Mobility Airman profile: Dover aerial porter supports OEF cargo movement in Afghanistan

Published Sept. 20, 2011
By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- In Afghanistan, Airman 1st Class Russell Schemmel is part of a team of air transportation Airmen in the 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron that moves cargo and people in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing, which is based at Kandahar Airfield.

An air transportation journeyman, Schemmel is deployed from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron at Dover Air Force Base, Del. -- home to Air Mobility Command's 436th Airlift Wing. As an aerial porter, he has to maintain a myriad of skills and job knowledge.

According to the official Air Force job description for the air transportation career field, they must maintain mandatory job knowledge in passenger and cargo movement functions to include transport aircraft types, capabilities, and configuration. They must also know weight and balance factors, airlift transportation directives and documentation, cargo securing techniques, border clearance requirements, operation of materials handling and other types of loading equipment or devices, fleet service functions.

In directing air transportation activities, aerial porters like Schemmel supplement policies and direct supervisory personnel to provide cargo and passenger loading and unloading services. He is trained to establish procedures for passenger and aircraft clearance through international border clearance agencies and to inspect airlift activities for compliance with directives, the job description states.

Aerial porters like Schemmel can also check in passengers as well as process, schedule, transport and escort passengers to and from aircraft. They determine quantity and type of cargo to be loaded according to allowable aircraft cabin load and they check cargo against manifests, and annotate overage, shortage or damage.

Schemmel is also trained to verify eligibility of cargo and mail offered for airlift and to review passenger travel authorizations for validity and accuracy. He also ensures all cargo documentation, packaging, labeling and marking requirements, and all border clearance requirements have been met. He provides information on schedules, routes, air movement requirements, baggage limitations and local facilities for passengers and requisitions, stores and issues expendable and nonexpendable items for use on aircraft.

Schemmel's deployed unit ensures the safe and efficient upload and download of cargo and personnel on all organic and contracted aircraft to the base. To do the heavy lifting, they use specific material handling equipment such as forklifts capable of lifting upwards of 10,000 pounds of cargo and aircraft cargo loaders which are capable of holding pallets and cargo weighing up to 25,000 and 60,000 pounds. The loaders, when filled with cargo, are driven out to the aircraft, the deck is raised hydraulically, and powered rollers on the loader push the cargo on board the plane.

Schemmel was also recognized as being among the best at what he does. In a report from 451st AEW Public Affairs, Schemmel was named the wing's Airman of the Month for August.

In the report posted in a photo by Senior Airman Corey Hook, it shows Schemmel's hometown is Kerkhoven, Minn., and that he was proud to receive the honor.

"This is the first time I've ever received any award like this," Schemmel said in the stand-alone photo posting from Sept. 9 at http://www.kdab.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123271356.

"I feel that all the Airmen here work just as hard and deserve the same reward," Schemmel also said in the report.

According to Air Forces Central statistics from the Combined Air Operations Center in Southwest Asia, as of Aug. 31, more than 145,000 tons of cargo and 740,000 people have been moved by mobility Airmen in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in 2011. Schemmel can say he was a part of that effort.

(Senior Airman Corey Hook, 451st AEW Public Affairs, contributed to this report.)