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Reserve giving warfighters gifts they can use

  • Published
  • By Lt Col Bob Thompson
  • Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, TURKEY --  Giving and receiving are the hallmarks of the holiday season. If you don't believe it, ask the aerial porters at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, who receive an average of about 600,000 pounds of cargo per day and give the warfighters in Iraq "gifts" that they can use.

"When airlift operations at Frankfurt closed, Incirlik ops ramped up significantly," said First Lieutenant Jim Burnham of the 728th Air Mobility Squadron here.
"We rely on the Reserve force to come in and augment us."

Of the 250-person team, 100 of the aerial porters are reservists deployed for 30 to 120 days. In the shadow of Turkey's Tarsus mountains, the Total Force team works around the clock to move 55 percent of the people, equipment, food and supplies required by coalition forces in Iraq.

"The people down range really need this cargo," said Technical Sgt. Paul Oxford, ramp services supervisor deployed from the Reserve's 82nd Aerial Port Squadron at Travis AFB, Calif. "We've been very busy, it makes the time pass quickly."

Scheduled to augment the Incirlik team until February, the reservist's efforts contribute to the unit moving more than 86,800 tons of cargo since June 1.

"The analogy I like to use is that we've moved the equivilant weight of 20,000 cars through here since June," said Lieutenant Burnham. "One of the problems in Iraq is that the HumVees don't have enough armor.
Incirlik is the answer to that problem."

Enclosed in blue containers, the lieutenant said the add-on armor is one of the heaviest things airlifted into the eight airlift destinations in Iraq's combat zones.

"The increase to our aerial hub's mission means there are less convoys and that means there are less troops getting attacked on the roads," said the lieutenant.
"We couldn't do this without the Reserve."

"Whenever we go out, we're ready to do our real-world mission," said Technical Sgt. Michael Barrios of Air Force Reserve Command's 927th Air Refueling Wing, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.

When asked why he volunteered to serve over the holidays he said, "This is what we train for."