JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
Airmen from the 16th Airlift Squadron and 437th Operations Support Squadron said goodbye to family and friends Oct. 28 as they boarded a C-17 bound for the Middle East in support of combat operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
The more than 100 Airmen are expected to deploy for approximately 120 days and will replace the 15th Airlift Squadron as they return home after a four-month rotation in early November.
Trailing just a few days behind an advance team of key squadron personnel, the Airmen will be deployed as the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, headquartered at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey.
The 817 EAS, which includes several detachments throughout Eurasia and the Middle East, conducts airlift, airdrop and aeromedical evacuation missions daily to provide direct support to the warfighter. The squadron is the second half of a two-part, expeditionary airlift squadron concept, which was established in 2006.
Its sister unit, the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, operates out of a non-disclosed location in the Middle East. Since 2006, Charleston airlift squadrons have traditionally deployed as the 816 EAS, making the 16 AS deployment as the 817 EAS the second for Charleston airlift squadrons.
The two-EAS concept provides two airlift hubs at separate geographic locations to speed passengers by the hundreds of thousands and pounds of equipment by the millions in and out of the fight. The role of the unit makes mission focus for the deploying Airmen paramount in the midst of leaving behind their loved ones, because for some it's their first time.
Airman 1st Class Tanner Humphrey, a loadmaster with the 16 AS, has been stationed at Charleston a little more than six months - long enough to feel confident in his abilities and training, he said, but short enough to feel the momentum building toward the road ahead.
As a loadmaster, he is constantly executing airlift missions. In the six months he has been stationed at Charleston, he has spent about 30 days at home station.
His decision to join the Air Force came from influences from a lineage of others in his family who had done the same. His mother, father, step-father and uncle are all in the Air Force Reserve, and his brother currently serves on active-duty aboard an Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.
He sees opportunity during the deployment to continue honing his skills as a loadmaster, he said. As an essential "link in the chain," he said he knows that his aircrew and the warfighters they support depend on his actions, and he revels in the "sweat work" of his job.
"When you finish loading and your flight suit is completely drenched in sweat, you know you did some work ... It makes you feel like you've done something."
The 16 AS includes many personnel within specialties across a broad spectrum of officer and enlisted ranks, and the working relationships in the airlift squadron bring them all together to create a unified team to make air mobility happen. Every piece of the puzzle is important with the goal of safe mission execution, said Maj. Brian Moritz, detachment commander with the 16 AS.
A pilot can't fly without the proper qualifications and training. Those qualifications must be managed in detail to ensure the best personnel are assigned to the mission. Aircrew flight equipment must be free of defects, and without a spot-on team of loadmasters, the integrity of the mission would be compromised in a "no-fail" operating environment.
"We've got some old heads, and we've got some guys going out on their first deployment - so there's definitely going to be some learning in all stages," said Major Moritz. "I'm confident to say that with all the training that we've done leading up to this, we're prepared to do our job - to do that safe mission execution."