Joint Base MDL staff sergeant supports deployed CRE for Pakistan flood relief

Published Oct. 14, 2010
By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- On his current deployment as an air transportation craftsman, Staff Sgt. Joshua Gaines is doing exactly what he was trained to do as an aerial porter -- except the impact he's having now is helping millions of Pakistani flood victims.

Sergeant Gaines is deployed with an Air Force contingency response element at Pakistan Air Force Base Chaklala supporting the Pakistan Air Force Central Flood Relief Cell. He is deployed from the 818th Contingency Response Group, 621st Contingency Response Wing, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. His hometown is Edinboro, Penn.

According to its Air Force fact sheet, the 621st CRW is "highly-specialized in training and rapidly deploying personnel to quickly open airfields and establish, expand, sustain, and coordinate air mobility operations. From wartime taskings to disaster relief, the 621st extends Air Mobility Command's reach in deploying people and equipment around the globe."

Sergeant Gaines is among more than 30 Airmen from the 621st CRW who deployed to Pakistan Aug. 28 to establish the CRE. According to Air Force reports, the team of Airmen have worked "around the clock" to assist with managing the distribution of incoming international relief supplies by building aid pallets for onward transportation, loading and unloading aircraft, and scheduling aircraft relief flights.

Additionally, the CRE where Sergeant Gaines works adds to what operations, structure and organization the Pakistan air force base already contained in their mission to provide relief to the people in their country affected by the torrential floods that began late July, reports show.

According to the official Air Force job description for the air transportation career field, Sergeant Gaines is doing all the things he's trained to do with his deployed team. The job description states aerial porters 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 and fleet service functions.

In directing air transportation activities, aerial porters like Sergeant Gaines 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.

Sergeant Gaines 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.

Aerial porters like Sergeant Gaines can check in passengers and 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.

In an Oct. 13 news report from Staff Sgt. Kali Gradishar of U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs, Sergeant Gaines compared the last time he was in Pakistan supporting earthquake relief operations in 2005 to his current deployed operation.

"It was a lot easier coming here this time because I knew a little about what to expect. In 2005, it was an eye-opener to see what operations were like," Sergeant Gaines said in the story. "Both have been joint missions. We had different branches of the U.S. military working here on the same mission, and there were other countries here, too."

Air Mobility Command contingency response wings and their subordinate contingency response groups currently operate worldwide, conducting logistical support to every geographic combatant command, including U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Southern Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command areas of responsibility, AMC facts show. Given only a strip of runway, CRGs can quickly establish an air base, including the supporting infrastructure and services needed for command and control of airlift and other operations.

(Staff Sgt. Kali Gradishar, AFCENT Public Affairs, and Mr. Roger Drinnon, AMC Public Affairs, contributed to this story.)