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New stage location for C-17 deployments

February 13, 2003

By Staff Sgt. Melanie Streeter
437th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AMCNS) -- More than 250 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft maintenance and logistics people from McChord Air Force Base, Wash., arrived here Feb. 5 to assist Charleston AFB airmen who are facing increased operations tempo.

Operations increased in January, when Air Mobility Command established Charleston AFB as a stage location for C-17 crews flying cargo and passenger airlift missions in support of current deployments.

"The Charleston AFB stage is a key component of the Air Force's airbridge taking people and cargo to forward operating locations," said Col. Brooks Bash, 437th Airlift Wing commander. "Because of our role in the air bridge, Team Charleston is operating as if we are deployed in place."

Stage operations are different from business as usual, according to Lt. Col. Ronald Grickis, stage manager.

"A stage utilizes aircrews in such a manner that we get maximum usage from airframes," Grickis said. "For example, the Air Force normally moves an airplane and crew from A to B to C and then the crew and airplane rest for 12-24 hours, then move on from C to and D and E.

"The (civilian) airlines move a plane from A to B to C, and then a new crew jumps on and takes it from C to D to E, and so on," he said. "Staging is like that, it keeps the airframes moving and enables us to move more cargo in the same time period. We keep the 'aluminum' moving."

Besides the way aircraft and crews move, staging uses crews in a different way also, Grickis said.

"Things are different for the aircrews in that they typically are in alert status when they are in the stage," he said. "Essentially, once they enter alert, we can launch them against a stage mission at any time within the specified window of the alert - the allotted time period.

"So we have this reservoir of crews ready to launch at any time," Grickis said. "Normally the crews are set against a mission, and they know the time they will alert, where they will go and what they will be hauling. In the stage, they only know their 'window.'"

All of this translates into an increased operations tempo here for the foreseeable future. Having additional support is vital.

"The McChord folks really have three roles," said Maj. Gerald Frederick, 437th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander. "Number one, Charleston is tapped out with the operations tempo now, and a lot of folks are already deployed. There's very little fat on the bone here. Our Charleston maintainers have already been working 12-hour shifts trying to keep the jets flowing. These 250 technicians will help us work missions heading east."

The McChord logistics personnel are also following their aircraft here, Frederick said.

"They are integrated into our AMUs (aircraft maintenance units) so we can supplement the increased flow of aircraft, and get us healthy," he said. "Right now we have more than 100 people deployed. Granted, at the peak in Operation Enduring Freedom, we had over 200 deployed, but then we had 179 activated reservists on board. We're still at half that amount but without the Reserve supplement."

It really all comes down to workload, Frederick said.

"We have a tremendous workload that they (McChord) didn't have at their home station," he said. "It just made sense to bring them here."

The extra personnel give the 437th AMXS an opportunity to work aircraft smartly, Frederick said. Before they arrived, there were too few people and Charleston maintainers were constantly trying to put out fires.

Now, instead of two or three people working to turn aircraft for their next mission, there are five or six maintainers on the job, helping to keep the mission going.