U.S Air Force advise and assist mission leads to continued Iraqi airdrop success

(Editor’s note: For security reasons, the Iraqi air force pilots are not fully identified)

United States Air Force and Army personnel continued to advise and assist the Iraqi air force in developing and enhancing an independent airdrop capability during meetings and training conducted Jan. 5 to 7, 2015. 

The event brought aircrews from the 23^rd Squadron of the Iraqi air force together with members of the U.S. Air Force’s 386^th Air Expeditionary Wing and the Army’s 3^rd Sustainment Brigade and 1^st Theater Sustainment Command.

U.S. forces first started working in Iraq with the 23^rd Squadron in June of 2014, although some of the aircrew had previously received training at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. 

The purpose of the advise and assist mission is to build upon the Iraqis’ existing resources and training in order to enable and improve the independent airdrop capability of their air force.  

“We first trained in the United States at Little Rock. We dropped there and became qualified in the airdrop mission. Then we returned to Iraq but did not have a rigging shop. There was some talking between Iraq and U.S., and we figured out we needed some help with that,” said Iraqi air force Lt. Col. Thaer, a C-130J pilot with the 23^rd Squadron.    

Two months after the first advise and assist visit, the Iraqi air force, with some planning, rigging and loading assistance from the United States, accomplished their first-ever airdrop over Amerli, Iraq,  on Aug. 30, 2014.  This drop provided much-needed food and water to Iraqi citizens besieged by Da’esh. 

“People were stuck on the mountain without food, without water, without anything. We had to go there to drop without any parachutes at the time, but we had to do it because we were dealing with humans. It’s very important for us, even if we aren’t from the same region, it doesn’t matter to us. We are human first, and we are all Iraqi,” said Iraqi air force Brig. Gen. Ammar, 23^rd Squadron commander.

Since the first drop, the Iraqi air force has dropped 153 bundles with the help of U.S. Army riggers and U.S. Air Force loadmasters.  In addition, the 23^rd Squadron recently dropped 65 bundles in operations executed entirely by the Iraqi air force, including planning, rigging and dropping.  The airdrops continue to be more and more successful, Thaer said. 

“In the beginning, we didn’t have parachutes, and we dropped food, water and blanket over Sinjar because the people needed it. At first we lost like 50 percent of everything we dropped. But after we talked to the U.S. side, they were very helpful. They started to bring parachutes, started to give assistance, and we got updates for our airplane.  We were able to drop in Sinjar another time with parachutes, and it was very helpful,” he said.

The Iraqi air force has conducted airdrops over several locations including Amirli, Bayji and Mt. Sinjar, Iraq, Thaer said.

Now that the Iraqi air force has established the ability to perform airdrops, the joint U.S. Army and Air Force team is looking to enhance and improve the process to build on the Iraqi’s progress. The U.S. team will continue to advise on everything from flying tactics and rigging to logistics and supply chain management.  

“Through proper training on rigging procedures and supply management, I believe they can develop a very successful airdrop program,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Roger Bradford, senior airdrop systems technician and member of the advise and assist team.

“We hope to continue to cooperate. Next we are waiting for more parachutes and more training to execute more missions in the future to save more lives. We are very proud of that, and we need to continue our cooperation,” Ammar said.