436th APS

Senior Airman Brandon Haney, 436th Aerial Port Squadron traffic management, directs a forklift driven by Staff Sgt. Damon Huddleston, 436th APS traffic management, April 26, 2016, at the Aerial Port on Dover Air Force Base, Del. During Dover AFB’s shortened runway operations due to ongoing runway construction, any cargo amount that exceeds the capabilities of Dover’s C-17A Globemaster III fleet will be transported to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

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436th APS

Senior Airman Brandon Haney, 436th Aerial Port Squadron traffic management, spots a forklift driven by Staff Sgt. Damon Huddleston, 436th APS traffic management, as he places a cargo pallet onto a flatbed truck April 26, 2016, at the Aerial Port on Dover Air Force Base, Del. All cargo that transits Dover AFB is processed through the Aerial Port. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

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436th APS

Senior Airman Brandon Haney, 436th Aerial Port Squadron traffic management, directs a forklift driven by Staff Sgt. Damon Huddleston, 436th APS traffic management, as it lifts a cargo pallet April 26, 2016, at the Aerial Port on Dover Air Force Base, Del. Since the start of shortened runway operations at Dover AFB in March 2016, the Aerial Port has shipped 900 tons of cargo to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

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436th APS

Staff Sgt. Damon Huddleston, 436th Aerial Port Squadron traffic management, uses a forklift to load palletized cargo onto a flatbed truck April 26, 2016, at the Aerial Port on Dover Air Force Base, Del. This cargo will be transported to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., to be loaded onto a contracted 747 cargo plane. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

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436th APS

Palletized cargo is loaded onto a flatbed truck by Senior Airman Brandon Haney and Staff Sgt. Damon Huddleston, both 436th Aerial Port Squadron traffic management, April 26, 2016, at the Aerial Port on Dover Air Force Base, Del. Thus far, enough cargo has been transported to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. to fill 13 747 cargo planes. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia)

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Dover Aerial Port trucks cargo to JB MDL

Published April 27, 2016
By Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia
436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Since February 2016, Team Dover's fleet of C-5M Super Galaxy airlifters has temporarily operated out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, due to an ongoing runway construction project at Dover AFB, which has created shortened runway operations, causing a few changes to the 436th Aerial Port Squadron's mission.

The most notable change is the need to transport the overage cargo that exceeds the capability of Team Dover's fleet of 13 intermediate strategic and tactical airlifter C-17A Globemaster IIIs, which have remained at Dover.

"Essentially, the shipper delivers the cargo in to us, we aggregate into pallets and ship it out on C-17s," said Destiny Donigan, 436th APS capability forecaster. "Once that aggregation exceeds our C-17 capability, we truck it up to [JB MDL] to be loaded onto a 747."

This process was developed to mitigate delay and cost.

"The overall time it takes to get the cargo to the customer is transparent," said Donigan. "They won't see a difference, despite the runway construction. We are able to maintain our capabilities that we were at before the construction."

A question that seems obvious is, "How come the cargo is not just sent to JB MDL from the start? Why does it still process through Dover's Super Port?"

"The reason why all of this cargo is still coming to Dover Air Force Base, is because if we try to tell all of our customers to just send all the cargo to [JB MDL]--don't send it to us at all--it will cause confusion on their part," said Lt. Col. Jarod Blecher, 436th APS commander. "By the time we really get that message out to them all, it will be time to undo it."

In other words, attempting to coordinate with third-party suppliers and customers may cause confusion and disruption in the system, costing time and money.

Since March 2016, the 436th APS has transported around 900 tons of cargo from Dover to JB MDL, accounting for 13 fully loaded 747 cargo planes.

"It's going really well," said Blecher. "For us, this is normal business; we just have to order more trucks."

This split operations between Dover AFB and JB MDL is expected to last until late summer.