Airmen keep cargo, people moving

  • Published
  • By Samantha L. Quigley
  • American Forces Press Service
UTAPAO, Thailand (AFPN) --  Since Jan. 1, tanker airlift control element Airmen here have been making sure that what comes into the Royal Thai navy airfield gets out.

The element in Utapao is composed of Airmen from the 615th Air Mobility Squadron out of Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

In one of two buildings they use here, the Airmen schedule planes in and out of Utapao. In the other, the cargo and people aboard the planes are tracked.

So far, the Airmen have moved more than 1,000 tons of humanitarian aid and cargo. The supplies are being sent as part of the disaster relief efforts to assist the victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunamis that hit Southeast Asia.

"In the beginning (the pace of planes in and out of Utapao) was very fast," said Maj. Jaye Gandy, the elements operations chief at Utapao.

The cargo includes mostly humanitarian supplies: food, water, blankets, tents and hygiene kits. The Airmen also handle gear for troops in the field.

Major Gandy said the supplies usually come in on larger aircraft -- C-5 Galaxies or C- 17 Globemaster IIIs -- and are repackaged for shipping on smaller aircraft such as C-130 Hercules. This is in large part because some airfields were not equipped to handle the large craft in the beginning of the operations, he said.

Since the air traffic has been so heavy in and out of some airfields, efforts were made to improve these airfields. It is now possible to get C-17s in to deliver supplies and people to those locations, he said.

The Thais have relinquished two of their three parking aprons to the aircraft flying in and out of Utapao supporting Operation Unified Assistance, Major Gandy said.

The other responsibility of the Airmen is to send out small assessment teams to determine whether an airfield can handle operations. Once they assess the proposed area, they determine what is needed to make that happen. Each aircraft type has specific minimum requirements for landing, Major Gandy said.

"If you can put a C-5 in there, you can pretty much put anything in there," said Maj. Michael Thomas, who is part of an assessment team.

The teams can be as small as a handful of people and as large as 300. The team at Utapao is a medium-size team, Major Gandy said. They have been "plussed-up," he said, to include a contractor, someone from finance, some security and a four-person medical team.

As is becoming more and more the case, the effort is joint, Major Gandy said. The Airmen are working closely with the Marines to process the shipments.

"It's worked out pretty good so far," he said.