PACAF names first responders

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stacy Coville
  • 36th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) --  Military commanders used to look at a deployment location and ask, “Who’s going in first?”

Gen. William J. Begert, Pacific Air Forces commander, answered that question for PACAF by creating the 613th Contingency Response Group here.

“We were developed to provide a short-notice, light and lean, easily-tailorable asset for the Air Force,” said Col. Benjamin Pulsifer, 613th CRG commander. “Instead of sending security forces from this base, contracting from that base and finance from another base in an ad hoc fashion, mish-mashing everything together, PACAF (officials) created one single unit that has everything it needs job-wise to go and complete the mission.”

The 613th CRG can deploy within 24 hours to various locations to help make the air and space expeditionary force mission successful. It creates footholds in countries where planes and people can support military operations throughout the Pacific region and in Southwest Asia.

“Basically, we’re the tip of the AEF spear,” said Pulsifer. Airmen of the group call their mission “AOR” -- assess, open and receive. They assess an area, prepare to open an airfield for aircraft and receive incoming troops.

For example, if an incident or crisis occurs in the Pacific or Southwest Asia, Air Force officials may need to send forces to an area they know little about.

The 13th Air Force commander can send the 613th CRG to the area to look at the capabilities of local airfields and access any vulnerabilities. The commander will use that information to decide whether or not to deploy follow-on forces.

If U.S. Pacific Command leaders decide the location needs aircraft, the group’s airmen can make the airfield ready to use. Working with a tanker airlift control element from Japan, they will open the airfield, establish force-protection measures, prepare facilities for follow-on forces and contract host-nation support, officials said.

Once the airfield is ready, 613th CRG airmen assist the follow-on forces with settling into the facilities and raising tents.

But before follow-on forces set foot on the airfield, the 613th CRG airmen have already given USPACOM leaders “eyes on the ground,” said Pulsifer.

“When (decision makers) send the CRG, they send a team tailored to the operation,” said Pulsifer. “If they just want an airfield assessment, we might send an eight-person team with people from security forces, intelligence, medical and others. If they want us to open an airfield for use, we’ll send more people to do the mission.”

People from 35 Air Force specialties work in the 613th CRG. They are separated into two squadrons and two divisions: the mobility response and security forces squadrons, and the intelligence and medical divisions.

“If something happens, we’re some of the most vital people to send,” said Staff Sgt. Richard Ganapin, a 613th Mobility Response Squadron civil engineer. However, the 613th CRG is unique from other units because its airmen can help each other on most of the basics of their different jobs.

“We have training weeks in the group where we show each other our jobs,” said Tech. Sgt. Daniel Hawkins, of the 613th Security Forces Squadron.

For example, the group has training weeks where the security forces airmen show the mobility readiness airmen troop maneuvers and force-protection procedures. The mobility airmen in turn show the security forces how to work on the communication equipment.

“In some cases, we could cover each others’ jobs,” said Staff Sgt. Scott Orser, of the 613th SFS. “We learn a lot from each other, and it’s a lot of fun working with people from different areas.”

Not only does being in the 613th CRG give airmen the opportunity to learn from each other, it also gives them the chance to do something they do not normally do -- be where the action is.

“When you’re in finance, you’re usually behind a desk in an air-conditioned office,” said Tech. Sgt. Wayne Mobley, of the 613th CRG finance office. “This job is more physically challenging. We do rucksack marches here because if we get deployed, we’ll be carrying a pack, M-16 and gear as we march to get to our designated location. Sometimes it could be only a few feet (or) sometimes two or three miles, so you have to be ready and able to carry your weight.”

The group sits and waits for the order to go, which is the hardest part, according to Staff Sgt. Michael Cuevas, of the 613th MRS communication element.

“If we know something is heating up in the area and they might send us, we get fairly impatient waiting for the call,” he said. “We’re always told, ‘Be prepared then wait to go.’ Our bags are packed; personal things like wills and powers of attorney are done; we just want to hear the word ‘go.’ Sometimes it comes; sometimes it doesn’t, and we have to wind down until the next time.”

But if the call does come, the airmen of the 613th CRG are ready and can support themselves in a bare-base environment, according to Pulsifer.

“We’re a self-sustaining operational group with an operational mission, and we have support and operations people working side by side out there in uncharted areas to make the mission work,” said Pulsifer. “We have a wide variety of jobs in this group, and we work as a single team when we go out to assess a new place where there isn’t any prior information. We are the tip of the spear -- we’re the adventurers of the Pacific.” (Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces News Service)