BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- With the drawdown of U.S forces in the near future, the 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron’s Traffic Management Office is helping close down the base one shop at a time.
The TMO office ensures that all shipments from the AOR, to include hazardous and classified materials as well as aircraft parts, are ready for transport. They also inspect freight for damage, keep accurate records and operate forklifts, pallet trucks and hand trucks to move cargo around.
“We start our day with handling all of the classified materials, and we inspect and label everything with the appropriate markings,” said Senior Airman Kionne Lewis, 455th ELRS cargo movement specialist. “We also make sure the destination that’s receiving is notified that classifieds or hazmats are on the way.”
As shops on Bagram begin to down size, TMO will help clear out specific shops by moving materials to the next destination.
“A lot of the stuff we move will stay in theater,” Lewis said. “For the shops that are shutting down, we take their assets and send them to a different theater or home station that needs them.”
Being in a deployed location, the shop deals with materials they normally wouldn’t deal with at home station, such as hydraulic fluids, batteries, tanks, drone engines and corrosive gases.
“We deal with a lot of dangerous material, it’s a part of our job to make sure the material is safely transported,” he said. “We make sure no one gets hurt in the process.”
With December 2016 being the projected clear out date, the TMO team will stay in theater until all shops and material are completely gone.
“Logistics is needed in all theaters. Without us it would be hard to accomplish the main mission and get everyone out of here. We still have a while here so all the parts we receive are crucial to the mission, whether it’s for the fighter squadron or parts for one of the drones,” Lewis said. “We are a small team with a large workload but we work together to get the mission handled.”