Rescue unit to receive tents, ramp for better performance

Published Jan. 26, 2010
By Staff Sgt. Angelique N. Smythe
451st AEW Public Affairs

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan -- The operations tempo for combat search and rescue and medical evacuation in Helmand Province is very high.

Airmen are continuously working to find ways to enhance their operations in order to be more effective while supporting the theater's CSAR mission, especially on the bare base of Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Currently, Airmen with the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing are working on increasing infrastructure, such as ramps and tents.

"Right now, with the rocks and dust, and an environment of conditions the way they are here, it takes us longer to do things and we have limitations," said Maj. Joseph Alkire, 66th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron director of operations. "The ramp will give us the capability to allow maintenance to really work to the full potential."

HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter ramp areas will be expanded to enable maintenance units to tow aircraft to where they are needed in order to be worked on.

The ramp will also allow aircrew to be closer to their aircraft so that when notified of a mission they will no longer have to drive almost three quarters of a mile and then run over rocks to get to their aircraft.

"When you're notified, you have to get in the car, drive safely, park safely and then get into the aircraft," said Major Alkire. "A three-quarter of a mile drive or a half-mile drive is not that big of a deal, but when you're talking launching and reducing your overall response time by 25 percent because of your location to the aircraft, that's significant. It's extremely significant when you're talking about minutes determining whether or not somebody gets to live or die."

Large area maintenance shelters will also be constructed to afford the HH-60G's maintenance team the shelter they need to work on their aircraft effectively under environmentally controlled conditions.

Another facility on the camp will become the operations team's central location for command and control, mission planning and CSAR leadership.

Additional California and Alaskan tents will allow room for additional resources, a place for medical aircrew flight equipment and a storage room for things, which need to be environmentally controlled, such as parachutes and dive equipment.

There will also be a tent, which will serve as an area for aircrew to study or relax without being in the operations center itself.

"This will be so they're not necessarily in the (tactical operations center)," said Major Alkire. "We also don't want to use the TOC as a centralized means of transition to and from areas within the building (as it currently is.) It will be a command and control node and not necessarily an aircrew hangout area."

The rescue mission has been at Camp Bastion since April 2009 and the maintainers work hard to keep their helicopters flying.

"Compared to other units, we're probably the busiest rescue team in all of Iraq and Afghanistan," said Chief Master Sgt. Darryl Gagne, HH-60G Pave Hawk maintenance superintendent. "We're about 10 minutes from the fight where all the action is happening. Even though we're in the middle of nowhere, the action is not far."

The maintenance team stays on alert 24-hours, seven days a week and are constantly doing repairs to the helicopters to keep them flying in the country's austere conditions.

Chief Gagne said he'd requested parking to get their equipment out of the dirt because of the environment's negative effect on them. Before long, plans for the unit quickly turned into an entire complex.

"I just needed parking," he said. "My only regret is I won't be here to see it all, but I'll see my ramp."

Chief Gagne said his team has done a phenomenal job at the quality of maintenance and the consistency at which they've kept the aircraft ready to go at all times.

"We haven't had any damaged aircraft or anything because of the work my guys have done in this busy environment," he said. "We've been very blessed that we've had just almost a flawless deployment when it comes to quality of maintenance, safety, performance and the way the group relies on us to do what we have to do."