JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- When you go on vacation, things are – generally – seamless.
You drop your bags off and they’re weighed and whisked away. When you board the aircraft, the lavatory is clean. The airplane takes off safely, meals or snacks come to your seat, and when you get to your destination, your luggage comes up a conveyer belt and onto the carousel. All this lets you get where you’re going with the items you need.
Behind the scenes, a lot of work goes into getting you to your destination – from the airline’s route planners to the people ensuring the fuel, passengers and cargo are balanced throughout the aircraft.
It’s no different when Air Force exercises require tons of equipment and thousands of personnel to be moved around the world. That’s where Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s 732nd Air Mobility Squadron comes into play.
Ordinarily, the squadron’s aerial port and air terminal operations personnel are conducting “channel missions” – the regularly scheduled flights moving supplies to Alaska’s remote radar sites, or bringing equipment from the Lower 48, said Chris Swartz, civilian in charge of air freight with the squadron.
During the department-level exercises recently, however, they shifted into high gear.
Talisman Sabre, a U.S. and Australian joint exercise, coincided with Exercise Resolute Force Pacific, or REFORPAC, an iteration of Red Flag-Alaska, and exercises Mobility Guardian and Ultimate Distribution.
In a given month, the “Port Dawgs” perform tasks for about 200 missions – everything from inspecting cargo to loading aircraft. During the course of the exercises, they conducted more than 400. And, due to the nature of exercises, about 10 percent of the personnel were on temporary duty, or TDY, moving with the cargo, or serving as the Wing Inspection Team, watching the operations and making notes of what went well and how to improve.
“We had about 80 people doing the work,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Fontana, Air Terminal Operations section chief. “They moved about a thousand people and 650 tons of equipment for Mobility Guardian and REFORPAC.”
“And we’re going to do it all again in a couple weeks,” added Swartz, noting that exercises Arctic Edge and Northern Edge are on the horizon.
The process starts when units submit paperwork to move their personnel and equipment – rather like buying a plane ticket.
The 618th Air Operations Center at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois supports global mobility operations, planning routes and serving as a central clearinghouse for operations.
Units pack their equipment – in shipping containers or cases, duffel bags or crates – and the Port Dawgs inspect the goods, ensuring hazardous materials are loaded correctly and things won’t shift in flight, said Swartz.
“We handle the shoring, paperwork, manifesting – all of it, cradle to grave, making sure it’s good to go,” he said.
They also make sure cargo is provided with dunnage – pallets or other platforms under it – in compliance with U.S. and foreign agriculture departments, preventing contamination from invasive plants, animals and microbes.
“We’re like a commercial airport,” said Robert Simendich, civilian in charge of the Air Terminal Operations Center. “We take care of the passengers and cargo, clean the lavatories, service the planes, provide potable water and in-flight meals.”
While doing the job is fairly standard, doing it at such a high operational tempo was a learning experience for the junior Airmen, said Swartz.
“The newer Airmen – many of them came in during COVID-19. They haven’t been in a wartime optempo. Seeing this from the 40,000-foot view, and seeing what we do in a real exercise, was eye-opening for them,” he said.
It also provided an opportunity to step up and increase their leadership abilities, he said.
“With some of our best inspectors TDY or on the WIT, we had younger Airmen needing to step into those roles, and it was good for people to get that hub experience, moving things all around the Indo-Pacific Command. It really solidified their training.”
Those moves helped fulfill the very purpose of the exercise – learning what to improve, said Fontana.
“We shifted a lot of people around; now we’ve got a better sense of how to posture ourselves better, so we don’t have to shift as much in the future.”
“It helped us identify areas of improvement, and training we can work on, said Simendich. “We identified we need to train more joint inspectors, for example – people who are checking for improperly packed items, things that could pose a hazard.”
Alaska Air National Guardsmen from the 176th Wing air terminal and freight sections assisted with the exercise – sharpening their skills while assisting with the increased need for personnel to handle the work.
“They really made us a synergized total force,” said Simendich.
The efforts across units resulted in the aerial port having no delays – while overall some missions were slightly delayed due to other circumstances, the aerial port was fully on-time.
All told, while the Port Dawgs identified ways they can improve, the exercise demonstrated their already-keen skills.
“We demonstrated our ability to operate autonomously, as much of our group leadership was in Guam or Hawaii,” said U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Robert McMillen, Aerial Port Squadron superintendent. “We have some of the best total-force Airmen – uniformed and civilian – here on JBER.”