Photo By David Bedard | Senior Airman Nicholas Hendrickson is a 517th Airlift Squadron C-17 Globemaster III...... read more read more
Subscribe
During his second mission on an Alaska-based C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft, Senior Airman Nicholas Hendrickson, a loadmaster with the 517th Airlift Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, discovered he was getting a lot more than he had bargained for when he signed his enlistment contract.
His mission was to move a group of Marines and two UH-1Z Venom helicopters from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, to Clark Air Base, the Philippines.
“Whenever we see helicopters on a load plan, everybody knows it’s going to be a busy day,” said Staff Sgt. Chelsea Kolesnikov, a fellow loadmaster and Hendrickson's supervisor. “It's difficult because so much is going on. It's the loadmasters, the load team, everybody has to be on the same page.”
In order for a military helicopter to fit into the cargo hold of a C-17, the whirlybird is “reduced” – a process similar to the transformation of an Autobot into a Camaro. Unit representatives fold the rotors into a single line allowing for the Globemaster to swallow the Viper whole through its aft cargo ramp.
Hendrickson said it takes a sizable load team, with one perched on the tail boom, to shoehorn the craft into the C-17. All the while, the loadmaster supervises the entire process to ensure the helicopter is safely loaded without damaging either aircraft.
With the Marines and cargo securely delivered to Clark, Hendrickson discovered his mission was just beginning. After the devastating 7.8 magnitude April 2015 earthquake, Nepal sent a call for international aid.
The 618th Air Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center), at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, “picked off” Hendrickson's Globemaster, plucking the metal and composite bird from its resting perch in the tropical Philippines and vectoring it to the brisk heights of Kathmandu, Nepal, 4,600 feet above the Indian Ocean.
Kolesnikov, whose C-17 was also picked off for the mission, said the fraught situation was simply part of a loadmaster's life wrangling people and equipment through the world's breezy skyways. Through it all, she said, safety is their watch word.
“You are the sole person responsible for the weight and balance of the cargo on a C-17,” Kolesnikov explained.
If too much weight is fore or aft of the aircraft, it's unsafe to fly. It's a loadmaster's job to situate the different puzzle pieces at just the right place across the aluminum deck of the Globemaster cargo hold, and ensure it is properly tied down.
“If it wasn't for us, that cargo wouldn't be going anywhere, so being able to start here and go to Japan or Europe, down range [to a combat zone] or anywhere else is very important,” said Kolesnikov, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania. “We're the ones who make sure that cargo gets to where it needs to be.”
The cargo arrived safely and on time, providing much-needed relief to the people of Nepal.
“That was probably the toughest mission,” Hendrickson said. “It was a long day with complicated cargo, and I was still the new guy.”
Hendrickson, a son of Las Vegas, said he always knew if he was going to visit a recruiter, it was going to be at an Air Force office. Though he was originally angling for an air traffic control job, he said he wasn't settling when he enlisted as a loadmaster.
“I was also interested in the aircrew lifestyle: being able to see the world and getting paid to do it,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson is a tall and slender Airman, a brown shock of hair and a beaming grin make him seem aloft even when he is earthbound, like Ferris Bueller in a flight suit. His breezy demeanor belies the great responsibility he has before and during an airlift mission.
The Air Force invested 14 months into training Hendrickson – everything from aircrew fundamentals at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma; and Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington; to Aviation Water Survival Training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Still, his learning curve would be steep, adapting to the vast distances of the Pacific Theater of Operations and austere conditions in rural Alaska.
When former President Barack Obama visited Alaska in September 2015, Hendrickson's C-17 was called to move support equipment to Dillingham and Kotzebue. Among the small Cessna and Piper Cub bush planes buzzing across the state, the often low-flying Globemaster looks like a lumbering bumble bee among a cloud of gnats.
The sight of the towering cargo plane – weighing more than 580,000 pounds fully loaded – disgorging the president's ground-support equipment proved to be a novel sight in rural Alaska, Hendrickson said.
“It's fun because you go to small airports with narrow runways, and you have the whole town watching you,” he said. “Everything is so mundane to us, but they're so interested.”
As mundane as the confines of the jet can get to an Airman who works it every day, Hendrickson said he found the traveling adventure he was looking for.
Exercise Cope Taufan found the young loadmaster in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, supporting a joint airdrop exercise with the Malaysian Army. Between drops, Hendrickson was able to visit the capital city surrounded by tropical rain forest.
“A lot of people say loadmaster is the best enlisted job in the Air Force, and they're not wrong,” Kolesnikov said. “If you joined the Air Force to travel, you’re going to want to be aircrew.”
As restful as his Malaysia mission could be at times, Hendrickson said the Nepal mission still stands out in his mind.
He was tasked with moving a new group of Marines and two MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from Clark to Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. Bigger and more complex to reduce than the Venoms, the job of moving the Ospreys took on a whole new complexity amid what was already an urgent situation.
The loadmaster's training kicked in, the Marines and cargo were loaded, and the C-17 landed safely. Greeted by a throng of Nepalese people and the U.S. ambassador to Nepal, Hendrickson said the enormity and far-reaching implications of his job dawned on him.
More experienced, Kolesnikov was more prepared for what awaited the Airmen.
“You're told to pack like you won't be home for a month,” she said. “Bigger picture, when it comes to humanitarian aid or being picked off for aeromedical evac[uation] mission, it's awesome. It feels really good being out there doing what you can and helping.”
Surrounded by people needing the assistance he helped deliver on the wings of his Globemaster, Hendrickson said he fully grasped what he needed to bring to the Air Force as a loadmaster.
“It's always stressful for us because all of those eyes on us, everyone always wants to take pictures of us,” he said. “You have to make sure you're on your A-game, because everyone is watching.”
| Date Taken: | 07.18.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2017 15:33 |
| Story ID: | 241649 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, ALASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 145 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Atlas of the airways: Firebirds loadmaster moves troops and cargo, by David Bedard, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
