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18th AF officials call in their best for air delivery to Haiti

  • Published
  • By Thomas G. Kistler
  • 628th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  When the 18th Air Force needed a recognized expert to lead the planning cell for the very first humanitarian air delivery in Haiti, they cried "Uncle."

Lt. Col. Leon Strickland, call sign "Uncle" and Chief of Standardization and Evaluation for the 437th Operations Group, received the call on Jan. 17. In three hours, he was on the road to Pope AFB, N.C., to become the leader of the Mission Planning Cell, or MPC.

His team, weapons officer Capt. James Long, 16th Airlift Squadron, and tactician Capt. Ryan Spodar, loadmaster Tech. Sgt. Peter McCann and ground liaison Army Sgt. 1st Class Spencer Polwort, all with the 437th Operations Support Squadron, drove through the pouring rain Saturday night arriving at Pope AFB to begin planning and coordinating the first air delivery of humanitarian supplies to the people of Haiti.

According to Colonel Strickland, working with the 43rd Airlift Wing at Pope and the Army Soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C. was nothing new for the Charleston AFB Airmen.

"This sequence of events was not foreign to us as we've accomplished this type of integration at Pope many times during Joint Forcible Entry Exercises," he said.

According to Col. Robert Holba, 437 Operations Group commander, when planning an air delivery mission, the MPC considers many factors. They must combine information about the weather, terrain, ground conditions, airspace, routing, air traffic control agreements, communications and many other items. With this data, the team creates a sequence of events for an execution checklist. Because Haitian safety was a top concern and because there were other agencies involved, the MPC had to create multiple iterations of the plan to accommodate and cover all possibilities.

"The MPC worked nearly 24 hours straight without sleep," explained Colonel Strickland. "We had to ensure we had taken every precaution and meticulously planned the aerial delivery to ensure both the safety of the Haitian people as well as our aircraft and crew."

Also included in the planning was an Air Force Special Tactics Squadron that surveyed the ground in Haiti to find possible delivery zones. Fort Bragg Army riggers, assisted by Sergeant McCann and Sergeant Polwort, built more than 700 container delivery system bundles of MREs and water. At the same time, the sergeants obtained Air Transportability Test Loading Agency certification, which proved to be a great accomplishment considering it was a three-day weekend.

After construction, the bundles were coordinated with the air delivery inspectors. Headquarters Air Mobility Command Air, Space and Information Operations, accomplished coordination with Joint Task Force-Haiti officials and the Tanker Airlift Control Center. Finally, Captains Long and Spodar gathered and molded the information into the tactical plan.

"The first air delivery was a proof of concept mission to see if air delivery of supplies in Haiti was a viable way to provide emergency food and water to the Haitian people," said Colonel Holba.

Colonel Strickland agreed, saying, "This method of delivering food and water allowed us to work around the logistical bottleneck at the International airport and put a huge number of MREs and bottles of water on the ground near where it was needed most."

While C-17s deliver supplies to American forces consistently in Afghanistan, this air delivery was special according to Colonel Holba. He said it was not more difficult than others, nor more dangerous, but the first air delivery in a new location is always a challenge. The importance of providing food and water to the Haitian people made it a mission with no margin for error, making Colonel Strickland an ideal choice.

The mission required someone with more than tactical details, explained Colonel Holba. It needed someone who could integrate the data and feed it both down and up the chain of command to AMC headquarters and U.S. Southern Command to keep them informed of the planning progress. As the leader of the MPC, Colonel Strickland was also the screen between outside agencies and his team. He protected them from outside distractions and kept them focused on the mission at hand.

Colonel Strickland was selected to be the air mission commander for the first air delivery to ensure all the various elements the MPC had planned were executed according to plan. He was there to answer other questions from the aircrew as well. Along with his various other duties, he was also a liaison with CNN and two local North Carolina television affiliates who were aboard the flight.

In 2002, the Air Force selected him as one of five initial cadre members to stand up the C-17A Weapons Instructor Course at the United States Mobility Weapons School at McGuire AFB, N.J. The U.S. Air Force Weapons School is headquartered at Nellis AFB, Nev., and consists of 17 squadrons teaching 22 combat specialties at eight Air Force bases. Each weapons squadron focuses on a different weapons system. These graduate-level courses produce experts who have learned the latest tactics, techniques and procedures involving their specific platforms.

The C-17 syllabus includes 98 courses, 350 academic hours, 17 exams and 24 sorties. In addition to C-17 tactics, the students also learn how to combine, incorporate and cooperate with other weapons systems. Colonel Strickland was the first C-17A WIC course manager and later the Mobility Weapons School Deputy Commandant for Academics.

Currently, Colonel Strickland is part of the Air Component Coordination Element for Joint Task Force-Haiti. He says the ACCE works diligently to find pockets of displaced persons within Haiti using U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, which also assess damage across the JTF-H area.

"The ACCE teams coordinate activities at the operational level to ensure commanders are getting the required air, space and information operations support and that the information is integrated at all levels of military planning and execution," said Colonel Strickland.

Requested to join the ACCE team by Brig. Gen. Darryl Burke, 12th Air Force vice commander at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., Colonel Strickland is the Haiti expert of C-17 air delivery. Working with government and non-governmental organizations, he explains the capabilities and limitations of aerial delivery and coordinates the required support platforms and delivery zone control security.

Tasked just 60 days before starting terminal leave, Colonel Strickland's dedication and leadership were evident from the start. His devotion to teamwork was displayed as well.

"I was just the field grade officer in place to make sure everything went OK," he said. "And to make sure the rest of the team didn't get overwhelmed with taskers from above."

Colonel Strickland's deployment will likely be the last in his career. A career characterized by Colonel Holba as "recognized excellence."