Army National Guard Aviators Fly Out From...Elmendorf Air Force Base?

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Eric Hamilton
  • Elmendorf Joint Information Bureau
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  For more than 13 years, Army Guard aviators have operated out of Hangar Six on Elmendorf Air Force base, flying personnel and cargo from Alaska to anywhere else, ranging as far as Arizona, Cuba, and Haiti. The aviators and support staff there are primarily full-time Guard personnel serving on Title 10 orders, also known as "Active Guard and Reserves," or AGR personnel. The aircraft are maintained by contract personnel.

If people are aware of Hangar Six at all, there are still common misconceptions about its missions. They might think that all the aviators do there are "milk runs," scheduled flights back and forth between fixed locations. A lot of that, explains Chief Warrant Officer Four Glen M. Spadin, operations officer for the Alaska Regional Flight Center, OSAACOM, "is because we're constantly flying folks back and forth from Fort Wainwright to here and back. But we go most places in the state. You name it, we've probably been there."

Another source of confusion is that not everyone at Hangar Six works for the same command. The UC-35 aircraft pilots and crew answer to the Operational Support Airlift Command (OSACOM) out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, under the Alaska Regional Flight Center, while the C-12 pilots and crew answer to the Alaska Army National Guard, which also operates the C-23 Sherpa aircraft from Bryant Army Airfield on Fort Richardson.

However, as all three aircraft types are DoD assets, all are available to DoD "customers." Each aircraft is suited to certain types of missions and have provided support to a wide variety of customers.

According to Bret Losey, a civilian assigned to the USARAK Validations office, Army Guard aviators have performed missions ranging from picking up former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when his aircraft broke down to flying Army EOD teams out to assist Alaska State troopers throughout Alaska. The validations office helps create the "on-demand" scheduling used to generate the missions flown.

"We work like a charter airline, except that it's already paid for by the National Guard, out of one big pot of flying money," Spadin said. "We fly whoever needs it, DoD-wide, so long as they have a legitimate request. We're flying civilian news crews, pilots, air bosses, VIPs and troops in support of Northern Edge this year, for example."

"It'd be nice if more people knew we were available," said Chief Warrant Officer Three Steven C. Henslee, acting commander of Detachment 54 of the Alaska State Flight Detachment. "All they have to do is submit a mission request" to get military airlift support started, he said. From there, the validation office prioritizes the mission request, and if approved, the mission goes forward. 
 
Because of that lack of familiarity with Hangar Six and its capabilities, the missions tend to come from the same sources. "Although we have predominantly the same mission (as OSACOM), we're an Alaska National Guard asset," Henslee said. He said he'd welcome a variety of missions and destinations, because it would allow for better pilot training in a wider array of situations.

"We are better suited to handling cargo as well as personnel, versus the UC-35, which is primarily geared towards passengers" Henslee said. Spadin concurred, "We usually get more VIP requests, but we'll carry passengers for any appropriate mission."

That openness to a variety of missions has allowed the four pilots of the detachment to accumulate a combined total of over 22,000 hours of flying time, Henslee said. That experience spans both military and civilian flying time, with both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. OSACOM pilots are similarly well-experienced, Spadin said.

This extensive flight experience is nothing new for Alaska Army Guard aviators, Henslee said. The prior CO of the detachment had over 23,000 hours of flying time by himself, according to Henslee.

The missions filled by Hangar Six crews and aircraft have everything to do with Alaska's limited infrastructure, said Sgt. 1st Class William J. Johnson, the Alaska Regional Flight Center's NCOIC. "Because of the limited roads, we have to move a lot by air."

"We move a lot for outlying communities and internal Alaska missions, like Arctic Care and funeral missions," said Henslee. In addition, they maintain a 24-7 response and support readiness mission, launching aircraft for any approved mission on any day of the week or time, including holidays.

One of the little-known services provided by the crews at Hangar Six is providing opportunities for space-available (or "Space-A") flight for eligible military members and their immediate families. If a mission already scheduled to meet a military need has extra seats available, Space-A passengers can list through the Elmendorf Passenger Terminal for a free ride to that location, potentially saving the cost of a commercial ticket.

Johnson said that flights often have seats available, and despite some limitations on cargo loads, it can still be a good way for Alaskan families, particularly those in the Guard, to take advantage of a useful resource.

That willingness to help out defines Hangar Six and the Guardsmen who work there.

Chief Warrant Officer Three Ralph B. Baklarz, a pilot who works as a dual-status technician, summed up his thoughts about working out of Hangar Six: "It's an enjoyable mission, meeting with different people with different jobs, getting to fly around and see the state."