Military

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (USAFENS) - David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. He walked through the Great Wall of China. He made audience members vanish, only to reappear somewhere else. But, those were just magic tricks - grandiose illusions.

Try making 3,000 soldiers, more than 200 aircraft and nearly 5,000 short tons of equipment and supplies disappear and then reappear somewhere else. It just  doesn't happen. Not instantaneously anyway.

So, what do you do with 3,000 soldiers asking for a place to sleep, food to eat and somewhere to store their gear while passing through?

Ask the folks at the 39th Wing Logistics Readiness Center. They solved that riddle and many others during the build up for Operation Iraqi Freedom and redeployment of Operation Northern Watch aircraft and troops.

The trick - patience and flexibility.

"It was a huge challenge to coordinate billeting, arms storage and work space for the Army on short notice," said Capt. Andrew Hunt, 39th Logistics Readiness Squadron Readiness Flight commander. "The Army speaks a different language, plays by different rules. They definitely taught us a lot about different approaches to getting a mission accomplished. We ended up handling a whole lot more cargo and people than we thought we would."

So, what's new? The LRC staff thrives on coordinated chaos.

"There's not much routine to what we do," said Hunt. "It's basically plan, prepare, react, adjust and accomplish."

The center, which includes logistics, mobility, transportation, supply and personnel experts, is the 39th Wing's central agency for receiving, staging and onward integration of forces supporting contingency operations. The staff is the conduit between deployed people and the wing.

"When something needs to get done, we find the best people to accomplish the mission," said Hunt. "We try to think a couple steps ahead. If we know what's on the horizon, planning for it becomes easier. To be able to do the impossible, we have to be able to expect the unexpected, adapt and overcome."

While the 39th Wing never got the call to launch aircraft in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Hunt contends that portions of the wing were, for all intents and purposes, at war.

"Since the day the LRC stood up, we have supported more than 500 onward movements of soldiers, supplies and equipment," he said. "Doing the math, that shows that we sent stuff or people downrange five times per day. So, when someone asks if we are disappointed that we never got to 'play,' we laugh.

"After three months of 24-7 operations, we could all use a vacation," Hunt continued. "So, when the last soldier leaves, and the last ONW cargo departs, it's time to decompress."