Posted on 03/18/2009 4:46:04 PM PDT by SandRat
3/18/2009 - KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Kandahar Airfield officials activated the 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron March 15 here as the NATO base prepares for the build-up of forces to support Operation Enduring Freedom.
The newest airlift squadron in the Air Force will be flying the C-130J Hercules, and serve under the 451st Air Expeditionary Group to assist with the increase of U.S. troops to the region.
One day before the activation ceremony, local missions were being flown by American aircrews when the squadron's first four aircraft arrived at Kandahar Airfield.
"Tactical airlift is a high-demand asset here and we are at the leading edge of the Afghanistan surge of forces," said Col. Ted Osowski, the 451st AEG commander who is deployed from the Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. "The C-130J is a very capable aircraft and we are happy to have them. They're going to be busy."
The airfield inhabited by several coalition partners in southern Afghanistan is undergoing a massive expansion and construction in every direction as part of the installation.
The new mission will have the 772nd EAS Airmen focused primarily within Afghanistan, said Lt. Col. Dan Tulley, the 772nd EAS commander and native of Bell Air, Md.
"The 'bread and butter' of any combat airlift unit is tactical airlift," said Colonel Tulley, deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. "Being here in country will allow us to focus on the forward operating bases and getting supplies to the people who need it here on the ground."
The new unit, which will have eight aircraft and about 120 operations and maintenance Airmen, comes from the only active-duty Air Force organization flying the C-130J model in combat: the 41st Airlift Squadron from Little Rock AFB. Before being stood up at Kandahar Airfield, the unit was stationed with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing at another installation within Southwest Asia responsible for operations for both the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters.
For the aviators performing the daily mission, the change is welcome.
"It's a definite change of scenery," said Capt. Shawn Johnson, a C-130 pilot deployed from Little Rock AFB. "We're looking forward to becoming Afghanistan-focused as our missions will become more specialized to this particular area, and at the same time, there will be more for us to study like some of the airdrops we'll be doing here. It will definitely broaden our knowledge further on how to utilize the aircraft."
Master Sgt. Patrick Drozd, a loadmaster also deployed from Little Rock AFB who calls Hallettsville, Texas, home, agreed.
"This is going to be fun," he said. "We are supporting the troops and the (forward operating bases) in-country, and being the only active-duty C-130J unit in theater, we will have the opportunity to lay the foundation for future C-130J operations here."
However, for the command staff of the 451st, bedding down a unit of 120 new people into an already cramped area was no easy task. The first issue to be tackled was gaining ramp space for the squadron's eight aircraft.
"Before we were able to park these aircraft on 'Whiskey' ramp, we had to find a new home for contractor Mi-8 helicopters that were out there previously," said Chief Master Sgt. Steven Bohannon, the 451st AEG superintendent deployed from McChord AFB, Wash. "We put out a contract for over 200,000 square feet of aluminum matting made up of four-foot-by-four-foot squares."
The contract was awarded to a local contractor, but they were not trained in the specifics of laying the matting, Chief Bohannon said. Adding to the already challenging task was the assignment of Air Force third-country national escorts; they would not arrive in time for construction to begin and there would be no place for the aircraft to park.
Working with a local civil engineer Red HORSE detachment, the 451st identified third-country national escorts from within its existing ranks and the Red HORSE Airmen began helping the local workers lay the matting, getting the project completed in time to relocate the Mi-8s and providing crucial ramp space for the soon-to-be-arriving C-130Js.
Once the ramp was completed, the 451st AEG needed to create workspace for the new Airmen. Chief Bohannon again reached out to the Red HORSE unit and a team of Air Force civil engineers who travel throughout the area of responsibility. They were able to erect a clamshell tent for maintenance and two small tents for operations.
"This group was the J-2 team from (U.S. Air Forces Central) A-7," Chief Bohannon said. "They travel the (area of responsibility) working on large projects and were able to complete this job in three days. They were nailing the last stakes the day these guys came in."
