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AMC battalion provides logistics for Pakistan relief

By Andrew Lawson
November 29, 2005

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Army News Service, Nov. 29, 2005) -- The Army Materiel Command has provided communications, transportation and construction vehicles, electronics, command oversight, repair parts, fuel, food and medical supplies for the humanitarian relief effort following the earthquake that devastated the Kashmir district in northern Pakistan.

AMC’s Army Field Support Battalion Afghanistan built a base camp at Qasim Airbase, Pakistan, and helped expand the field’s helipads, enabling helicopters to deliver emergency supplies and evacuate injured Pakistan villagers.

Quake isolated mountain villages

The 7.6 Richter-scale earthquake Oct. 8 killed about 80,000 Pakistanis, injured 74,000 and left about 250,000 people homeless. The quake was situated deep in the rugged Himalayan foothills of Azad, Kashmir.

Thousands of people were trapped and unable to negotiate the crumpled bridges, rockslides, or impassable roads. Families in isolated hamlets, traumatized by the earthquake, were clinging to the steep slopes of the Pir Panjal Mountains. Without adequate food and shelter, even more families could have perished.

A few hours after feeling the quake activity hundreds of miles away in Bagram, Afghanistan, Task Force Griffin flew eight helicopters to Qasim Airbase in Pakistan to spearhead the relief.

AFSBn Afghanistan heads up logistics

Four days later, Col. Gary Potts, the Coalition Joint Task Force-76 logistics officer, determined that he needed one compact logistics cell able to represent both Coalition Forces Land Component Command and CJTF-76; one that was capable of fundamental logistics, transportation, construction, and contracting, that had a “reach-back” to national assets.

The commander of AMC’s Army Field Support Battalion Afghanistan was tapped.

Lt. Col. Marty Binder flew to Qasim Oct. 15, and was followed soon by his adjutant, Chief Warrant Officer Terry Taylor.

Taylor immediately began accountability of personnel in the rapidly developing complex, joint and multi-national environment. Chris Dunne, a highly skilled allied tradesman from AFSBn-Hythe, England, currently assigned to Afghanistan, deployed to help supervise the construction of the base camp. Add a contracting officer, engineer captain, clerk and a few stellar non-commissioned officers, and the team was ready.

Wayne Seidler, from the AFSBn-Afghanistan Support Plans and Operations office provided essential communications between Qasim and Bagram, aligning AMC efforts with those of CJTF- 76. This small team allowed the commander to rely on a single, reliable point of contact amidst all the impending chaos of providing logistics across the Pakistani border.

425 tons landed in 10 days

Also at Binder’s disposal were master mechanics, supply specialists, fabricators, quality assurance specialists, transport specialists and logistics personnel ready to deploy at a moments notice in support of the operation. The Qasim base camp allowed TF Griffin to concern itself with the task at hand, one that was very likely the most challenging endeavor most of the pilots had ever flown.

Day after day, eight to ten hours of “stick time” took its toll on the pilots and the crews. The daily routine was a wake-up at 4:45 a.m., staging forward at Chaklala International Airfield in Islamabad; flying north to provide supplies to starving refugees and evacuating patients back to Chaklala.

Ten days of continuous flying delivered more than 425 short tons of emergency supplies and the evacuation of more than one thousand patients and refugees.

Airfield expaned for Task Force Quake

The next assignment was to prepare for the TF Griffin transition to TF Quake. Binder’s small contingency worked to receive the incoming brigade at the Bagram RSOI (reception, staging, onward movement, and integration) site, and return TF Griffin back to Afghanistan to conduct its primary mission of fighting the insurgency in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. But first, Qasim Airfield had to undergo expansion, courtesy of the United States Army.

Designing, funding, and constructing a 24-pad helicopter landing area does not fall under its normal duty description, but AFSBn-AF’s 10 months of experience with building the Equipment Support Activity in Afghanistan made it the likely choice to oversee this project. In less than a week, the airfield expansion began, allowing the incoming brigade the operational space needed to land, refuel, and load humanitarian supplies. Add an AFSBn-designed kitchen, laundry point, toilets, showers, and American Forces Network, and the base-camp was complete.

Mission shows what AFSBn can do

The humanitarian mission in Pakistan was one of the most rewarding and fulfilling missions many of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and civilians have undertaken, they said.

The crews delivered much-needed supplies and evacuated critically wounded patients. The mission also strengthened political and military ties between the United States and Pakistan, officials said. Within the Army, logisticians and operators quickly began to appreciate the contribution of the Army Field Support Battalion concept and all the assets it brings to bear in a crisis or contingency operation.

(Editor’s note: Andrew Lawson is a civilian assigned to the Army Field Support Battalion, Hythe, England, deployed to AFSBn, Afghanistan. Assigned as a Lean 6 Sigma Process Improvement specialist, Lawson provided reach-back capabilities to the Pakistan earthquake relief mission and wrote his observations in this story.)