Joint fight: Little Rock C-130s assist with Spartan exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christopher Gross
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Members from the 19th Airlift Wing and 41st Airlift Squadron from Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas teamed up with members of the 732nd Air Mobility Squadron and 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division last week to hone in on their war fighting skills.

The 41st AS crew flew one of their C-130 J model Hercules from the south to participate in some heavy-equipment drops, personnel drops and improved container delivery system drops. Alaska offers such a unique training experience because of the contour of the land, a reason why units like to come north to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to train.

"It's an opportunity for us to train in some much more significant terrain (other) than Arkansas, and also to train in some different climate conditions than we normally see," said Maj. Joseph Framptom, chief pilot with the 19th AW. "We're very heavily deployed in the desert right now, so this gives us the chance to get out and experience some of the same type of conditions we see over there sometimes."

Throughout the week the units worked together and were initially scheduled to let 600 Soldiers jump and were to drop roughly 52,000 pounds of cargo to include a
Humvee, 105mm howitzers and ICDS bundles, but due to inclement weather and equipment limitations, some of the operations were cancelled.

Last week was the first time since the Spartan brigade was activated that they conducted airborne missions from a C-130 J model, the newest version of the C-130 family. It gave jumpmasters and riggers a good hands-on opportunity to refine their skills in a training mission which mirrors what they could be called upon to do to conduct a rapid airborne assault, said Army Capt. Charles Spears, the brigade public affairs officer.

"That was something we had never been able to do as a brigade and is a really good skill for us to practice, considering that one of our war time requirements is to
be able to insert field artillery through an air delivery system," he added.

Spears said this may not be something they do often while deployed, but "anytime we have the ability to sharpen our skills whether it's an annual training requirement or something we just see the opportunity to do, it makes us better Soldiers and makes us more ready to answer any mission we may be tasked to do."

Aside from executing heavy-equipment drops and personnel drops with the Army, practicing ICDS drops was a major factor for the 41st AS presence here.

During the past couple years the Air Force has been using ICDS as a means for better drop precision from higher altitudes.

The system factors in altitude, wind speed and wind direction throughout the ICDS' drop trajectory, terrain and other circumstances which might affect the drop.

Framptom said the newer delivery system allows them to drop up to 20 ICDS bundles, each weighing in at 2,200 pounds. By dropping from a higher altitude, this keeps the crew safer from threats like small-arms fire.

Cooperation and cohesion was a must for all those involved.

"This was a great opportunity for the (brigade) and the 41st Airlift Squadron to support each other through the training certification process," Spears said.
 
"The 41st gave us the key asset needed to conduct airborne training, while we provided assets that the 41st needed to certify a flight crew in the task of conducting personnel and equipment drops."