Palmetto Stage officially closed for business

Published Sept. 23, 2010
By Trisha Gallaway
Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs

JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. -- In December 2009 when President Barack Obama announced there would be a shift in focus to Operation Enduring Freedom, Joint Base Charleston got busy and got down to work.

All of that hard work paid off when the Palmetto Stage officially closed Sept. 8, and marked the completion of the Afghanistan surge.

The stage was established to help manage the transient aircrews and aircraft who were working to ensure troops and the needed supplies arrived in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

"The Palmetto Stage launched more than 900 missions, moved more than 34.5 million pounds of cargo and carried more than 9,000 personnel over a six month period ... all without incident or accident," said Lt. Col. Jack McNall, one of three 437th Airlift Wing Stage Operations managers and director of operations for the 317th Airlift Squadron at JB Charleston. "[The stage] could not have been successful without the incredible support and cooperation of all agencies from the 437th Airlift Wing, 628th Air Base Wing and the 315th Airlift Wing. The Palmetto Stage is truly an example of all base agencies working together toward a common goal - it is beyond a doubt a base-wide success."

Another group of Charleston Airmen who made huge contributions to the Palmetto Stage was the 437th Maintenance Group.

"[During the stage] we were flying anywhere between 10 to 15 stage missions within a 24-hour period, [in addition to] higher headquarters missions as well as local trainers," said Senior Master Sgt. Eugene Herrera, 437th Maintenance Operations Squadron and the Palmetto Stage Maintenance Group Production superintendent. "If I had to put a rough number on a busy day during the stage, I would say it was not uncommon to launch and recover more than 20 aircraft in a 24-hour time span."

It was up to Sergeant Herrera and the maintenance group's Aircraft Maintenance Units to maintain the aircraft from throughout Air Mobility Command who were at Charleston supporting the surge.

"We monitored and tracked the Global Decision Support System and assigned each aircraft that came through Charleston to an Aircraft Maintenance Unit," he said. "The two AMUs in turn would have to recover, service, inspect and launch these aircraft."

So exactly how did Joint Base Charleston end up on the short list of bases to support this important mission?

The 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center and Air Mobility Command, co-located at Scott AFB, Ill., evaluated several bases which could potentially support the stage in the United States for the surge in Afghanistan, said Colonel McNall. They picked [Joint Base Charleston] because of its location, previous experience, ability to service and maintain the additional airplane traffic, but mostly because of the superior people we have on this base who provide support for the mission."

While supporting the surge became a way of life for most Joint Base Charleston Airmen, the missions' importance was never far from the mind of Sergeant Herrera.

"I lost count of how many aircraft I was on and drove away from thinking, 'someone down range is going to be really glad to see these huge pallets of bullets, equipment, vehicles or whatever cargo was on board.' I often drove home after a 12-hour day knowing that stuff could not get there without the outstanding maintainers we have," he said. "It wasn't just one person who made this happen, it took an awesome team from both the 315th AW and 437th AW maintainers and aerial porters. A job well done!"

Now that the surge is complete, Colonel McNall says all Airmen should be proud of themselves for a job well done.

"There should be a tremendous sense of accomplishment shared by all of Joint Base Charleston," he said. "The stage was a resounding success - the entire base contributed directly."