Air Force — Social Media — Volunteer Management » Haiti

Air Force Haiti Airlift Relief Operations Coordination Happening at Charleston Air Force Base

scottfmurphy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:30:40 +0000

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.

The first stop on our tour was the Command Post/Base Ops. We had a chance to speak to Captain Kevin Thorsell who is assisting in what the Air Force calls “Stage Management”. Stage Management coordinates the aircrews flying out, alerting them, briefing them and launching them. Since the relief operations started, the team at Charleston has launched more than 140 missions. This is above and beyond their normal ops tempo for OIF OEF. The kinds of things they are moving range anywhere from water and MRE’s to vehicles and people, as the Captain said, “…That’s what the C-17 does, we carry everything.” Charleston’s primary aircraft is the C-17, and currently they are operating 15 jets in support of relief operations – at the peak, they were flying 25 jets at one time. Charleston aircrews aren’t the only ones flying these missions, because of the significant increase in ops tempo, AMC has brought in crews from all over the country, one of Capt Thorsell’s jobs is to ensure that those crews have everything they need, and are taken care of when it comes to some of the creature comforts. A typical day in the life of an aircrew assisting in this operation begins with the alert, at that point they get rolling and have 3 hours and 45 minutes to be wheels up. Once they’re alerted, they will typically prepare for the day, including getting whatever food they need – they’ll arrive at the Command Post and start receiving their mission briefs. This includes an intel and tactics brief and flight planning, from there they “step to the jet” and take off. A typical day can last up to 16 hours, but they can last as long as 20 hours. Crews have to have at least 15 hours of rest time before they are “legal for bravo”, legal for “bravo” means that they can be alerted anytime in a 72 hours period for launch on their next mission. A normal crew consists of 2 pilots and 1 loadmaster, because of the longer duration of these missions they’re using augmented crews which consist of 3 pilots, 2 loadmasters, possibly a crew chief, and 2 Phoenix Raven security forces airmen.

Our next stop was the Air Terminal Operations Center (ATOC), which is located above the Aerial Port. The Aerial Port (AP) is the hub for all cargo in and out of Charleston AFB. The AP is responsible for in processing all cargo, sorting it, palletizing it, load planning, and loading it onto the aircraft. Master Sergeant Michael Davis is the superintendent of the ATOC – this includes the load planning section and the ATOC itself. Once of the things I was most curious about was how significant was the increase in ops tempo was for the AP and how they’ve handled it. MSgt Davis explained, that the ops tempo has “really increased in general with the Haiti relief”. Because most of the cargo is being picked up at other bases, the role of the ATOC has primarily been one of crew logistics support, making sure they have all the supplies they need for the missions. Charleston has sent cargo downrange to support the relief operations as well – they have sent everything from medical supplies to water. In fact, the primary cargo they are transporting to Haiti right now is water.

Overall the impression I got of the operations out of Charleston was good, they are very well organized and are working hard to provide support to the people of Haiti. This is a great example of the Air Forces ability to have global reach, a capability that I think is critical to maintaining our Air Superiority, whether that means supporting combat operations, or providing critical resources in times of disaster.

I leave you with a shot of water on pallets to illustrate the types of loads they’re moving out of here.

Air Force Provides Global Hawk Imagery in Haiti

scottfmurphy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:02:52 +0000

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.

The images captured by the Global Hawk are being compared to those captured during a bar camera mission that was executed this past June. It’s important for aid workers on the ground to have relevant historical images to compare the current images to. Most of the images captured yesterday were of what appear to be destroyed buildings. The Col indicated that it’s difficult to see if some of the buildings in the images have been completely destroyed, even when comparing them to historical references.

The Global Hawk will launch again this morning and spend a total of 16 hours on station and will capture more than 1000 images of critical infrastructure. The Col indicated that the use of Global Hawk in this manner is somewhat unprecedented, but the Air Force is committed to providing whatever resources are available and necessary to accomplish the mission. The Col also mentioned that he assumed the Global Hawk would remain in it’s current role in Haiti until it was deemed no longer needed by the President.

As soon as the images captured by Global Hawk become available, I will post some of them here and post a link to the complete catalog.

UPDATE:
Here’s some of the first publicly available RQ-4 Images of Haiti:

An aerial view of earthquake victims gathering in a soccer field in Haiti from a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aircraft Jan. 14. Aerial images are providing U.S. military planners valuable situation awareness as they coordinate U.S. military support to the Haiti relief effort. (Release by U.S. Southern Command)

An aerial view of the damaged National Cathedral in Haiti from a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aircraft Jan. 14. Aerial images are providing U.S. military planners valuable situation awareness as they coordinate U.S. military support to the Haiti relief effort. (Release by U.S. Southern Command)

An aerial view of the damaged Presidential Palace in Haiti from a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aircraft Jan. 14. Aerial images are providing U.S. military planners valuable situation awareness as they coordinate U.S. military support to the Haiti relief effort. (Release by U.S. Southern Command)

Any Future images can be found on the SOUTHCOM website in the photo gallery.

Air Force Pulls Out All the Stops for Haiti Relief Effort

scottfmurphy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:38:00 +0000

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.

Some other missions include:

I’m currently working with AMC to see if I can get myself on a flight down there to cover the response first hand. I will keep you updated as to my progress. Also, for the latest updates on the USAF efforts to support the relief operation, I would follow @USAFPressDesk on Twitter.

UPDATE: The Air Force has committed the use of the Global Hawk. Read all of the details here.