KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 41st Aerial Port Squadron, assigned to the 403rd Wing, took part in a joint training scenario called Patriot Mustang GRIP II with members of the Army and the Navy along the Mississippi Gulf Coast Friday and Saturday.
The mission provided an opportunity for members to work with agencies and equipment they don't normally work with, but would see in a deployed environment.
A team of just over 20 members of the 41st APS traveled to Stennis International Airport, some by bus and others via a UH-60 Blackhawk from the 1108th Theater Aviation Sustainment Maintenance Group out of Gulfport, Miss. Once at Stennis, they joined naval personnel assigned there and members of the 315th Airlift Wing out of Joint Base Charleston, S.C. to load a naval boat with a truck and trailer as well as two Army Humvees onto a C-17 Globemaster III from the 315th AW. The aircraft then flew to Gulfport where the equipment was unloaded before the team returned to Keesler.
Aerial Port Squadrons process cargo for air transportation. This includes preparing load plans, rigging and packing parachutes for airdrop, loading and unloading aircraft as well as supervising units engaged in loading and unloading aircraft. In a deployed location, an aerial port team may be sent to a remote location with a dirt airfield, that doesn't have their services, via helicopter to unload or upload cargo and then return to their deployed base.
"Training like this gives us a chance to reach out to other units who need to train in prepping their cargo," said Master Sgt. Steven Martin, 41st APS an air transportation craftsman. "And we need users to show up to us so we can do our joint inspection, upload and download team planning as well as load plan training."
Receiving this type of training prior to his first deployment would have been helpful said Staff Sgt. Anthony Gaston, 41st APS air transportation journeyman and aerial delivery rigger. "Getting that exposure to the different types of vehicles, the different tempos of operations and the different branches definitely helps out with future endeavors."
When using the same equipment at every Unit Training Assembly, it becomes easy to get complacent as you already know the weights of equipment by heart, said Senior Airman Shane Tucher, 41st APS air transportation journeyman and aerial delivery rigger.
"It's a good experience for the younger troops who've only dealt with Air Force personnel, because each branch has their own way of doing things and this gives them hands-on training on how they can work together in the future," said Gaston.
Tucher said that with the success of this mission, a lot of hope has grown in the unit to continue doing these types of operations in the future and ensure our troops are ready when it comes time to deploy.