CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
More than 110 Airmen from the 17th Airlift Squadron here deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Aug. 29.
While deployed, the 17 AS will operate out of a single base for approximately 120 days where they will manage and fly missions concentrated in and around Afghanistan.
The 17 AS will be deployed as the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron and are replacing the 3rd Airlift Squadron from Dover AFB, Del. The 3 AS is scheduled to return home in September.
The mission of the 816 EAS is to provide global strategic airlift, airdrop, aeromedical evacuation and humanitarian relief, creating an air bridge for personnel, equipment and supplies throughout the assigned area of responsibility.
Lt. Col. Rick Williamson, the 17 AS commander, officially assumed command of the 816 EAS Sept 1. He took command of the 17 AS in July 2008 and led his squadron during past year through three Headquarters Air Mobility Command inspections, including operational readiness, unit compliance and aircrew standardization and evaluation inspections.
"The whole preparation and everything we've done at home station, through all those inspections and all of our local training, has been in preparation for this. I mean this is like the Super Bowl," said Colonel Williamson. "It's go time."
The colonel departed Charleston Aug. 27 along with an advance team of key individuals in the squadron to perform a "handoff" with the unit they relieved.
"We have key players for all the different staff positions so we can get over there and get one-on-one changeover with the out-going unit and find out what the operations tempo is like."
Deploying an entire squadron requires extensive preparation, said Roy Johnson, 437th Operations Group unit deployment manager.
He said regular updates to training requirements keep him busy with maintaining the readiness of the squadrons within the group. Some aircrew members were required to perform qualification missions up to two days before the deployment.
The training is critical to the success of a flying squadron, said Colonel Williamson.
"The kind of motto I have for the squadron is to know and do your job, and it works well at home station."
Col. Joseph Mancy, 437 OG commander, said the experience of the 17 AS aircrews for airdrop missions would be of particular importance during the deployment.
"There is certainly a swing now to do more and more airdrops in Afghanistan. So, as the focus is shifting from Iraq to Afghanistan, so is our focus. It complicates the flying in a lot of ways. It's a little bit different qualification to do airdrops rather than the airland type of flying. It's typically more experienced folks doing airdrops, and sometimes those missions can be very challenging."
The recent 17 AS deployment marks the third time they have deployed in support of combat operations to the Middle East under the two expeditionary airlift squadron concept, and Colonel Mancy expressed his confidence in the 17 AS as their deployment begins.
"Every time we send a squadron [overseas] they do it better each and every time it seems. Each squadron does a very good job of learning from the lessons of the previous squadron, and we tend to make it better."
As the 3 AS hands control of the 816 EAS to the 17 AS, Charleston Airmen will experience firsthand the daily operating tempo demanded of the previous unit.
According to 1st Lt. Brian Maguire, 436th Airlift Wing public affairs officer, in the first 100 days of the 3 AS deployment, they flew an average of 175 C-17 sorties a week and moved nearly 80 million pounds of cargo and more than 54,000 passengers, proving instrumental in the current build up in Afghanistan.
The 816 EAS was also one of the first C-17 units to perform combat offloads, totaling nearly one million pounds of cargo delivered to forward operating bases and delivered more than 90,000 pounds of humanitarian relief supplies to refugees, providing critical supplies to 23 humanitarian camps.