CENTENNIAL, Colo., - The task of rapidly transporting small groups of people to remote places of the world is no problem at all for one particular Colorado Army National Guard unit.
The COARNG's Detachment 33 - a small unit with a big overall mission - was recently tasked with relief operations in Haiti for a three-week period where they did just that.
Attached to U.S. Southern Command and flying out of Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Fla., Det. 33 flew 52.5 hours and supported nine missions with their lone C-26E Metroliner airplane for Operation Unified Response, part of the U.S. military's efforts to support international disaster relief following the massive Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
Thirty-six passengers were transported between Haiti and Florida with more than 9,000 pounds of cargo. The unit provided pilots and mechanics for the mission.
Beginning Jan. 27, the Det. 33 team began transport flights to Toussaint Louverture InternationalAirportin Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Passengers included Department of Defense personnel ranging from contractor engineers to military medics.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Timothy Ames, Det. 33 commander, said he and his Soldiers' piloting skills had to be sharp because the Port-Au-Prince airport had no operational radar equipment. They had to land using only what they could see and the help of controllers on radios.
"The flights into Port-au-Prince refreshed our non-radar position reporting skills and challenged our communication with heavily-accented English-speaking controllers," Ames said. "During hours of heavy air traffic, aircraft were stacked into a holding pattern on the arrival into the airport. There was only one runway with one entry and exit point."
Ames stressed that the one runway wasn't nearly enough for the amount of air traffic coming and going. He said there were no parallel taxiways, therefore pilots had to execute a 180-degree turn and exit the runway instead of just turning off it after they landed.
According to a recent Associated Press article by Martha Mendoza, (Haiti airport chaos was slowly tamed, Feb. 18), before the quake, the single, 10,000-foot runway managed 20 flights a day coming and going. "Afterward, traffic on the runway soon rivaled that of any at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on a busy day with planes landing and taking off every two minutes."
"The ramp was extremely busy as well, and there was limited space for parking and unloading," Ames said. "Sometimes they would want us to unload and depart as quickly as possible in order to make room for more incoming airplanes. Overall, it was a very challenging and rewarding mission. The training value for the younger pilots was immeasurable. The success of performing this mission can be attributed to the many previous missions performed by Det. 33 in similar environments."
"Part of the reason we all serve is to be able to help those who are less fortunate than us and that's definitely the case in Haiti," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ian Van Abel, a 26-year-old Det. 33 pilot with a year-and-a-half experience on the C-26 airframe. "Any kind of help that we could provide was a great honor to be a part of."
Det. 33 is comprised of full-time and part-time pilots, augmentees, a full-time noncommissioned officer, civilian contract maintenance technicians and a part-time operations specialist. They have been to numerous foreign countries on several missions since the unit formed in 1994, including a six-month tour in the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2006. The unit is tentatively scheduled to return to northeast Africa next year.
"All OSAA (Operational Support Airlift Agency) airplanes operate under a PAT (Priority Air Transport) call sign. The mission is just that," said Col. Joel Best, COARNG 168th Regimental Training Institute commander and state aviation and safety officer. "We move blood, people and equipment, and due to the efficiency and cost of the airplane and their location in most states, enable the state and region to have ready access for time-critical travel."
As far as the rumors surrounding the future of the C-26 in the Army National Guard, Best said the Army's fixed-wing program is in a "state of flux."
"All of the TAGs (the adjutant generals) are on record for supporting the Future Utility Aircraft program," he said. "The C-12, C-26, and UC-35 all need a plan for the future."
The FUA program - a term coined by Army National Guard leadership - was created to fill the void left by the cancellation of the C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft by the Army and ARNG in May 2009. The program was instituted to discuss the fielding of a different airframe for personnel and cargo transport missions. In terms of this affecting the C-26's mission, only time will tell.
"There are rumors of the C-26 program being in jeopardy, but the C-26E aircraft is the most economical aircraft in the Army fixed-wing inventory and can be a viable asset for years to come," Ames said.
Det. 33 is the Colorado Army National Guard's only fixed-wing aircraft unit, and one of about 10 in the entire Army National Guard. The C-26 is a pressurized, twin engine turboprop that accommodates a pilot and co-pilot, and transports passengers, cargo or a combination of both. It is the key ingredient in the unit's overarching mission: to rapidly transport key personnel to remote locations across the globe.
Det. 33's C-26E was recently upgraded with a new state-of-the-art cockpit and avionics system with GPS receivers and advanced electronic map displays.
"It's got a reputation as being a tough aircraft to fly," Ames said. "It's very hard to control in the roll axis and it's very sensitive in the pitch axis, so that combination makes it more challenging than other planes."
Det. 33's pilots average between 30 to 40 hours a month of flight time. Up until recent budget cuts, the unit averaged one OCONUS (outside continental U.S.) mission per month that would take members anywhere from Columbia to Alaska.
Anytime you go international - flying south of the border over many less advanced countries - it definitely adds a new element to flying in that you appreciate the modernization of the U.S., Van Abel said. "When you get outside of that nice control area, it takes a little more pilot skill and it's almost like going back in time."
Van Abel wanted to make sure the two full-time maintenance technicians, Brad Brewer and Frank Casey, who keep the C-26 flying, get their due recognition for their work.
"To maintain such a high ops tempo - we were flying a lot down there (Haiti) - those guys were probably the hardest workers on the team," Van Abel said. "They've been with the airplane for a long time and they know that airplane inside and out and they make sure it's flyable and ready for us to go."