With the logistical issues completed, all the incoming 41st AS Airmen had to focus on was what they deployed to do: keep their aircraft flying.
"We can fulfill air tasking orders right now," said Tech. Sgt. Donny Poland, a crew chief from Little Rock AFB and a Philippines native who deployed ahead of the rest of his squadron on the advance team. "Being here really makes it feel like we are accomplishing something important and contributing."
I love the C-130 and the “J” is sooooo much better !
The C-130J by 2007 was declared to be approximately 70 percent new compared to existing versions. Compared to the earlier production C-130E, maximum speed was up 21% and climb time down 50%. Cruising altitude was 40% higher and range 40% longer. With new engines and props, the J could reach 28,000 feet in just 14 minutes.
Kandahar buildup precedes Americans' arrival
Airfield changes since 2002 staggering
Matthew Fisher, National Post
After Barack Obama made clear during his election campaign last fall that there would be a U. S. troop surge in southern Afghanistan this year, it was probably inevitable McDonald's would be part of the big buildup.
To do battle against Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway and Tim Hortons, which are already here, the iconic U. S. hamburger chain is building a restaurant on a prime piece of real estate at this crowded air base a few kilometres south of Kandahar City, headquarters for troops from Canada and several other NATO countries.
There are also rumours that there will very soon be an Italian sit-down restaurant where it is hoped soldiers will be able to forget for a few hours the increasingly brutal war outside the wire.
KAF, as the airfield is called, has been a work in progress since a brigade of U. S. paratroopers from the 101st Airborne and an infantry battalion from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry took it over from conquering U. S. Marines in the winter of 2002. At the time, there was no real security perimeter, no running water and a runway so badly damaged by bombs only part of it could be used.
The changes since then have been staggering. As well as fast-food emporiums, there is a Dutch restaurant with romantic lighting, a boisterous British cafe, a beauty salon offering pedicures, manicures, and massages and a spanking new almost Walmart-sized American PX.
There were already about 6,000 mostly U. S. troops based here when Canada returned to Kandahar from Kabul in the spring of 2006. Since then, as British, Danish, Romanian, Dutch, Slovak, French, Australian and Belgian forces have flowed in, the population of KAF has at least doubled.
The base is one of the busiest airports in the world and a key supply hub for the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. It is about to become the main logistics terminal for about 17,000 new U. S. troops en route to southern and east-ern Afghanistan in the next few months and perhaps 30,000 more expected next year.
KAF is already bursting at the seams, gobbling up great swathes of desert in several directions. One of the biggest projects is to provide accommodation for U. S. troops. The work is being done by U. S. Navy construction engineers whose heroics in the western Pacific during the Second World War were immortalized in a popular John Wayne-Susan Hayward film, The Fighting Seabees.
NATO's Maintenance and Supply Agency is also putting up a brace of semi-permanent structures to house the large influx of civilian workers that are part of the buildup. To get them here, the frequency of chartered flights from the Persian Gulf will increase next month from twice a week to five times a week.
Such is the pace of the Afghan buildup that an area that last year was sand dunes seeded with land mines during the 1980s by the Red Army is now a shimmering slab of fresh concrete crowded with helicopters leased by the United Nations.
Another new slab of concrete is a helicopter pad built for Canada's modest part in the surge, Chinook transport and armed Griffon utility helicopters. A building has also just been erected for the reconnaissance drones Canada's Task Force Afghanistan is leasing from Israel Aerospace Industries.
With serious issues concerning where to park and maintain the growing fleet of aircraft and how to squeeze in all the offices, repair facilities and barracks the newcomers require, no building takes place without hours of tough negotiations between the various NATO armies.
One of the greatest limits on Obama's much ballyhooed troop surge in Afghanistan may be finding ways to deal with the mountain of human waste created by the growing NATO armies.
So perhaps the most welcome new development at KAF isn't the arrival of McDonald's or an Italian restaurant. It is construction of a state-of-the-art waste-water management facility that will replace Emerald Lake, a fetid pond that sends out malodorous clouds that often choke the entire airfield.
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