Always ready: U.S. Coast Guard Strike Force gets lift from Air Force Reserve wing at Travis

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Ellen L. Hatfield
  • 349th AMW public affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE,Calif. --  With a display of joint cooperation and capability that depends upon rapid deployment of resources, Team Travis partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard May 2, to get desperately needed equipment to the oil-ravaged waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Although they normally truck equipment to disaster-stricken locations, the Coast Guard's Pacific Strike Team in California contacted the 349th Air Mobility Wing, on weekend alert at Travis Air Force Base, for help in getting their equipment there faster.

The C-17 Globemasters III crew assembled was Capt. Adam Walsh, aircraft commander, Maj. Matt Vukich, and Capt. David Berry, pilots; Senior Master Sgt. Charles Speir and Staff Sgt. Tinna Kroll, loadmasters, all assigned to the Reserve's 301st Airlift Squadron, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Baumgart, an active duty flying crew chief with the 860th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron of the 60th AMW.

"This was a historic event for me," said Lt. J.G. Michael Oubre, USCG Gulf Strike Team, Mobile, Ala. "I was there to meet the load, and it was my first experience using a Department of Defense asset for something like this. We usually load our equipment on trucks for transport."

Active duty aerial porters with the 60th Aerial Port Squadron from Travis got to work weighing and palletizing the equipment, 17 pallets in all. According to Lieutenant Oubre, there were 10 reels of inflatable boom, 656 feet each, to be positioned off shore to keep the oil slick from coming ashore. Once they are unrolled and blown up, temporary storage devices, like a big bladder, suck up the oil. Four of these were in the shipment with a capacity to hold 70,000 gallons of oil.

"For such a short-notice tasking, everything went quite smoothly," said Captain Walsh. "Lt. Col. William Wickersham, our 301st AS director of operations, started calling crew members Friday night as soon as he got the word. He worked tirelessly to assemble a crew. The whole group sprang together to help."

The crew departed Travis at approximately 6 p.m., local time, May 2, landing in Mobile at 11:30 p.m. CDT. With a few hours on the ground to get the equipment safely on its way to the final destination, the crew was back home by 6 a.m. May 2.

Not only was the mission a joint-service initiative, it involved total force from both Team Travis and the Coast Guard. The lieutenant said the crew off-loading the equipment at Travis was Reservists and active duty were on hand to load it for the trip from Mobile to the disaster location in Louisiana.

Captain Berry talked about the challenges they faced upon arriving in Mobile.
"It was late at night on a Saturday, so the radar and tower operators were not there, so it was an uncontrolled airport. There were also some crosswinds and although it wasn't raining, it was overcast. It was more difficult than we expected."

But both pilots agreed the rewards of flying humanitarian missions far outweigh any obstacles.

"It's nice to know we're having a direct impact on saving whole ecosystems," said Captain Berry. "We don't get to see that all the time."

"We do so many contingency missions and so little humanitarian that it is a welcome opportunity," said Captain Walsh. "It is great to be part of the solution."

The National Strike Force, an entity of the U.S. Coast Guard's new Deployable Operations Group, provides highly trained, experienced people and specialized equipment to Coast Guard and other federal agencies to aid preparedness for and response to oil and hazardous substance pollution incidents to protect public health and the environment. Their area of responsibility covers all Coast Guard districts and federal response regions. Their mission statement is "the world's best responders: any time, any place, any hazard."