Cargo, pax all in a day’s work

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Bob Oldham
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Air Force and coalition forces are working together to keep cargo and passengers moving through the aerial port here.

Airmen from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., and Lackland AFB, Texas, have teamed with members of the Estonian military to move more than 4,000 passengers and 880 tons of cargo on more than 500 monthly aircraft missions.

The aircraft parking ramp is a hub of activity here 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as about 20 cargo aircraft arrive and depart daily. Airmen assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron’s aerial port flight are responsible for every passenger and piece of cargo arriving or departing the base via aircraft.

“The flight is the cornerstone of the wing’s airlift mission,” said Maj. William Mann, the 332nd ELRS commander deployed here from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. “All Army, Air Force and coalition passengers and cargo, arriving or departing Tallil, will transit the flight.”

The flight’s mission is essential to a remote place like Tallil AB, located in the southern Iraqi desert, said Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Halpin, the aerial port flight superintendent deployed here from Charleston AFB. The sergeant oversees the flight’s passenger service, air terminal operations center, cargo processing and ramp services operations.

The air terminal operations center is the command and control element of the flight. Workers in the ATOC keep in constant contact with the passenger service section, cargo processing section and ramp services to keep aircraft departure times on schedule.

The passenger service section is where servicemembers go to catch a flight. Once required documentation is turned in, they are categorized by the standard Air Mobility Command protocol for passengers. Servicemembers on emergency leave are at the top of the list.

“We try our best to get them out,” said Staff Sgt. Dale Hall, a passenger terminal representative deployed here from Lackland AFB. “We have first sergeants coming over everyday,” checking flight schedules for an airman or soldier who needs to get back home on emergency leave.

“When you’ve got (a person on) emergency leave show up, and you’ve got a flight leaving in 10 to 15 minutes, and you’re able to get them out of here to Kuwait or Qatar to catch a rotator, that makes you feel a little better,” Sergeant Hall said.

The rest of their customers are soldiers going home on rest and recuperation and duty passengers going to other locations in the theatre.

The cargo processing section prepares cargo for shipment and ensures cargo weight and dimensions are accurate. When it is time to load a plane, they locate the cargo in the cargo movement yard and load it onto transporters.

The ramp services section troops physically load and unload aircraft. Estonian military members are one month in to their six-month rotation and help the airmen in the ramp services section.