Airmen deliver 35,000 helmets to Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Capt. Chris Watt
  • U.S. Air Forces in Europe Public Affairs
MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania (AFPN) --  Airmen flew more than 35,000 Romanian military helmets to Afghanistan from here June 24 in a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III. The helmets are for the Afghan army.

Donated by the Romanian government, the helmets were packed and loaded by a team of Romanian servicemembers and a three-person U.S. Air Force contingency response team from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Then, reservists from McChord Air Force Base, Wash., flew the donations to Afghanistan.

This was not the first donation to the Afghan army by the Romanians, nor was it the first time Romanian and American forces have united to support a mission.

“The American force is a great help for us,” said Lt. Col. Cornel Guran, of the Romanian ministry of defense logistics directorate general staff.

“Our mission here is to see that everything goes OK with the transportation (of the helmets),” he said. “It’s part of a great process that we’re involved together with the American (military) and in the process of building up a new Afghanistan army.”

The helmets were surplus after the Romanian military restructured its land forces, Colonel Guran said. Romanian officials decided the excess helmets would be used to fulfill an Afghan government request for equipment.

“The Romanian people want to do everything to honor our commitment to helping in the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” he said. “If the Afghan army requests anything, we will do our best to get them what they need and honor our commitment.”

Getting the Afghan army up to speed is going to take a lot of time and effort, said Lt. Col. Bryan Newman, an air transportation officer with the Joint Movement Center at Stuttgart, Germany.

“(A donation like) this is one of the first steps. You have to equip them,” he said. As a veteran of these kinds of donation operations, Colonel Newman said he believes opportunities for coalition partners to work together will continue.

“I’ve seen a whole list of stuff that’s been donated from many nations so they’re going to be moving stuff to Afghanistan for quite awhile,” he said.

Maj. Bob Rowe, an Air Force Reserve C-17 pilot from the 97th Airlift Squadron at McChord AFB, and his aircrew have flown similar missions since their activation 18 months ago, but this was their first from Romania.

The mission also allowed a contingency response team from the 86th Air Mobility Squadron to train a new Romanian loading team. Romanian military officials started putting together aircraft cargo packing and loading teams similar to what the U.S. Air Force uses.

“They want us to train them,” said Staff Sgt. Jamie Walker, 86th AMS mobile aerial port flight specialist. “(We’re) probably going to be looking at (deploying) in the future (to) train them on how we do business.”

Colonel Guran said that working with the U.S. military provides valuable training opportunities for his troops.

“The Romanian (servicemembers) have a lot to learn from the American (Airmen) regarding the transportation and each step to provide this kind of donation or this kind of help,” Colonel Guran said. “We have tried and are trying to improve our quality of equipment and to improve our quality of work and operation. With the support of the American (military) and the support from NATO, we think we’ll get good results.” (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)