New mobility concept tested at Whiteman

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Ed Gulick
  • 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. (AFPN) --  The third passenger aircraft in two weeks departed here Jan. 13 with more than 400 Airmen traveling under a new mobility concept developed by U.S. Central Command Air Forces.

Airmen from several bases met here to catch contract airlift to an intermediate point where intratheater airlift would take them to various final locations, officials said.

After arriving at Whiteman, the Airmen spent time at the deployment center watching big-screen TVs, talking on telephones and playing various board games while waiting for their flight.

Col. Chris Miller, 509th Bomb Wing commander, and other base leaders visited with the deploying Airmen.

“The idea of using continental U.S. bases as aggregation launch pads was both to avoid choke points at civilian airports and to better track deploying Airmen in order to improve intratheater transportation,” Colonel Miller said.

Capt. Robert Austin, 509th Logistics Readiness Squadron deployment readiness flight commander, and the Airmen began working in November on the details of getting the deploying Airmen here and then sending them on their way to forward locations.

To get here, they came by commercial airline, chartered bus and plane, and by personal vehicles. Most came in groups, but some came individually, Captain Austin said.

“Each group’s itinerary had to be coordinated and timed so base support could be ready when they arrived,” he said.

Some, like Master Sgt. Bill McKeon from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., left with a group on a government-chartered plane that took off from Ellsworth at 4 a.m. and landed here at 7 a.m. Upon arrival, his group was taken to an off-base hotel where they were given a room until 5 p.m. Sergeant McKeon said he took a nap and then went to a restaurant near his hotel for a late lunch before meeting the bus back to Whiteman.

Chaplain (Capt.) Matthew Franke from F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., drove to Denver with his family to take a commercial flight to Kansas City, Mo. Once there, he boarded a government bus to Whiteman.

When Chaplain Franke arrived here, the bus took him straight to the deployment center where he unloaded his bags. He signed for his room and was handed a base lodging map and room key so that when the bus pulled up at lodging, he was able to go straight to his room.

The next day, his group met at the deployment center to turn in weapons at 11 a.m. They did not have to report to the deployment center for the final time until 7 p.m. Chaplain Franke said he spent some time with his parents, who drove to Whiteman to see him off.

When Chaplain Franke asked the bus driver if the base does aggregation deployments often, the answer was not what he expected.

“We were very pleasantly surprised to find that we were the first ones going through the process,” he said. “Everything was going so smooth. We thought Whiteman had been doing this for years.”

That is exactly what Captain Austin said he wanted to hear. “We worked hard to make the transition through here as painless as possible,” he said.

Everything was going according to plan until an ice storm and unscheduled deploying members arrived here.

“They created obstacles that had to be overcome,” Captain Austin said.

The storm caused airport officials to cancel a number of flights and delay others.

“This caused us to make several unscheduled bus runs and hold several buses in-place at the airport for many hours,” he said.

The weather almost canceled the flight out of Whiteman, but with the freezing line holding 15 miles west of base, the commercial aircraft was able to land and leave on time.

Fifteen other Airmen reported to Whiteman who were not scheduled to meet here for their deployments. This increased the workload, but Captain Austin’s team was able to get them processed and deployed with the rest of the groups.

Overall, the coordination between the bases and Whiteman went well, Captain Austin said.

“Everyone understood the importance of succeeding and pitched in, sometimes with long hours, to get folks out on time,” he said.

When asked how he would determine if the process went well, Captain Austin said it would depend on many factors. Ensuring the Airmen left Whiteman on time was one. Also, the process needed to save the Air Force money and reduce stress on the Airmen and civilian hubs.

All flights left Whiteman on time, but it will be months before the final results of this process are known and analyzed.