613th CRG: First responders for Pacific, Asia regions
PACAF News
Release Date: 7/17/2003
By Staff Sgt. Stacy Coville 36th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ANDERSEN AFB, Guam - In days gone by, military commanders frequently looked at a deployment location and asked a question: "Who's going in first?"
Gen. Bill Begert, Pacific Air Forces commander, has answered that question for Pacific Air Forces by creating the 613th Contingency Response Group here, led by Col. Benjamin Pulsifer.
"We were developed to provide a short-notice, light and lean, easily-tailorable asset for the Air Force," said Colonel Pulsifer. "Instead of sending security forces from this base, contracting from that base and finance from another base in an ad hoc fashion, mish-mashing everything together, PACAF created one single unit that has everything it needs job-wise to go and complete the mission."
The 613th CRG deploys within 24 hours to various locations to help make the air and space expeditionary force, or AEF, mission successful by creating footholds in countries where planes and people can support military operations throughout the Pacific region and Southwest Asia.
"Basically, we're the tip of the AEF spear," said Colonel Pulsifer. Teams assess an area, prepare an airfield for aircraft and receive incoming troops. Members of the 613th call their mission AOR - assess, open and receive.
For example, an incident or crisis occurs in the Pacific or Southwest Asia, and the Air Force may send forces but knows little about the area.
The 13th Air Force commander sends a tasking to the 613th CRG to deploy and find information. After the 613th deploys and assesses the area - looking at the capabilities of the airfield and any vulnerabilities - the team sends the findings back for use in a decision to deploy possible follow-on forces.
If U.S. Pacific Command leadership decides the location needs aircraft, it's the 613th's job to make the airfield ready for use. Working with a tanker airlift control element from Japan, they open the airfield, start force protection measures, prepare facilities for use by the follow-on forces and contract host nation support.
Once the airfield is ready for use, the 613th CRG is responsible for welcoming the follow-on forces. Group members assist forces with settling into the facilities and raising tents.
But before follow-on forces set foot on the airfield, the 613th CRG has already given USPACOM "eyes on the ground," said Colonel Pulsifer.
"The decision makers, who make the call to send troops and aircraft, know how much to send and what to expect when [forces] get here. When they send the CRG, they send a team tailored to the operation," said Colonel Pulsifer. "If they just want an airfield assessment, we might send an eight-person team with people from security forces, intelligence, medical and others. If they want us to open an airfield for use, we'll send more people to do the mission."
There are 35 Air Force specialty codes in the 613th CRG; they are separated into two squadrons and two divisions: the mobility response and security forces squadrons, and the intelligence and medical divisions.
"If something happens, we're some of the most vital people to send," said Staff Sgt. Richard Ganapin, 613th Mobility Response Squadron civil engineer. However, the 613th CRG is unique from other units because members can help each other on most of the basics of their different jobs.
"We have training weeks in the group where we show each other our jobs," said Tech. Sgt. Daniel Hawkins, 613th Security Forces Squadron. "For example, we have MRS and SFS training weeks where we show the MRS folks about troop maneuvers and force protection procedures and they show us how to work on the communication equipment."
"In some cases we could cover each others' jobs if it's needed," added Staff Sgt. Scott Orser, 613th SFS. "We learn a lot from each other, and it's a lot of fun working with people from different areas."
Not only does being in the 613th CRG give members the opportunity to learn from each other, it also gives members of various jobs the chance to do something they don't normally do - be where the action is.
"When you're in finance, you're usually behind a desk in an air-conditioned office," said Tech. Sgt. Wayne Mobley, 613th CRG finance office. "This job is more physically challenging. We do rucksack marches here because if we get deployed we'll be carrying a pack, M-16 and gear as we march to get to our designated location. Sometimes it could be only a few feet, sometimes two or three miles, so you have to be ready and able to carry your weight."
The group just needs to get the order to go, said Colonel Pulsifer.
As Staff Sgt. Michael Cuevas, 613th MRS communication element, put it, the hardest thing for him is the waiting for that order.
"If we know something is heating up in the area and they might send us, we get fairly impatient waiting for the call," he said. "We're always told, 'Be prepared then wait to go.' Our bags are packed; personal things like wills and powers of attorney are done; we just want to hear the word 'go.' Sometimes it comes; sometimes it doesn't and we have to wind down until the next time."
But if the call does come to deploy, the 613th CRG has almost every needed specialty in one unit - from security forces to finance. The members of the 613th have a 24-hour response time for any tasking and can support themselves in a bare-base environment.
"We're a self-sustaining operational group with an operational mission, and we have support and operations people working side by side out there in uncharted areas to make the mission work," said Colonel Pulsifer. "We have a wide variety of jobs in this group, and we work as a single team when we go out to assess a new place where there isn't any prior information. We are the tip of the spear - we're the adventurers of the Pacific."
So now when commanders in the Pacific ask the question "Who's going first?" the 613th answers. (Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces News Service)
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