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Hercules’ Labors - 777th EAS moves C-130s in first role at forward-deployed base

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kerry Solan-Johnson
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  On the west side of Balad, formations of burned-out, mangled humvee frames bake and bleach in the sun, their remnants so twisted they seem to writhe in their dusty graveyard.
“You can still see blood in some of them,” said Lt. Col Dan Dagher, shaking his head.
For Colonel Dagher, 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron commander, each bombed-out frame is a lost opportunity.

“The risk of us flying and carrying that cargo is a lot less than the risk of some Army unit trying to survive the roads of Iraq,” the colonel said.

The 777th EAS’s primary mission, convoy reduction, fills a critical role in a combat zone where improvised explosive devices steal the lives of most military members killed in combat.

Army Master Sgt. Gary Boda, 181st Transportation Battalion operations noncommissioned officer in charge, said with most Army companies traveling more than one million miles outside the wire during their rotation here, the 777th EAS’s mission is appreciated.

“Some of these convoys travel as far 397 miles,” Sergeant Boda said. “Anytime you can take a 20-truck convoy off the roads, that’s good.”

In the C-130’s first role in a forward deployment, it also has the missions of cargo drops and movement, distinguished visitor airlift, detainee transport, aeromedical evacuations, troop transport and transport of those fallen in combat.

“It eliminates the need for other aircraft to (fly) from other locations and make a two to three-hour flight,” Colonel Dagher said. “It’s more efficient for us to make the 20-minute legs out to forward air bases.”

The monstrous appetite for their missions (seven a day) is fed by 15 six-man crews as well as a slew of maintainers, life support, flight medics and other support agencies, many of who are on their fifth or sixth deployment in three years.

“We’re a total force – a mix of Guard and active duty, young and old,” Colonel Dagher said. “It works quite well.”

The 777th EAS, or Dueling Dragons, fly twice the amount of missions of any other C-130 squadron in Southwest Asia, despite lacking two times the amount of maintainers or crew.

“Shifts can be grueling,” said Senior Airman Chris Withrow, deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.

Crews work 14- to 18-hour shifts on a flightline so hot, it’s described as “hell on pre-heat.” Starting up the gray aluminum beast makes 120-degree temperatures 145 degrees during engine-running loads, which are designed to shorten ground time for the Hercules.
“It can get frustrating – the stress of the environment,” said Staff Sgt. Steve Morrow, deployed from Little Rock AFB. But the stress isn’t always the operations tempo or the temperature.

Flying in a combat zone, the C-130 is a large, slow-moving (and sometimes low-flying) target, which occasionally receives small arms, surface-to-air fire. At low altitudes, loadmasters scan out the small windows of their Kevlar-padded stations, ready to drop flares to thwart incoming fire.

Despite the demand of their tasks, “these guys are out there working twice as hard to make these sorties happen,” Colonel Dagher said. “They understand the motivation - people die when this cargo has to be convoyed.”