Crew Operating From Bagram Airfield In Afghanistan
As Air Force operations in support of flood relief operations in
Pakistan resumed, aircrew and support personnel from the 746th
Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at an undisclosed location in
Southwest Asia prepared to forward deploy to Bagram Airfield,
Afghanistan, to ease the workload of the local airlift squadron
already engaged with supporting missions in Afghanistan.
"Once the floods happened, we were tasked ... to come up and
provide additional support to the airlift squadron here at Bagram
to help with the relief effort in Pakistan," said Master Sgt. John
Metcalf, an Air Force Reserve C-130 Hercules loadmaster deployed to
the 746th EAS. "We brought a small contingency of crews and support
personnel and two aircraft to help the (774th Expeditionary Airlift
Squadron) here so they could continue their mission in Afghanistan
and we could help out in Pakistan."
Not long after their arrival in Bagram, the crew began
operations from Bagram to the Pakistan Air Force's Central Flood
Relief Cell at Chaklala Air Force Base, Pakistan, near the capital
city of Islamabad. From there, the C-130 was loaded with relief
supplies and sent on its way to various locations affected by the
flooding.
The 746th AES crew, an Air Force Reserve unit deployed from the
357th Airlift Squadron out of Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, quickly
shifted mindset from missions in support of Operations Iraqi and
Enduring Freedom to humanitarian aid and relief efforts. Being
prepared to conduct operations in such an environment, however,
doesn't come synonymously with being prepared to see such ruin.
The floods have affected more than 14 million people, more than
one million homes were damaged or destroyed, and there have been
more than 1,500 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries, according to
the National Disaster Management Authority. An estimated one-fifth
of the country is underwater; and the disaster has affected more
people than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2010 Haiti earthquake
combined.
Sergeant Metcalf described his first reaction as being in
"complete awe," said the Montgomery, Ala., native. "Just to see the
devastation. I've (seen the effects of Hurricane) Katrina in
Mississippi and Louisiana, and I'm not going to say that it topped
that, but it gave me the same feeling; towns and farms and
buildings just under water."
Lt. Col. Ken Ostrat, an Air Force Reserve C-130 Hercules pilot
deployed to the 746th EAS, also recalled being taken back by the
amount of water and seeing villages, farms and lives uprooted. "The
first thing I thought was that this was a massively destructive
natural event. There had to be thousands of people who were
directly impacted, and hundreds of thousands more that were
indirectly impacted by something of that scale," said the
Prattville, Ala., native, also the director of operations for the
357th AS at Maxwell AFB. "As we left Islamabad, you could tell the
rivers were a little bit high. The more we flew down toward Sukkur,
which is downriver, you can see out the window the widening of the
river as the floodwaters continued to go further past the banks of
the normal river channel.
1st Lt. Jonathan Lipsey (U.S. Air Force Photo)
"By the time we got down to Sukkur, there were thousands of
acres flooded, virtually the entire area. And you could see that
there were farms, date farms, small villages and houses that were
completely inundated with the water for miles in every direction,"
he said.
While this is not the unit's first experience with humanitarian
aid missions, there were some unique challenges the crew overcame
to safely and efficiently conduct operations supporting flood
relief in Pakistan. Communication, procedures and terrain are among
the many changes to adapt to when flying missions into unfamiliar
territory as flood relief missions require coordinating with local
nationals at the flood relief cell, operating in Pakistan's
airspace and flying over Afghanistan and Pakistan's mountainous
summits.
The language and communication barrier is one of the major
challenges, according to Sergeant Metcalf, a loadmaster with 10
years of experience. "Anytime you go international, the procedures
are slightly different and the terminology is slightly different,
so that increases the challenges," said Colonel Ostrat. "You just
have to be flexible and respond to their requirements. The biggest
challenge is understanding the communication difference. They all
speak English,the controllers, however, they all have their own
regional dialects and accents, and that sometimes makes it
hard."
The crew from the 379th AEW is just one of many elements of
support in the worldwide relief effort in Pakistan. The
Pakistan-run flood relief center receives and dispatches relief
supplies to include food, water and shelter donated by numerous
countries.