News

Aerial port Airmen all return from Senegal

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  After three months supporting efforts to contain the Ebola virus in West Africa, all McChord Airmen deployed to Dakar, Senegal have returned.

Sixteen Airmen from the Air Force Reserve's 36th and 86th Aerial Port Squadrons, and two from the 62nd Aerial Port Squadron, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, were integrated with the 787th Air Expeditionary Squadron, which included the 39th Airlift Squadron from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas and its C-130 Hercules.

Aircraft from the 37th Airlift Squadron, of Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and Total Force C-130s assigned to the 787th Air Expeditionary Squadron in Dakar, Senegal, flew 114 missions, transporting more than 1,000 passengers and nearly 1,750 tons of cargo including food, water and medical supplies.

U.S. military efforts entailed logistics expertise, training and engineering support.  U.S. Africa Command had established a regional intermediate staging base to facilitate and expedite the transportation of equipment, supplies and personnel.

The McChord Airmen worked to offload cargo arriving in Senegal by larger aircraft such as the C-17 and 747 aircraft.

"We were an intermediate staging base and we transferred supplies via C-130 from the Dakar, Senegal airport down to Monrovia," said Tech. Sgt. Dan, 36th APS. "They would bring it into our place in the big birds, like the 747, KC-10, C-17s and we'd break it down and put it in the C-130s and send it down range."

Air Mobility Command units from across the U.S. supported the operation using C-17, C-130, KC-10 and contracted aircraft. Together AMC's units moved nearly 5,500 passengers and roughly 8,700 tons of cargo.

Many of those 5,500 passengers were processed and manifested by Master Sgt. Shauna Cross, 86th APS.

"My primary job was passenger services.  So we moved passengers in and out of mostly Liberia. We would get Army personnel in and sometimes they would stay overnight.  And we had patients from Liberia fly into Dakar, swap missions and we would provide food and water and make sure they stayed on the aircraft," said Cross.

Those patients however, were not Ebola patients.  They were troops who were ill or injured for a variety of reasons.

"Because they were coming from Liberia where there was an outbreak of Ebola, they remained sort of quarantined on the aircraft. A doc would go out to the aircraft to clear them as a precaution; once he cleared them we would go out to the aircraft.  They would have a three to four hour ground time and they couldn't leave the aircraft.  We would take what water and MREs we had out to them, though we didn't have much," said Cross.

Most of the cargo flowing through Dakar, Senegal was medical supplies and food and water.

"Lots of pallets of medical supplies and PPE (personal protection equipment)," said Master Sgt. Kyle Schnell, 86th APS.  "My job was to take the cargo we got from stateside and coordinate and plan how to get that cargo downrange.  Two C-130s would run shuttles down to Liberia with the cargo.  Larger aircraft would drop off cargo and we would plan it onto the C-130s to shuttle down to Liberia."

On Jan. 25, President Barack Obama approved a plan formulated by USAID, the U.S. government lead in West Africa, and the Defense Department to transition the Liberia-based Operation United Assistance to civilians and international organizations working there.

"DoD personnel are coming home, but the United States is not leaving West Africa," defense officials said. "The U.S. government civilian-led response will grow in size and number in the weeks ahead, and continue the fight against Ebola."

Of the 2,800 troops deployed, about 1,500 are already back in the United States, and nearly all of those remaining will return home by April 30.  (Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity, contributed to this report).