News

Reservist part of coalition joint team slinging cargo

  • Published
  • By Col. Kjall Gopaul
  • 451st Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  A coalition joint team peers into a dark, moonless sky in preparation for a night time helicopter slingload mission. All of their other senses are heightened to compensate for the reduced visibility as a UH-60 Black Hawk approaches the site.

Soon, the team is immersed in the smell of burned JP-8 fuel; the pressure of the rotor wash against their skin and the repetitive whirring sound of the rotor blades as they slice through the air create a surreal environment. All the while, dots of light marking the touch-down points struggle to disclose themselves through the cloak of darkness that is the landing zone.

While this Hollywood-style scenario could be the backdrop for an action movie, this slingload mission June 1 was led by the 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan and the Black Hawk was flown by Soldiers of the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Air Force Reservist Capt. Christopher Kaighen, 451st ELRS aerial port flight commander and deployed from the 86th Aerial Port Squadron at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., served as the mission planner. He coordinated with the 3rd CAB for the number and type of aircraft, the time and place of execution, and the mission objectives that had to be satisfied.

"Now we have mastered transporting cargo and personnel over the threat of improvised explosive devices, and can deliver it with pinpoint accuracy to almost any location in this war-torn nation using helicopters - day or night," Kaighen said. "That's a pretty significant achievement for any unit."

Coming on the heels of a successful daytime slingload mission April 21, the 451st ELRS used this mission to increase its external cargo delivery expertise by conducting a similar operation at night. The coordinated air and ground teams executed 42 sorties to move more than 68,400 pounds of equipment and 44 personnel by air.

Kaighen explained the importance of the mission, noting that ground convoys between camps can fall victim to improvised explosive devices, and airlift to combat outposts is restricted to the runways peppered around the area of responsibility.

He continued, "As professional logisticians, we must understand how to use diverse, joint resources to benefit our military operations. My aerial porters work with NATO every day to transport cargo using a variety of fixed-wing aircraft. Now we've added helicopters and slingloads to our skill set. As a smaller military, we are more interdependent than ever, and this capability is another tool in our toolbox to ensure mission success, especially as we support the retrograde efforts to move equipment out of remote forward operating bases and combat outposts."

Tech. Sgt. Sean R. Buck, 451st Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron F-16 flightline expediter, deployed from the 52nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, compared his experience as a unit deployment manager with the slingload mission.

"I saw the cargo planning and movement come to fruition in a completely different way than I've ever done it before," Buck said. "Rather than using a heavy airframe to move the cargo, the slingload method was expedient, had less logistics and was exhilarating!

For short movements, said Buck, slingloading seems like a faster way of doing things.

"Rather than working with the fixed wing load planner and worrying about how to squeeze pallets into position inside a cargo plane, for the helicopter slingload you simply rig the load by the book and hook it up. It adds another way of getting stuff from point A to point B, and makes mission support a lot faster," said Buck.

Buck also remarked that hooking up the load to the cargo hook on the bottom of the helicopter was amazing.

"Having that big of a machine approach you at head level, pitch down, then hover above you is surreal. Being the hook-up guy under the helicopter is pretty intense, both mentally and physically. Knowing that you are responsible for that much of the mission, and have to get it done despite the disorienting noise and rotor wash is significant. I feel privileged to have been a part of it."

Fifty-one NATO and U.S. servicemembers participated in the coalition-joint slingload mission.