What the who now?

The Air Force is providing key airlift capabilities in response to the disaster in Haiti, this is all being handled by Air Mobility Command and the Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base.  One of the main hubs, operating these airlift mission is Charleston Air Force Base.  While the majority of the cargo is being picked up at other locations, they are tasking many of the flights in and out of Haiti right now.  This includes just about every type of airlift “tail” the Air Force has at it’s disposal.  I spent the day touring Charleston Air Force Base yesterday – they had C-130’s, C-17’s and C-5’s parked on their flight line, along with civilian heavy airlift 747’s. (more…)

The Air Force Medical Service is engaged in support of the mission in Haiti and has been since the first 24 hours of operation. Col Mark Mavity, Chief of Medical Readiness for the Air Force Surgeon General, says that the currently, the Air Force Medical Service has between 40 and 50 personnel on the ground in supporting a large inter-service and inter-agency operation. Over the last 10 years, the AFMS has developed a fast, lean deployment strategy when it comes to disasters and other field medical situations. They have done this using their EMEDS systems. (more…)

I had the opportunity to speak to Colonel Bradley G. Butz who is the Vice Commander of the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Wing, based at Langley Air Force Base, Va.  Col Butz briefed us on the use of the RQ-4 Global Hawk in support of the relief efforts in Haiti.  Yesterday, the Global Hawk launched from Beale Air Force Base in California and made its way to it operating area over Haiti.  Once there, it spent approximately 14 hours on station capturing around 700 images in total.  All images will be made unclassified and distributed to anyone who needs the, he has indicated that they will be made available on the “unclassified internet”.  At the end of its duty day yesterday, the Global Hawk returned to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, where it will remain until it has completed this mission.  Once it has been released, it will continue on to the middle east to support the ongoing conflicts there. (more…)

The United States Air Force has pulled out all the stops in an effort to support the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.  Among some of the things they are doing and arguably one of the most critical efforts of the relief in general, is controlling the airspace in and around Haiti and, most importantly, the Port Au Prince Airport.  Currently Air Force combat controllers are providing the air traffic control for all traffic in and out of Haiti.

Another critical part of the overall relief effort is the transportation of all of the items necessary to support the ongoing relief operations.  Air Force Air Mobility Command is currently providing several of its C-17 and C-130 aircraft along with a number of its personnel to support this mission.  You can read all about the full effort of AMC and the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center here. (more…)

I know you’re all going to be surprised, but I’m having a Twitter contest.

Now that you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, it’s not what you would think of as a traditional Twitter contest.  I don’t care if you follow me, you don’t have to re-tweet something (although I’d appreciate it if you would, I’d love a lot of entries), all I want you to do is write me a letter and send it to me in the mail.

Here’s the contest:

1. Write me a letter explaining why you should win the prize (listed below)
2. The letter has to be hand written or typed on a typewriter
3. You have to include a return address (this is where I will ship the prize)
4. You also have to include your Twitter ID so I can congratulate you on Twitter for being the winner
5. The contest will begin today and all letters must be postmarked no later than February 4th

(more…)

Facebook has become a primary means of communicating with customers.  Everything from deals and discounts to “crisis communications” like store closings and apologies.  Brands big and small have a presence on Facebook and they all use that presence in a variety of ways.  Lately I’ve been hearing all kinds of tips for brands on Facebook, I’m going to give you my suggestions based on my experiences.  As with everything on this blog, these are simply my opinions, they aren’t going to work for everyone, but they are what are working for me. (more…)

My trip to the 129th Rescue Wing was filled with a lot of exciting and awe inspiring moments.  Not the least of which was my flight with the 130th Rescue Squadron.  The purpose of the flight was general training and to practice infil./exfil. of a Pararescue Jumper on a 4-wheeler.  I was pretty excited that I was going to be able to witness all of this first hand.  This was going to be a night flight with night vision goggles.  It included a number of low level (500ft AGL), lights out 10 mile approaches and I can say with complete certainty, that without the NVG, you would not have been able to make the field, let alone land on it. (more…)

Back in November, I had the opportunity to visit the great people of the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Field in California.  The wing includes a number of units, the ones I’m going to tell you about are the 129th Rescue Squadron, the 130th Rescue Squadron and the 131st Rescue Squadron.  The intention of my visit was to showcase the great work that some of Air Force’s elite units are doing, both at home and abroad.  While I was on the trip, I met members of each of these units and had a chance to take a flight on an MC-130P Combat Shadow, where we practiced some exciting night flying maneuvers including (a first for me) 500ft AGL night approaches from 10 miles.

Because I learned so much about each of these units, I’m going to break each one into a separate post, beginning with the 130th Rescue Squadron and my flight on the MC-130P.  I’ll be adding a new post each week beginning today.

Have you had an experience with any of these units?  Have you had a chance to fly in a C-130 of any kind?  Leave your story in the comments.

Against all of the advice I give my colleagues and friends and all of the advice I’ve ever been given – I’m changing the topic of my blog, slightly.  Okay, a lot.

Normally, I would say, pick a subject and stick to it so as not to alienate your audience.  In this case, it’s really more of an addition than a change – I want to write about the things I’m passionate about.  When I redesigned this blog, I decided those things were the Air Force, Technology and Volunteer Management.  At that time in my life, I was immersed in all of those things.  Now, I’ve started a new job and I’m spending less time thinking about Technology and way more time thinking about the much blogged about topic of Social Media.

That’s right, I’m going to start adding my ideas about SOCMED to the already mountainous pile of crap content that already exists on the subject.

To be clear:

I am not an expert – not even close.

I think I have some insights into the space purely from the perspective that I work for a company that has embraced this platform as a way to reconnect with it’s diverse and large customer base.  Are my ideas gospel?  Hell no.  They’re just that, my ideas.  Some of them are working for us, and some of them aren’t.  Sometimes I’m just full of shit.

So, here we go, take it for what it’s worth.

Over at the WIRED blog Danger Room, Noah Shachtman had the opportunity to spend some time with the PJ’s of the 55th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron in Afghanistan.  His article gives you a small glimpse into the life of one of the Air Force’s elite tactical ground units.

As a part of my effort to showcase the efforts of units like this one, I will be visiting the 129th Rescue Squadron this November.

Check out the article over at Danger Room.