Historic deployment for 310th AS

by Airman 1st Class Sarah Breer
6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

2/5/2013 - MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- In January 2001 the 310th Airlift Squadron joined Team MacDill. Twelve years later, it made a bit of history, when one of its C-37A aircraft and two crews were deployed.

The squadron's twin-engine, turbofan aircraft routinely run missions from MacDill for high-ranking government and Department of Defense officials, but when the plane departed Sunday for its deployment to support the mission overseas, it was a first.

The deployment is a departure from the normal MacDill-based mission of the 310th AS of "providing five-star service to the four-stars," a great source of pride for the squadron, whose job is to make sure the military's highest ranking members experience the same comforts and capabilities in the air as they do in their offices.

Onboard the plane, military members can use secure and unsecure internet, communication, phone and fax lines. High ranking officials can eat, sleep, and work all while aboard the plane, meaning that they can accomplish the mission while travelling.

"The C-37 mission is positive because we provide hands-on support to the war fighter," said Lt. Col. Derrick Hodges, 310th AS commander.

Two crews headed to the area of responsibility to support the mission overseas. One crew consists of two pilots, a communications system operator, a flight engineer and a flight attendant. Both crews share a squadron aviation resource manager.

Preparing for this historic first deployment was a new experience.

A typical deployment is at wing level, said Hodges. This slot was filled by a squadron.

"The Air Mobility Command tasked the squadron for the deployment, but since our squadron had never deployed with the C-37A, every process had to be built from scratch," said Hodges of the deployment.

A squadron of 62 members pulled the deployment together quickly. It usually takes a whole group with the support of the wing behind it to put a deployment together, with much more time to prepare.

"We had about five weeks' notice that we were tasked to fill this slot," said Hodges. "It has been a challenge since we have never deployed before, but we have stepped up. It is hard to measure what we have done, but long term, we are proud of what we bring to the fight."

Each service member going on this deployment volunteered to be a part of it, said Tech. Sgt. Ricky Osborne, 310th AS flight engineer. Everyone was pumped to go.

Osborne cross trained to be a flight-engineer from health services management. He chose to do this job.

"This job lets me travel to places most people don't get to go," Osborne said.

Members in the career fields that are deploying are all at least second-term Airmen, as their jobs are not available out of basic military training.

In addition to military members, civilian contractors are also being deployed. A new contract had to be written so that they could go with the plane overseas. The civilians will perform full line-maintenance on the plane while it is deployed.

To do their job, they work together and have to know what they are doing, Osborne said. They could not succeed without the whole crew.

Hodges said he is proud of his unit for volunteering, but he isn't surprised that they did.

"We are different," Hodges said. "It takes a special person to do this job."

Everyone who is tasked to deploy is experienced and ready to go because the mission is necessary and important, said Hodges. We have to be on time and in the right place every time we do anything.

While deployed, the crews will do the same job the do stateside. The crews will replace an Air Force unit from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and will be gone for a typical rotation, approximately three months.