Photo By Tatum Vayavananda | Once the KC-130 Hercules has landed, Lance Cpl. Gregory Terpinyan, an air frame...... read more read more
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MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, Romania – Black Sea Rotational Force 11’s mission to promote stability, engage in military-to-military training, and build partnerships with allied nations is no small operation, especially with 12 Eastern Europeans nations in the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions participating in the deployment.
But the unit’s Air Combat Element, Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 686, the combination of Marine reservists from VMGR-452, Newburgh, N.Y., and VMGR- 234, Fort Worth, Texas, armed with KC-130T Hercules aircraft, play a huge role to support the missions at hand by transporting, traveling and flying around the region.
“We’re a force multiplier, handling all the logistics for all the operations that are going to neighboring countries,” said Staff Sgt. Matt D. Racioppo, loadmaster, BSRF-11.
“Everything is going smoothly,” added Racioppo, a native of Yorktown Heights, N.Y. “And compared to the operational tempo in a combat environment, this is much calmer. We have a good idea of what our operations are going to be and how we’re going to do them.
In addition to the primary logistics role, the ACE has been performing air-delivery missions with Romanians and Bulgarians, flying day and night personnel air drops, and several military-to-military events with foreign nation’s air forces.
Marines of the air and maintenance crews recently travelled to teach several classes on air frames, avionics work, safety tool control, aviation safety and quality assurance to Romanian Air Force personnel in Bucharest.
“They were very receptive and seemed eager to learn our ways with the C-130s,” said Master Sgt. Pearse G. Kearns, maintenance chief, BSRF-11.
The ACE’s role in BSRF-11 has been kicked-up a level from last year’s rotation and the maintenance crew work long hours to keep the aircraft up and ready to fly.
“We have scheduled inspections and unscheduled maintenance if something breaks,” said Kearns. “We don’t have a whole squadron of aircraft so we spend more time maintaining the [ones we have].
To date, the ACE has 189 hours of flight time, spanning 50,875 miles to 107 stops, and transported 358,195 pounds of cargo and 596 personnel, including 160 Macedonian soldiers currently receiving counterinsurgency training at Babadag Training Area, Romania.
With the numerous foreign military engagements, Non-Commissioned Officer Academies, foreign militaries flying in and out of Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield, and the extensive logistics support to operations in all the participating nations, BSRF would be nearly impossible without an ACE detachment.
“If you look at the [operations], all of them involve arrows out of MK and coming back. Without an ACE, I don’t see how that would be possible,” said Lt. Col. Douglas D. Stumpf, ACE detachment commander, BSRF-11.
“There is much more activity; last year we did a few air drops with Romanians and [this year] we are bringing Bulgarians into the fray,” added the Aledo, Texas native.
Aviation operations during deployment are not uncommon to the ACE Marines, despite their reserve status. Due to the nature of the work, most of the Marines spend up to 20 days a month flying and keeping proficiency at their jobs. Additionally, the ACE has several Marines who are employed with American Airlines, Cessna Aircraft Company, and other private aviation companies.
“We have a broad span of reservists who work at all different jobs in the aviation field,” said Kearns. “We pretty much do the same work at home with different hours and in a different country,” added the Goshen, N.Y., native.
The ACE will continue to be a vital part of the BSRF mission for the rest of their three months in the region and for future rotations to come.
“We’ve really ‘broken the ice’ on how the process is done, who to contact, and how to go about accomplishing the mission,” said Stumpf. “We’ve placed a great template for follow-on BSRF missions.”
“We are establishing training and flight protocol with our foreign counterparts and laying a good foundation for next year,” said Raccioppo. “Months of work and planning seemed to really pay off. Everyone is benefitting from it and I’m happy to be a part of it.”
| Date Taken: | 06.03.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.03.2011 08:38 |
| Story ID: | 71519 |
| Location: | MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, RO |
| Web Views: | 135 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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