618th Tanker Airlift Control Center enables Air Mobility Command's global reach

Published March 4, 2009
By 1st Lt. Justin Brockhoff
618th Tanker Airlift Control Center Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- When U.S. military and coalition forces need airlift, air refueling or aeromedical evacuation assets anywhere on the globe, there's a good chance the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center is involved.

The 618th TACC, a 700-person organization at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., is the Air Mobility Command's stateside hub for cargo and personnel airlift, air refueling and aeromedical evacuation - it's their job to prioritize, plan, schedule and track U.S. military and military-contracted aircraft movements anywhere in the world, at any time, every day.

How an airlift, air refueling or aeromedical evacuation requirement becomes a mission
The missions that the 618th TACC plans, schedules and executes are validated tasks handed down from U.S. Transportation Command, one of the major combatant commands that makes up the joint U.S. military force.

Other Combatant Commands, such as U.S. Central Command or U.S. Southern Command, identify the type of support they need, and then U.S. Transportation Command officials validate that requirement and decide whether that support will move by land, sea, air, or a combination of the three. If they decide to move the requirement by air, the 618th TACC gets the call.

Once a requirement comes into the 618th TACC, it goes into one of three planning directorates, depending on the type of mission. Those directorates are: the Global Channel Operations Directorate, responsible for passenger and cargo movement in the Defense Transportation System; the Current Operations Directorate, responsible for commercial airlift and air refueling missions to meet customer requirements; and the Global Readiness Directorate, which plans missions for contingencies, aeromedical evacuation, exercises and humanitarian efforts.

Once a mission is planned by one of the three planning directorates, it moves on to the Mobility Management Directorate, where the planned mission is tasked to an active duty unit, or available Air Reserve Component unit, to fly the mission.

Finally, once the mission is planned by one of the planning directorates, and a crew and aircraft are allocated to fly the mission by the Mobility Management Directorate, it moves to the Command and Control Directorate, who obtain diplomatic clearances, create flight plan packages and execute the missions from the 618th TACC's Operations Floor.

All actions on the Operations Floor are overseen by an experienced aircrew member that holds the rank of colonel. That person, a member of the Director of Operations Directorate referred to as the 'senior', is AMC's single point of contact for AMC mission execution, serving as the AMC's representative to the Joint Staff, Air Force Watch Cell, National Military Command Center, U.S. Transportation Command, the DOD and other agencies.

There are two other directorates that are part of the 618th TACC, who have a significant impact on the 618th TACC's operations throughout the mission planning and execution process. These directorates are the Mission Support Directorate, which provides data, technology and resource support across the 618th TACC, and the Global Mobility Weather Operations Directorate, which provides weather products, services and briefings for mission planning and execution phases managed by the 618th TACC for strategic airlift and air refueling crews operating worldwide.

The 618th TACC's global impact
The missions that are planned and executed by the 618th TACC provide a variety of global impacts, simultaneously. One mission could be supporting humanitarian operations, such as when the 618th TACC coordinated missions that moved peacekeeping equipment into the Darfur region of the Sudan in January, while a completely different mission could be delivering supplies to warfighters.

One example of support to the warfighter is the delivery of mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, to troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. In mid-2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made transporting the life-saving, up-armored vehicles to deployed troops a Department of Defense priority. Answering his call, the 618th TACC planned and coordinated airlift missions that delivered more than 500 MRAPs within three months. Since then, another 3,500 MRAPs have been delivered by airlift to the Middle East and are being used by the warfighters in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

While providing direct support to the warfighting operations is a standard for the 618th TACC, at a moment's notice the organization can adjust to meet the needs of the current circumstances affecting the world.

In August 2008, 618th TACC personnel directed more than 587 tons of needed supplies, including food, cots, blankets, generators, medical supplies and more to individuals displaced by fighting in the Republic of Georgia.

The humanitarian impact was similar for Hurricanes Ike and Gustav this summer, when 618th TACC-directed sorties delivered 1,379 tons of supplies and transported 9,045 residents to safety.

The 618th TACC's mission doesn't end with cargo transport or humanitarian relief. It also includes transporting Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines around the world, extending the global reach of U.S. and coalition aircraft via air-to-air refueling, and moving injured troops to medical centers.

One such case occurred in February 2007, when the 618th TACC coordinated an aeromedical evacuation mission for a 20-year-old Marine with severe brain trauma from a grenade blast. He was moved to Balad Air Base, Iraq, for his initial treatment, and doctors determined that he needed to be moved to the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md., for further care.

The validated requirement to move the patient came into the 618th TACC and the aeromedical evacuation cell immediately got to work coordinating with other 618th TACC personnel to obtain the flight plans, diplomatic clearances and other items necessary to plan the mission. One key aspect to this movement was that the aircraft had to stay below 4,000 feet because of the trauma to the patient's brain, driving the need for an in-flight refueling which was successfully coordinated, and took place off the coast of England. Thanks to the fast and professional work of all parties involved, the patient was airborne in less than 3 and a half hours, and made it back to the United States in less than 20 hours for the care he required.

These are just a couple recent examples of the impact that 618th TACC personnel have been able to provide through their work from Scott AFB. Thanks to the men and women of the 618th TACC, AMC assets have executed more than 113,000 aircraft missions, transporting more than 8.2 million people, more than 3.4 million tons of cargo and delivering more than 1.4 billion gallons of jet fuel via air-to-air refueling, in support of the war effort.

To learn more about the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center, including access to factsheets, biographies, recent news and more, visit the 618th TACC Web site at www.618tacc.amc.af.mil.