Mobility teamwork is key to retrograde mission

by Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Larlee
436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

10/30/2014 - DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del.  -- As the United States and its coalition partners reduce their presence in Afghanistan, there has been a robust retrograde mission to ensure that as much equipment and materials that supported the warfighters there are recovered. Team Dover C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft and Airman from both the 436th and 512th Airlift Wings have played a vital role in making this mission happen.

"The C-5M is ideally suited for the heavy, outsized lift support of retrograde operations," said Col. Michael Grismer, 436th Airlift Wing commander. "We've seen extraordinary results pairing this amazing flying machine with an all-star total force team of maintainers and operators who continue to deliver excellence."

The goal of the retrograde mission is to ensure equipment and materials deemed valuable to the warfighter for future use are recovered. Every effort is being made to recapitalize those assets and put them back in use to bolster military capability and ensure U.S. Armed Forces maintain readiness for the future.

Without a proper port in Afghanistan, the heavy lifting in moving these assets falls onto the backs of C-5M, C-17 and C-130 Hercules aircraft. Active Duty and Reserve units from Team Dover have joined forces seamlessly with Airmen from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, Travis AFB, California, Fairchild, AFB, Washington and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

Lt. Col. Matthew Husemann, 9th Airlift Squadron commander, said success in this mission demands an orchestrated effort from a large network of mobility professionals.

"This is not a one-person effort," he said. "This is a total force effort, especially when you include the vital role our Reserve brethren have played in supporting this mission."

One of those Reserve partners is Col. Jonathan Philebaum, 512th Operations Group commander, who served as an aircrew member during some of the missions. He said it was a valuable experience seeing the mission firsthand and that he was proud that the Reserve was able to supply one of the five aircrews supporting the historic mission as well as provide the leadership positions for the current rotation. He was also pleased to see a strong working relationship between Active Duty and Reserve aircrews at Team Dover continue in a deployed location.

"It doesn't matter who you are and what kind of patch you wear when you go downrange and you are in the fight," he said. "You just come together and do whatever the mission requires of you."

It has been a process that Lt. Col. Jonathan Diaz, who deployed from the 9th AS and served as the 385th Air Expeditionary Group Detachment 1 commander from August to October, said he is honored to have been a part of. During his time in theater, his group flew more than 70 missions and transported more than 12 million pounds of cargo.

"We broke (Air Mobility Command's) operation cargo load record more than five times," said Diaz. "Our crews are loading double what an average C-5 mission carries."

A common item being retrograded is mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles or MRAPs, which are among the more than 50,000 estimated vehicles that need to be recovered from Afghanistan. Husemann said one load of the seven large MRAPs made for a memorable mission.

"We had a load of 280,000 pounds, which is about the limit for that aircraft," The Dayton, Ohio, native said. "The C-5M does amazing work, even with 280,00 pounds loaded you just push up the power and she is ready to go."

Husemann said with the C-5M being a moderately new aircraft, the retrograde mission has been a valuable opportunity for the aircraft to prove its worth.

"There are a lot of growing pains that go with that in the sense of training and logistics," he said. "We need to learn how to use this new capability and maximize it. In our current stage of the retrograde mission, I feel we are doing a great job maximizing that capability."

Husemann said these challenges have shown how valuable maintenance personnel are in making the mission happen. He said Afghanistan is not a normal logistical hub which makes getting parts difficult. He said it is impressive to watch them work through the problems and keep the aircraft mission-ready.

Diaz said good teamwork is key to the success of the retrograde mission.

"Communication has been the most vital part aspect to making this mission work and I believe the level we accomplished is unprecedented," The Tampa, Florida, native said. "These levels of communication have enabled us to move an additional 20 percent of cargo, which is the equivalent of 20 C-5M missions or 80 C-17 missions. This has saved more than $4 million to date."

It is a mission that Philebaum said he will never forget and believes the capabilities of the C-5M may be stretched further.

"I will never have an opportunity like this the rest of my life," he said. "The operation we are conducting right now in this stage is going to set a lot of records. But, records are meant to be broken. Our attitude is to make sure we really know exactly what this aircraft is capable of."