Bagram Airfield (BAF) is a sprawling, bustling military hub about 40 miles outside of Kabul. Here, more than 20,000 people live and work at the center of the US Air Force’s contribution to the coalition war effort in Afghanistan. Shuttle buses carry people from one part of the complex to another, and you can’t even cross the street here unless you use a crosswalk (and even then, you’d better look both ways, twice.). Working from the old Soviet airstrip—much-supplemented with new NATO construction—dozens of massive airlift planes, fighters, and helicopters of all varieties make constant forays into the airspace over Afghanistan. In the midst of this milieu, the “Guard Dawgs” of Savannah’s 165th Airlift Wing—“Savannah’s Air Force”—are playing their own important role. *Though the unit is based in Savannah, many of its members are residents of the Atlanta area, living and working there when they're not called to duty.
“We’re getting the beans and the bullets to where they need to be,” says COL Jesse Simmons, the 165th’s deputy commander and the highest-ranking Georgia Air Guard officer on the scene here in Bagram. In other words, the Savannah C-130s and their counterparts from other parts of the US are doing what they were designed to do: ferrying troops, supplies, and ammunition far and wide throughout the battle space. The missions include medivac trips, aerial supply drops, even assignments to toss out thousands of Dari- and Pashtun-language leaflets over Taliban territory. Simmons says it’s a job for which the C-130 “Hercules” is perfectly suited. “This is Herc Heaven," he explains. "This is the type of flying the C-130 was made for. It’s mountainous terrain, dirt airstrips. It’s doing it ugly, and that’s what the C-130 likes to do.”
Simmons is specifically referring to the C-130’s unique ability to take off and land on short, unimproved runways, a feat made possible by the aircraft’s four 19,600-horsepower turboprop engines with reversible thrust and the 16-disc braking system on its big landing gear.
Savannah C-130 pilots flying over Afghanistan are also able to use darkness to their advantage, thanks to hi-tech NVGs (Night Vision Goggles) that allow them to fly the aircraft in near-total darkness. I witnessed this ability first-hand when aircraft commanders MAJ Brian Zwicker and CAPT Les Claxton, Navigator CAPT Brian Bowen, Flight Engineer TSGT Medie T. Still IV, and Loadmasters SMSGT Tim Gaines and TSGT Chris Odom took me along as a cockpit passenger on one of their overnight flights. Flipping their NVGs into the place, the flight crew cut off all the aircraft’s lights as we lifted off the runway and flew over the security fence and into “Indian country,” as many soldiers say. Said MAJ Zwicker, “This [the cover of darkness] is our best line of defense right now… Most of the stuff they [insurgents] have to hit us with is line-of-sight stuff, so if they can’t see us, that’s a good thing.” As if to underscore Zwicker’s point, we heard an American pilot in our area report incoming anti-aircraft fire during part of our journey. While the barrage was not aimed at our aircraft, it was an unsettling reminder of the volatility of the situation in Afghanistan.
We carried a load of cargo and troops to Camp Bastion, a joint British and US Marine Corps base to the southwest of Bagram. Surprisingly, one of the soldiers riding in the belly of our Hercules on the outbound trip was CPL Matt Williams, a Bravo Company, 2/121st soldier from the GA Army Nat’l. Guard who I met several months ago during a training exercise at Fort Stewart. As Williams disembarked at Camp Bastion, clad in his body armor and carrying his rifle and other equipment, I couldn’t help but wonder what sorts of missions he would soon undertake, and what the future holds in store for him and the other young GA Guard troops I’ve met here over the past few weeks.
As we closed the distance between Camp Bastion and Bagram in the wee hours of the morning, the flight crew noticed a series of rhythmic flashes lighting up the night sky a few thousand feet below us. The bright flashes, the officers explained, were most likely the muzzle flashes and subsequent blasts of American heavy artillery being unleashed on Taliban targets. What appeared to be cloud cover above the explosions was actually the resulting smoke settling atop the valley where the battle was taking place. The firing was so intense and the smoke so thick, navigator Bowen could actually see it on his weather radar—an innocuous green blob that obscured the ferocity of what was likely happening on the ground. “The Marines are really puttin’ a hurtin’ on somebody tonight,” said one of the crew.
I slept late today (Monday) after accompanying the crew on their early morning mission, then spent some time visiting the places where the airmen and maintainers of the 165th work, eat, sleep, and relax. I was surprised to meet yet another parent/child pair deployed together (I’ve already met several on the Army Guard side of the fence) here in Afghanistan. Mom SSGT Millie Miller works in the “Life Support” section, prepping and maintaining equipment such as helmets, oxygen masks, and NVGs for flight crews before and after missions. Her son, A1C Jerome Miller, works in the maintenance shop. While they work on opposite shifts and seldom actually see one another, both Millers say it’s a comfort to know their loved one is so near. On the other hand, says Jerome, “Somebody made a comment the other day that we need to clean up after ourselves, because we didn’t bring our mommies to war. But then someone else pointed out that, ‘Oh yes, Jerome did!’ So I get messed with quite a bit.” In any case, it appears the “blue” members of the GA Air Nat’l. Guard make their work as much a family affair as do their “green” cousins on the Army Guard side.
Until next time- Michael
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