get everything perfect. Because just one little screw up and things can go wrong,” the sergeant from Chicago said. “If you don’t alert aircrews of a threat in a certain area -- and they go in there not worrying about it and something happens -- it’s pretty much your fault.”

The sergeant doesn’t want anything like that hanging over his head, so he looks for information from many sources. He can use a “canned” briefing provided by sources in Southwest Asia. But he prefers to not to.

“They provide the bare minimum of information a crews need to know,” he said. “You can get away with that. But I give them extra information -- stuff they’re not looking for or think they might really need -- but that can be helpful.

After a mission from the war zone, Sergeant Marquez debriefs a crew if some significant event happened, “so we can pass the information to other crews going in,” he said.

In the C-17 specific special tactics briefing, given by one of the three pilots on the team, aircrews learn the intricacies of flying into different airfields in Iraq and Afghanistan. The briefing details procedures for flying into certain air spaces.

“This is a briefing on how to mitigate threats -- how to land at the base -- what to expect when they go down there,” Lieutenant Thompson said.

The team also has a loadmaster and life support specialist to help aircrews. Loadmaster Airman 1st Class Bryan Kerr, from Des Moines, Iowa, helps with loading or unloading C-17s. But he also does tasks he normally doesn’t do, like restocking the aircraft’s toiletries supply.

“I do whatever it takes to ease an aircrew’s transition,” said the Airman deployed from the 7th Airlift Squadron at McChord AFB, Wash. “If a load needs swapping to another aircraft, I’m out there do it. If the loadmaster needs to go into crew rest after a long day, that’s why I’m here.”

The Airman said the job can be challenging. He once unloaded two UH-60 helicopters from a C-17 and put them on another so the mission could continue.

“I like it. It keeps me proficient,” he said. “And it’s nice to have a break from flying so much all the time.”

Before departing, aircrews get a full check from Staff Sgt. Bobby Pickel, the life support specialist, also deployed from the 305th. His specialty is maintaining and fixing night vision goggles, which all aircrew members use for night operations in the war zones. He also inspects helmets, oxygen masks and any other life support system on the big cargo jets.

Sergeant Pickel said working in the air mobility squadron provides him a different perspective on his job. It’s no just longer about fixing life support equipment -- something at which he is already an expert. At the control center, he’s working with the other members of his team in the same room for the first time.

“I get to see how everything works and how everyone does their job to help that airplane leave the ramp and take off,” said the sergeant from Woodbridge, Va. “I get to see the aircrews and ask them about their experiences -- while actually wearing the equipment I service.”

The two teams of Airmen are changing the way a stage location does business, Colonel Kirk said. So the squadron will continue to streamline processes.

One goal is to have aircrews already staged at the base and ready to fly, he said. This will cut down on the time it takes some aircrews to travel from Ramstein -- some 80 miles away -- where most overnight when the go into crew rest. The ultimate goal is to always have one or two crews in crew rest at the base as the planes come through.

The specialized service aircrews get at Spangdahlem is not the norm. But Colonel Kirk believes the “Spangdahlem initiative” could soon be part of the way the Air Force does business.

“We’re always seeking innovative ways to increase mission velocity,” he said. “Because the less time crews spend on the ground, the more time they spend accomplishing the mission -- and it does so much for their morale.”