571st MSAS aids in Colombia

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Matthew Trissel
  • 571st Mobility Support Advisory Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Part one of a three-part series

COMMANDO AEREO DE TRANSPORTE MILITAR, BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - The 571st Mobility Support Advisory Squadron deployed a mobile training team from Aug. 24 to Sept. 19 to conduct training during a four-week engagement with the Colombian air force in Bogota, Colombia.

The 15-person subject-matter expert MSAS team partnered with two Airmen from 123rd Air Wing Kentucky Air National Guard, two Airmen from the 60th Operations Support Squadron at Travis Air Force Base and one Airman from the 61st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas.

Their goal for this MTT was to advance operational mobility & command-and-control lines of effort through engaging and conducting training with FAC personnel to advance the joint drop zone program, Air Traffic Control simulation, Aircrew Flight Equipment equipment, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program evaluation, equipment function and utilization, joint airdrop equipment rigging, storage and inspection, maintenance quality assurance and airdrop operations.

Master Sgt. Jason Sanderson, 123rd Global Mobility Squadron, Kentucky Air National Guard, led 11 students hailing from six Colombian air force bases through seminars covering QA structure, roles and responsibilities, inspections and evaluations, maintenance standardization and evaluation program, trend analysis and practical applications culminating in a written test.

"This was the second step to our plan for Commando Aereo de Transporte Militar," Sanderson said. "The first was establishing and standardizing Maintenance Operation Centers across all airbases. Next is the crew chief concept which they are incrementally pursuing themselves."

The overarching goal is to build a quality maintenance organization at CATAM to represent the model for maintenance in the COLAF.

The Air Drop Operations Course highlighted the synergy the Air Force has envisioned for the build partner mission. Capt. Benjamin Bull, 123rd Air Wing, C-130 navigator from the Kentucky Air National Guard, and Maj. Adam Shockley, 61st Airlift Squadron, Weapons Officer at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, covered an immense amount of training objectives in preparation of a multi-day COLAF mission-planning exercise.

Instruction provided in air drop, Combat Airdrop Planning Software, basics of mission planning, discipline and procedures, initial point to drop zone run-in procedures sight angle, in-flight emergency procedures and drop zone surveys were herded to fruition during a multi-day mission-planning exercise. The instructors and students efforts fused jointly with the drop zone operations and airdrop equipment advisers at Captain Germán Olano Moreno Air Base, Colombia. All parties understood the value of the joint effort to expand this capability for the Colombian military. The AFMIS announced additional interested parties, which traveled to Palanquero and observed the Colombian air force aircrew as it executed the airdrop exercise with two passes of Container Delivery Systems.