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C-17 unit brings 'bombs, beans, bullets' to the fight

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Erik Hofmeyer
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNEWS) --  "Bringing the bombs, beans and bullets to the warfighter" is how Capt. Aaron Oelrich described the mission of the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron while on his way to fly an airlift mission into Iraq.

And "bring it" they do, to the tune of about one million pounds of cargo daily.

The 816th EAS, a 379th Air Expeditionary Wing tenant unit, is approaching the end of its four-month rotation after directly supporting and sustaining ground combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since Dec. 31. The C-17s provide theater logistical options for CENTCOM leadership through the airlifting and airdropping of personnel and supplies, and the expedited evacuation of wounded servicemembers.

As of April 24, squadron aircrews have flown 3,578 sorties equating to 6,167 flying hours, 120.8 million pounds of cargo and 111,549 passengers in and out of the area of responsibility. Also, the squadron has seen an increase in combat airdrop and dirt landing strip missions.

"All we need is 3,500 feet of runway, only 90-feet wide, which isn't much more than a C-130," said Lt. Col. William Anderson, 816th EAS commander. "We can get into some austere locations."

The squadron regularly travels into 13 locations in Iraq and several others for specific missions. The same goes for Afghanistan, where the squadron goes into eight locations, plus several other semi-prepared runway locations.

Recently, the 816th EAS aircrews took precision airdrop to the next level by advancing the operational capability of the GPS-guided Improved Container Delivery System. The "improved" in the ICDS comes with integrating mission planning software that analyzes wind conditions to calculate the aircraft's most accurate release point in the air.

Traditional airdrop missions use a container delivery system consisting of "bundles" of cargo and non-steerable parachutes.

Although C-130s were first to use GPS-guided bundles in theater, the C-17 adds another capability with its ability to transport larger loads.

C-130 aircrews still perform the majority of airdrops, but it makes sense to use a C-17 when there is a requirement for larger loads, Colonel Anderson said.

Another advantage of ICDS is aircrews can avoid threats from the ground by dropping the same amount of cargo at a higher altitude. With every improvement Airmen make to precision airdrop, warfighters on the ground are more likely to receive the supplies when and where they need them.

Also, forces on the ground don't need to go outside of secured drop zones to gather equipment, thereby reducing their exposure to enemy fire.

"C-17s are capable of hitting multiple drop zones in one shot, and we've done as many as five drop zones in as little as 35 minutes," he said. "There was one combat ICDS drop from a C-17 previous to this deployment, and we've accomplished nine during the rotation."

The constant presence the 816th EAS maintains in both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom has led to 26 medical evacuations throughout the deployment.
Crews occasionally get rerouted from a mission in progress for an aeromedical evacuation and transport the wounded servicemembers to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, or other medical treatment centers, usually within six to seven hours.

"We have a lot of presence in theater so it minimizes the time required to get the patient to Germany," Colonel Anderson said. "Sometimes you look at the cargo you're transporting, and you never know how it'll be used in combat, (and) you don't know what effect it'll have on operations. But aeromedical evacuation is a mission where you can understand the importance when you look in the back of the cargo compartment and see their faces."