Photo By Capt. Miranda Summers Lowe | The New York Army National Guard’s Detachment 20, Operational Support Airlift: first...... read more read more
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CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti - Djibouti is a place so distant to most Americans it seems unreal. But, for six members of the New York Army National Guard, it’s been home for the past nine months. Detachment 20, Operational Airlift Support, a C-12 airlift unit, has pushed the boundaries of their aircraft and their careers while serving in East Africa.
“Africa is huge,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Kent Wagner, Det. 20 Commander. “The distance from Djibouti to Kenya is about the same as flying from New York to Miami. It’s not just that, but stateside, it’s hard to find a place that’s not within gliding distance or radar control of an airfield. Here, that’s how we fly most of the time.”
The soldiers are assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, based out of Camp Lemonnier, but members travel all over eastern Africa to support military-to-military engagements, humanitarian efforts and build regional partnerships. The C-12 has proven to be a versatile asset for CJTF-HOA. The twin engine, turbo-prop aircraft is traditionally valued for executive transport, a role it still fills well.
“The C-12 can really be a force protection asset. When we arrive at many commercial airports, we use different parts of the airfield. It adds options.” The C-12 is small enough that it can service airports smaller than many other aircraft, but has more range than rotary assets.
“When we first arrived, we mostly moved our leadership to exercises and engagements around the AOR.” Said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Chris Panarese. “But after the Juba, South Sudan Embassy evacuation [which was led by CJTF-HOA’s East Africa Response Force], we started looking at more short-notice missions.”
Originally, Det. 20 was assigned to the logistics section of CJTF-HOA. To better utilize the aircraft, they experimented with cargo transport.
Mail run might be slang for boring, but for some of the members of the U.S. Military working across Africa, it’s a lifeline. Many of these service members do not have access to a Post Exchange, and can’t go into town to stock up at a Walmart or Walgreens. Without their packages, they have very little access to basic hygiene items, snacks or word from home.
The first cargo mission was close to Christmas. The pilots and crew were so excited to get troops their holiday packages that they loaded too much into the plane and needed to adjust the weight before takeoff.
While assigned to CJTF-HOA, the New York Guardsmen have proven the flexibility of this airframe, and made the unprecedented move into the Active Duty Air Force 449th Air Expeditionary Group, where they have proven its flexibility by using it for cargo transport and medical evacuations.
Careers spanning decades—and continents
For two members of Det. 20, they would end a collective 80 years of service to their nation touching down at Camp Lemonnier.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dave Lewis completed the last of his more than 22,000 flight hours while flying Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, CJTF-HOA commander from Kenya. After 41 years in the army, Lewis had flown four different airframes and crewed on a fifth.
Lewis also served as an aviator for the New York State Police, where he flew five governors. He deployed twice, to South America and now to Africa. It was actually his second last flight—he’d come out of retirement to deploy with the unit he was so passionate about. “I had a blast.” said Lewis about his career. “I got to fly almost my entire life: Military and civilian.” He’ll keep flying for a civilian aviation company in New York when he returns. “I need to transition into retirement.”
After the fast pace of deployment, this seems understandable.
The same day, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Kent Wagner ended his 38 years in the military. He had spent his time in Djibouti as commander of Det. 20. As he returned from another mission to Kenya, he was thinking of going someplace warm and sandy when he retires. “St. Martin. St. Croix. Maybe I’ll fly down there. Wear shorts, sunglasses, a hat.”
Wagner’s career started with seven years in the Marine Corps. He moved into the New York Army National Guard, where he served another 31 years, mostly as full-time military technician. He flew over 4,000 hours, an unusually large number of hours, and even more so for a National Guardsman.
“CJTF-HOA is a unique opportunity for National Guard members to serve in a deployed environment.” said Brig. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, CJTF-HOA Commanding General. “This is not Iraq or Afghanistan, but a unique mission set where we are focused every day on building relationships with our African teammates. I like to call CJTF-HOA the leadership factory. Fifty-one percent of CJTF-HOA is comprised of members of the reserve components. Det. 20 has provided a great service, to me personally, and to their country.”
Grigsby went on to explain that as the father of two daughters in the National Guard, he understood the value of Citizen Soldiers. In fact, a main effort at CJTF-HOA is to give service members equal access to leadership assignments and leadership development opportunities.
Det. 20 rotated back to New York in July 2014. They were previously mobilized in 2006 to Bogata, Columbia, and in 2008 to Afghanistan.
| Date Taken: | 08.20.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2014 10:45 |
| Story ID: | 139920 |
| Location: | CAMP LEMONNIER, DJ |
| Web Views: | 366 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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