CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Since Charleston AFB's recent posturing as an East Coast hub for providing humanitarian airlift to Haiti, one mobility mission after another has found its way into the Lowcountry.
As individuals arrive, some traveling from as far as Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, a warm bed is understandably in high demand, but one organization on Charleston likely understands it better than any other.
Serving tired and mission-worn military members, the 628th Force Support Squadron has risen to the occasion in supporting the large influx of service members transiting Charleston AFB to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti.
The increase in demand for lodging has definitely been notable at the Inns of Charleston, which provides on base temporary lodging for individuals traveling on orders or on a space available basis for leisure travelers, said Capt. Jessica Colman, 628 FSS sustainment services flight commander, and employees at the inn said they couldn't agree more.
"It's definitely a lot busier," said Terrell Clement, guest service representative with the Inns of Charleston. "In the past week, we've had at least double our normal business."
Mr. Clement has worked with the Charleston Inn for approximately six months, and said although it's been a bit hectic, he is taking it in stride and using the opportunity to learn more about his job.
"It gives me a chance to do more on the computer, take phone calls, interact with customers ... so that's good."
Even on the night shift, Mr. Clement and co-workers said their lobby has been full, with barely any downtime to collect their thoughts since they arrived on shift Jan. 20.
"You should've seen in here earlier. It was busy. Bags were everywhere," he said.
At the Charleston Inn checkout counter, stacks of paper sat as well with scribbling, signatures and many names and units on them.
"That's nothing," he said. "There were a lot more before."
The pieces of paper were copies of reservations. Mr. Clement said the amount of people who had called to check into the Inns of Charleston far exceeded the capacity, so the inn was forced to begin assisting individuals with off-base lodging reservations.
"If we take a call and can't provide lodging, we have a whole list of off-base lodging that we can try to book a room with. There are directions to the hotel and everything on it."
With the current mission in Haiti taking priority at the Inns of Charleston, not much room is left for anyone traveling on leisure in the Charleston area, he said.
"We've actually been ordered to not accept any space-available reservations until Feb. 1," he said. "So, we are kindly letting people know that we simply are unable to make a reservation for that reason."
On top of providing lodging support for individuals traveling to Haiti, Mr. Clement pointed out that those are not the only people utilizing the Inns of Charleston.
"We had a big aggregation group of 70 come through today, and there was another one with about 30 [firefighters]," he said. Aggregation groups normally include deploying service members, he said.
The additional work performed to provide bed-down services, is being accomplished on top of a normally heavy workload, said Captain Colman.
"Our lodging is the busiest lodging operation in Air Mobility Command. We stay right at between 96 and 100 percent occupancy throughout the year. So, we're always pretty full," she said. "Now a lot of that is space available. We're in lovely Charleston, S.C., so of course people want to come here, but we don't see an influx of people like this ... our normal day to day [operations] are spread out and it's easier to manage because obviously people have reservations, and they're not just kind of dropping in on us. We don't have groups of six crew members showing up 30 minutes apart and things like that."
With the moratorium on space available reservations set for Feb. 1, the captain said she wouldn't be surprised if the date was extended, expressing confidence in the professionalism of her flight and they're ability to handle the challenge.
"They're doing awesome across the board," she said. "My flight doesn't just include lodging. I've got the dining facility, the flight kitchen and the fitness center too. The whole sustainment services flight has really stepped up, as well as the rest of the force support squadron, and we've really had no issues up to this point."