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“1000s of Hands” Project: 774th EAS Staff Sgt. Casey Strauss

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Cierra Presentado
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  Staff Sgt. Casey Strauss, 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron C-130J Super Hercules aircraft loadmaster is responsible for loading and unloading mission essential goods throughout Afghanistan, as well as ensuring the safety of passengers and crew members during flight.

Strauss travels to various forward operating bases in the Afghanistan area of responsibility to include Hamid Karzai International Airport, Camp Dwyer and Mazar-e- Sharif Airfield. He and his team make three to six stops a day delivering goods such as medical supplies, food and ammunition to military personnel to other FOB’s.

“Each mission we fly is different, there are times where we just pick up passengers and sometime we pick up passengers and cargo. Our job is to make sure everything gets on safely and gets off safely,” Strauss said. “I love my job, we do things we normally don’t do back at home station; working with such dedicated professional aviators has also been great. Being a loadmaster truly is a fun and exciting job.”

Strauss is part of the “1000s of Hands” of the 455 AEW Airmen who are crucial to the wing’s mission to generate and sustain air power on the combat frontier of Afghanistan’s NATO’s Resolute Support mission and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The ‘1000s of Hands’ project highlights Vulture Airmen who have a hand in delivering a blanket of steel, technology and courage to protect the force in the field and support Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.