Sister units deploy, continue sibling bond

Published July 16, 2009
By Megan Just
452nd Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. -- Two aerial port squadrons at March ARB are about halfway through a sereis of deployments to Southwest Asia that began in April.

The 50th APS sent reservists to Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq, and the 56th APS deployed its reservists for the first time to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

"This is bigger than just a small little contingent going out and doing a mission," said Maj. Mark Saragosa, 56th APS commander. "This deployment is actually a part of the Air and Space Expeditionary Force cycle for the first time ever in our history."

Of the 56th APS' 201 reservists, 90 of them volunteered for the 60-70 deployment positions. By the end of deployment training, Major Saragosa had enough volunteers plus five alternates. He estimates only three or four of these Airmen have ever been part of an AEF.

"Our mission is anything that has to do with airlift and getting aircraft out of there," he said. "Personnel, munitions, bread, butter, bullets - it doesn't matter. We take care of it. But it all has to be load plan certified, and everyone has to be trained to do it."

Preparing the reservists to deploy was a rigorous process. Drill weekends didn't offer them enough time to get all of the training done.

"I couldn't ask for a better unit, where people are sacrificing that much time and their own money to come out and support the mission in the desert," Major Saragosa said.

"We had people coming in on their time off," he said. "We had people coming in on reserve management periods."

RMPs are four-hour blocks of time that are similar to drill weekend periods. However, reservists receive half the pay and half the points toward retirement for RMPs.

In addition to training with their unit, the Airmen often had to complete computer-based training at home.

After initial deployment preparations, the commanders of both APS units joined a nationwide conference call with other aerial port commanders to "compete" for deployment locations.

"We went in right away and said we wanted Bagram," Major Saragosa said. "The 50th went in and said they wanted Kirkuk, and we both got what we asked for."

The 50th and 56th squadrons share a building on March ARB and work as one large unit.

"Everything we do, we do together," said Chief Master Sgt. Ehlers, air transportation manager for the 56th APS. "You can't tell who's in which unit, we're just the 106th," he said.

Although they are deployed to separate countries, the squadrons continue to work together using satellite phones and e-mail.

"We work as a team. If you take the two units together, we're 400 people. That's a sizeable unit," Major Saragosa said.

When the squadrons arrived in their respective countries, they worked together to solve initial problems, such as the uniform shift from ABUs to BDUs and a shortage of malaria medication.

"They're learning at an astronomical rate," Major Saragosa said.

Some of his Airmen will be able to use their new skills in the future since the squadron has a 70-person mobilization scheduled for 2011. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)