Courtesy Photo | Tech. Sgt. Duane Kaiser stands and provides guidance to K-loader driver Tech. Sgt....... read more read more
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By Staff Sgt. Kevin Tomko
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs Office
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – It's a familiar sight to see American-made C-17s landing and maneuvering. Russian-built IL-76 cargo aircraft were lined up on the flight line, taxiing for departure. And while one aircraft is being unloaded, another is waiting next in line — yet another is just about to land.
One squadron, working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, is the driving force behind cargo movement at Bagram Air Field.
One week ago, the 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron had the task of not only handling their normal workloads, but also fielding a new camp system used by the Army called Force Provider.
Force Provider is an old concept used in a new way - that is, building camps using a type of modular construction and shipping everything in containers.
"Basically they are canned camps," said Senior Master Sgt. James Shay, aerial port superintendent. "They have different modules. Everything is in them. They have dining facilities, laundry, latrines and billeting."
The camps are shipped in eight-foot containers that can be easily handled. They can be trucked or air-dropped to remote locations.
"The main purpose of the camps is for transitional housing, where you can put them up fast and take them down fast," said Franklin Hinton, a member of the technical assistance team for Force Provider. "The camps that were just unloaded here take about two weeks to build. We're building seven of these camps in Iraq right now."
To handle the added task of moving these Force Provider containers, the squadron developed methods to save time and manpower.
One way to save time was by lining up two K-loaders back to back when unloading the IL-76.
"We park them back to back behind the IL-76 because this cargo plane holds nine containers. Six containers go on the first K-loader and three go on the second," said Chief Master Sgt. Edward Ratka, 455th ELRS superintendent. "Instead of driving each K-loader up to the plane separately, we park them back to back, line them up and unload it all at once."
Ratka said the aerial port easily broke Bagram's record for handling cargo in a single week — surpassing the previous record mid-way through the week.
"I'm really proud of our people for what they have done on this rotation," said Ratka. "We unloaded 360 of these containers last week, and that's in addition to our normal work load."
Speed and efficiency are the keys to helping the Army build camps in remote locations, and the 455th ELRS has shown that they are up to the task. When the Army calls for these portable camps to be deployed, they can have confidence that the mission will be accomplished in a timely manner.
| Date Taken: | 04.12.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 04.12.2007 07:29 |
| Story ID: | 9873 |
| Location: | BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF |
| Web Views: | 224 |
| Downloads: | 160 |
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