LOUISVILLE, Ky. - About 50 members of the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Airlift Wing deployed to Muñiz Air National Guard Base in San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 2.
The Guard members will be supporting Operation Coronet Oak, a mission that provides vital airlift capabilities throughout the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility.
The Airmen, who departed aboard two Kentucky C-130 Hercules aircraft, will provide theater airlift services for U.S. military and government operations across the Caribbean and Central and South America, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Jude Beyerle, a navigator with the 165th Airlift Squadron and the mission commander.
“We’ll be supporting airlift for Southern Command wherever they need it,” Beyerle said.
“The primary mission is to provide a C-130 and aircrew on alert 24 hours a day for whatever kind of contingency might come up, whether that be a medical evacuation, humanitarian assistance or hurricane relief,” he said. “But we’ll also fly regular resupply and troop-transport missions around the region.”
The deploying Airmen comprise the first rotation of nearly 300 Kentucky Air Guard members who will support Coronet Oak this year.
Five more rotations will follow between now and Sept. 17, when the wing’s role is scheduled to be handed off to another unit, said Air Force Lt. Col. Barry Gorter, commander of the 123rd Operations Group.
Coronet Oak began in Panama in 1977 and is supported entirely by Guard and Reserve assets.
Kentucky began flying the mission in the 1990s, after the wing converted from RF-4C reconnaissance aircraft to the C-130 Hercules, Gorter said.
“Past missions have varied from something as routine as rotating personnel out of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to more involved taskings, like a 10-day mission to Santiago, Chile, to provide assistance following an earthquake there,” he said. “Much of the flying is done in the mountainous terrain of South America, requiring a unique skill set from our aircrew members.”
Coronet Oak marks the second major airlift deployment for members of the Kentucky Air Guard in the past six months. The 123rd Airlift Wing completed a deployment to Afghanistan in January.