AMC delivers hurricane relief

  • Published
  • By Capt. Michael Coleman
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) --  Air Mobility Command began operations Aug. 13 to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency by providing emergency relief to areas in Florida devastated by Hurricane Charley.

“AMC Tanker Airlift Control Center (began) moving 200 empty cargo pallets to Dobbins (Air Reserve Base), Ga., … so the aerial port (Airmen there) would be able to prepare relief supplies for airlift as they arrived on base,” said Col. Jeff Franklin, TACC director of operations.

About 40 tractor-trailers delivered the supplies to Dobbins ARB where the 17th Airlift Squadron from Charleston AFB, S.C., had set up stage operations with six C-17 Globemaster IIIs.

“We had just landed at Davis-Monthan AFB, [Ariz.] and were notified that we needed to get to Dobbins for the FEMA support missions,” said Lt. Col. Mark Danigole, senior ranking officer for AMC stage operations out of Dobbins. “So we basically ... were ready within an hour to take off again.”

The three aircraft departed Davis-Monthan AFB and two were diverted en route from Charleston AFB, where they were doing their own hurricane evacuation, Colonel Danigole said. The sixth aircraft was returning from a mission supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The team at Dobbins ARB is comprised of 94th Airlift Wing Airmen and about 20 others from Charleston AFB and Maxwell AFB, Ala. They arrived Aug. 14 and began palletizing relief supplies trucked in by FEMA.

The C-17s delivered relief supplies Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.

Besides operations at Dobbins ARB, AMC also delivered a Tanker Airlift Control Element to Lakeland Airfield, Fla., a location designated by FEMA. This mobile aerial port unit, an element of the 621st Air Mobility Operations Group stationed at McGuire AFB, N.J., will receive relief supplies and transfer them to FEMA.

“We turned a … training mission into a mission to deliver the 200 pallets, and we had a couple of really dedicated loadmasters who worked through the night … so the two C-17s were ready to go when the crews showed up (Aug. 14) to fly the TALCE down,” said Lt. Col. Keith Boone, 62nd Airlift Wing detachment commander at McGuire AFB.

TACC officials planned and coordinated the operations among the bases and units involved.

“All this pivotal planning happened in the middle of us evacuating out of AMC’s East Coast bases,” Colonel Franklin said. “The trick was to get the planes out of the way of the storm and still use them for the humanitarian support missions.” (Courtesy of AMC News Service)