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Charleston aerial port bridges gap to Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Daniel Bowles
  • Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs
JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. --  Early August, rolling down miles of interstate highway from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shipments of uniquely buoyant military cargo are due for a pit stop in Charleston, S.C.

The destination is the 437th Aerial Port Squadron - a transfer point between land and air-based travel. Trucks arrive, the port conducts a handoff and preparations begin like clockwork in the wet summer air of South Carolina.

The equipment is large. It's wide. It's tall, so the 437th APS unleashes its "port dawgs."  By the yard, foot and inch, sweat pours as Airmen feed it into the carnivorous cargo hold of a C-17. Then it's three, two, one, liftoff. Wheels cruise down the runway and retract for flight on their way to a dusty Middle Eastern landing strip mid-afternoon Aug. 17.

"I always call us the 911 base," said Bobby Robinson, veteran "port dawg" and air freight supervisor for the 437th APS. "When you have some big, huge amount of equipment that you need to move, they call on Charleston to get it out."

So, when the Army needed a hand getting deployed forces to walk across water, the 437th APS took the call to help bridge the gap.

The specialized cargo from Missouri, which shipped Aug. 17, was a part of the Improved Float Bridge system, or Ribbon Bridge - a product of Army reverse engineering. The customer in this case is a deployed Army engineering battalion, and the bridge system is planned as an airtight solution for crossing Afghanistan waterways.

The Aug. 17 mission was the first of its kind for Charleston, Mr. Robinson said, with a second mission following Aug. 18, and more still to come. Approximately 40 sections of bridge were delivered from Missouri, along with three boats which act as waterborne mooring vehicles. Bridge shipments are expected to continue until the end of the month, supplementing a larger sealift operation.

The bridge system operates as an interconnecting system of bridge sections which are transported, launched, moored and retrieved by a transporter vehicle. Carried in a folded position and painted a drab green, each bridge section measures 22 feet long and automatically opens upon entering the water.

Each section's overall size is grossly disproportional to its mass, weighing in at roughly 22,500 pounds. Despite their lighter weight, under certain conditions an assembled bridge can support the weight of an M1 Abrams tank.

At approximately 25 feet long and 11 feet wide, the bridge sections are also too large for normal loading on a C-17, Mr. Robinson said.

"They're kind of unique because of the way we have to load them on the airplane," he said. "Because they're so wide we have to back the k-loader [aircraft loading vehicle] in."

Besides the challenges of loading, the initial operation experienced a minor delay. The original shipping date of Aug. 15 was bumped due to maintenance and aircraft availability. With the Afghanistan surge in full swing, Mr. Robinson said port operations have felt the pressure.

As carefully as missions are orchestrated, the realities of generating air mobility still pose a challenge, he said. Loads are planned - plans are scraped. New plans are prepared in the midst of weather holds, maintenance delays and aircraft swaps.

The juggling act to bridge the gap will continue with the end-of-month deadline looming, but it's a worthwhile challenge to provide a unique level of support to forces abroad, Mr. Robinson said.

"The impact that Charleston's having on the war on terrorism is with the amount of equipment and specialized equipment that we're putting into Afghanistan," he said. "That's a serious impact ... that's what makes us so unique."