440th proves again benefit of being the home team

Published Sept. 21, 2015
By Lt. Col. James R. Wilson
440th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

POPE ARMY AIR FIELD, N.C. -- Babe Ruth once said "It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."

If that's the case, the 440th Airlift Wing and its mission partners at Team Pope would be formidable foes for anyone asked to overcome the obstacles their members faced while providing airlift to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division on Sept. 8.

Two of the unit's C-130H aircraft were scheduled to fly eight airdrop missions on Ft. Bragg's Sicily Drop Zone when unforeseen maintenance issues threatened to keep one of the venerable aircraft out of the starting lineup before the first mission was ever flown.

"We had two aircraft and a spare dedicated to this mission," said Col. Karl Schmitkons, 440th Airlift Wing commander and pilot for one of the C-130 airdrop missions. "One of our crews went to the spare [aircraft] early due to a problem with the nose landing gear on the aircraft they were originally assigned."

This left very little margin for error on any maintenance that would be required on the remaining C-130. The resolve of the 95th Airlift Squadron aircrew and 440th AW maintainers would be tested when the crew discovered a hydraulic leak that would have to be repaired before flight.

With maintenance specialists working feverishly on the hydraulic leak, paratroopers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division began filing on the other aircraft which, at that time, appeared destined to serve as the sole platform for jump operations as precious time passed, making it unlikely that all eight drops would be accomplished before the range closed for the day.

"It was around this time [the Army's] Range Control informed us that they had received reports of unexploded ordnance on the range, which led them to move our mission to an alternate drop zone," Schmitkons said. "The change resulted in additional planning and briefing for our crews in the midst of the coordination to address the maintenance needed [to get us airborne and on our way]."

Already several hours behind their scheduled departure time, aircrew members, maintenance technicians, Reserve and Active Duty command post controllers, jumpmasters, base operations personnel and range control representatives all were working to overcome what had turned into an afternoon full of challenges and adversity.

Maj. Dave Gentile, 95th Airlift Squadron, was the mission commander and pilot for the second aircraft.

"We left the auxiliary power unit running on our aircraft so we had air conditioning for the jumpers on our aircraft while we went in to re-plan the mission for the new drop zone," Gentile said. "When we returned, our sister ship was dealing with a compass problem on their aircraft. I had to make the call to either wait for them to join us or fly the mission as a single-ship to get things rolling. I decided to depart to get as many lifts as we could before we ran out of time and fuel."

That decision later would prove to be the turning point that enabled the 440th to offload hundreds of jumpers successfully while meeting all of the Army's training requirements.

With its malfunctioning compass replaced, the second 440th aircraft lumbered down the runway and lifted off into the North Carolina sky, eager to rejoin the C-130 that had departed hours earlier and was in the midst of completing its third airdrop on the Normandy Drop Zone.

"With just minutes left before the range officially closed, we managed to log the eighth and final airdrop," Schmitkons said. "We supported the Army with 336 airborne jumps -- a feat that would have been difficult to replicate with a unit not based here. We have great relationships with our hosts and a wealth of experience on the home team. It took a lot of communication and dedication to getting the Airborne paratroopers the training they need, but it worked out in the end. This was a true example of 'one team, one fight!'"