Military

NORTHERN IRAQ (USAFENS) -- In direct support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than 200 members of the 86th Contingency Response Group recently deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany to an airfield in northern Iraq.

"We're here to secure and open the airfield, receive aircraft and support the 173rd Airborne Brigade," said Col. Steven Weart, 86th Expeditionary CRG commander.  Following the unit's deployment, a special order created the 86th ECRG under the 484th Air Expeditionary Wing. 

To complete this type of mission, the group relies on people from more than 40 different Air Force career fields, ranging from communications and security to medical and aircraft maintenance.

"We need this many different career fields in the ECRG because our mission is so diverse," said Master Sgt. Mario Ramos, 86th ECRG deployed first sergeant.  "Most positions are only one or two deep, and everyone brings a critical skill to help complete the mission."

These critical skills are often focused on very specialized tasks for the group.  One example of this is how the unit uses night vision equipment to download aircraft in blackout, combat conditions.

Outfitted in night vision goggles, forklift drivers, crew chiefs and aerial port personnel exercise a carefully choreographed operation, marshalling aircraft and offloading more than a million pounds of cargo a night. 

"This has never been done before," said Lt. Col. Mike Marra, 86th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron commander under the ECRG.  It normally takes about one hour and 45 minutes to download one C-17.  Here, we're downloading two C-17s in 30 minutes in complete darkness."

While the mission here is critical to Operation Iraqi Freedom, one of the top concerns here is safety.

"While what we do is inherently dangerous, we use operational risk management to keep the risk to our people minimized," said Marra.  "To date, we've downloaded 6 million pounds of cargo, everything is getting done on time and no one's been injured.  That's 100 percent mission success!"

The 86th Contingency Response Group, based out of Ramstein Air Base, is one of three highly mobile, rapid response units in the Air Force designed to deploy anywhere around the globe at a moments notice.  The group specializes in airlift command and control, mobile aerial port operations, force protection, forward area medical operations, humanitarian aid operations, communications, and more.