Afghan Air Force Delivers on First Air Drop

Published July 4, 2010
By MC2 Dave Quillen
438th AEW

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Over the skies of Kalat, Afghanistan on the last day of June, a C-27 Spartan opens its bay door and two men step forward. They survey the target zone while making final preparations and with a well-practiced motion push the cargo out the back of the plane. Two seconds later the chute opens and the cargo descends under control to the ground. Mission success!

"This will be our first, full on, no playing around air drop," said Lt. Col. James Piel, 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron commander, prior to the mission. "We've spent awhile working up to this and today should go pretty smooth and maybe even be a little bit exciting."

Colonel Piel, who piloted the C-27 during the air drop and is also one of the American advisors to the Afghan pilots, had a few concerns regarding the weather, as high winds were predicted and would've prevented the mission for a second time. Fortunately, the weather held and didn't seem to have any significant impact on the mission.

A heavy payload was simulated with bundles of water bottles, as this was a first run full drop performed as a final check of the aircraft's capabilities to perform these missions.

"The C-27 is a capable aircraft which meets the necessities of the missions here in Afghanistan. The Afghan crews and pilots are learning these capabilities and gaining confidence in the plane. When we fully turn over control of these planes, they will be completely able to use these aircraft as intended and use them to perform the wide range of mission sets necessitated by the Afghan government," explains Colonel Piel.

This mission adds to the overall ability of the Afghan Air Force to assist in the war and promote the agenda of the Afghan government. As the Afghan Air Force continues taking steps forward in its development, Afghanistan as a whole takes equivalent steps forward in its path to a secure and stable government.