Photo By Master Sgt. Melissa White | Nepalese army soldiers observe U.S. Air Force Airmen using forklifts to download...... read more read more
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KATHMANDU, Nepal – U.S. Air Force Airmen with Joint Task Force 505 started providing Nepalese army soldiers with training on how to operate new flightline equipment May 13 at the Tribhuvan International Airport here.
The timing of the training is critical as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated the nation April 25, followed by a second significant earthquake that struck May 12, resulting in hundreds of thousands of pounds of relief supplies arriving at the airport daily.
“This will definitely help increase our capabilities and it will save a lot of time with clearing the supplies,” said Nepalese army Capt. Umesh Karki, combat engineer. “We are also very thankful to the U.S. Air Force for their time and dedication to help us.”
The 36th Contingency Response Group Airmen, who deployed with JTF 505 in support of Operation Sahayogi Haat, trained the Nepalese army soldiers who will then become instructors for their respective units and pass the learned skills on to their fellow soldiers. The Airmen will continue meeting with the soldiers throughout the next several days until all training is complete.
“We can’t stay here forever and we don’t want to leave behind a void when we leave,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Brint Ingersoll, 36th CRG operations officer. “We want them to be able the maintain the capacity, and this training is definitely a step in the right direction for the airport to be able to handle the relief mission in the long run and being able to push aid out to the people who need it.”
The Airmen trained the soldiers on daily preventive maintenance inspections, different function controls, as well as spotting signals with actual hands-on application while using an extendable boom forklift.
The training will progress to different types of airfield equipment during the next several days, to include the extendable boom forklift, a 10,000-pound forklift and a 60K-loader, all of which were donated to Nepal by United Kingdom Agency for International Development in the wake of the natural disaster. The Airmen will also guide them on managing the workforce on the ramp and different processes for unloading cargo, to include simultaneous downloads from different aircraft.
“It’s been great working with the Nepalese army because they’re warm, friendly people who catch on very quickly and I’m very confident they will be able to carry out this mission when we leave,” Ingersoll said.
The 36th CRG Airmen arrived in Nepal, May 5, to aid the government of Nepal and U.S. Agency for International Development with airfield operations and processing relief supplies. Since then, the Airmen, who regularly drive different types of forklifts as part of their jobs, received specialized training from a UK AID representative on the equipment and have been using them to process relief supplies arriving at the airport daily. Now, they are passing on the knowledge to their Nepalese counterparts so they can focus more on aiding the local government with processing relief supplies.
“I’m not just proud of our guys professionally as technically skilled Airmen, but for their ability to work with different cultures,” Ingersoll said. “Their level of culture awareness and their ability to teach across those boundaries of different backgrounds and cultures through a technical aspect is really phenomenal.”
| Date Taken: | 05.13.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.17.2015 03:19 |
| Story ID: | 163541 |
| Location: | KATHMANDU, NP |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, USAF Airmen teach Nepalese Army skills to carry on earthquake relief mission, by MSgt Melissa White, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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