Services work together, keep convoys off streets

  • Published
  • By Marine Cpl. John E. Lawson Jr.
  • 2nd Force Service Support Group
CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (AFPN) --  As Operation Iraqi Freedom continues, American servicemembers are put in harm’s way daily. The Department of Defense’s various services are working together to make Iraq a safer place for the servicemembers. This is the primary thinking behind the Tanker Air Lift Control Element, a mostly Air Force detachment working on the flightline here.

The Airmen, deployed from the 621st Air Mobility Operations Group at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., along with a few Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, make up the nearly 50-person detachment responsible for loading, unloading and tracking C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III flights within the OIF area of responsibility, said Tech. Sgt. Truman Burroughs, of the detachment.

The aircraft move cargo and equipment to the different bases in theater, a task normally assigned to convoys.

“Each mission we complete has the potential of keeping a 16- or 17-vehicle convoy off the roads,” Sergeant Burroughs said.

Operating an average of four missions each day, that is about 500 Marines kept out of harm’s way since the detachment began operating here in late January, he said.

“Those personnel can be freed up for other duties, or, if not needed, sent home,” said Maj. Donald Brien, element commander.

Throughout Iraq, explosive devices threaten the lives of anyone on convoy operations. Moving cargo by aircraft is a countermeasure to protect American lives, officials said.

“The aircraft are not exposed to the risks facing the convoys,” Major Brien said.

Dealing with both incoming and outgoing cargo, the planes are loaded and unloaded at the aerial port by Airmen, Marines and Soldiers using heavy equipment such as forklifts and loaders, Sergeant Burroughs said.

Once outgoing flights are loaded, the TALCE troops track the flights and specific cargo using computerized systems, allowing them to see exactly where their cargo is at any given point in time. They also have the ability to track incoming flights and cargo.

After incoming cargo arrives, it is taken from the flightline to units on base for further processing, and then on to its final destination.

Outgoing cargo is inspected for safety and other issues before a move is authorized. Customs inspections are also done here if the flight is international, but most flights from here do not leave the area, Sergeant Burroughs said.

The deployment and use of TALCE troops is not normally permanent, he said. They set up the operations and turn them over to another unit.

TALCE troops also are used to handling “surges” in air traffic caused by units relieving each other or by operational requirements, Major Brien said.

“(TALCE troops) were crucial from the beginning of (Operation Iraqi Freedom),” he said. “While the (Soldiers), Marines and other coalition forces were still fighting on the far side of the airfields, the assessment team was surveying the side under coalition control.”

It was only a few days before TALCE troops opened the airfields for aviation operations, providing for the movement of people and equipment necessary to run the base and generate missions closer to the front, Major Brien said.