C-130 News: 440th Airlift Wing prepares planes for transfer ahead of inactivation

[casey]

Airmen at Fort Bragg are preparing to bid farewell to their C-130H cargo planes, days after the Air Force notified Congress they would move forward on shuttering the installation's lone airlift wing.

Crews are pouring over each of the eight planes belonging to the 440th Airlift Wing, which is slated to be inactivated by the end of September.

"It's a very emotional process for everyone involved," said Col. Sharon Johnson, commander of the 440th Maintenance Group.

With the unit's inactivation later this year, Johnson said the process of transferring the aircraft has been accelerated. In the coming weeks, officials expect the planes to be moved to their new homes. In most instances, that will be with the 189th Airlift Wing, an Air National Guard unit based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

On Monday, airmen took the first step in that process as they began to inventory the planes and their equipment.

Senior Master Sgt. Andy Nadzan, the 440th's maintenance superintendent, said crews are looking over every strap, buckle and tool inside the planes.

"Everything inside gets counted and checked," he said. "We make sure everything is 100 percent ready."

That's everything: chains used to tie down loads, communications equipment, first aid kits, oxygen bottles, life rafts and more.

"We make sure it's all there and serviceable," Nadzan said. "We replace anything broken or worn."

The inventory system is "step one" in the process of the 440th Airlift Wing turning over its aircraft.

"We're anxious for a smooth transition," he said. "As quickly and safely as we can, we're getting them ready to go."

Those particular aircraft are arguable the most fought over in the Air Force fleet.

The Air Force announced plans to inactivate the 440th Airlift Wing in 2014, closing the Air Force Reserve wing but also removing the only conventional airlift assets permanently based at the home of the Army's airborne and quick reaction forces.

Local leaders and politicians battled on behalf of the wing but were unsuccessful in saving the unit.

Today, just over 500 members of the 440th Airlift Wing remain, down from upwards of 1,200 when the unit was at full strength.

A few, like Nadzan and Lt. Col. John G. Gorse, have been with the wing for its entire history at Fort Bragg, or at least the most recently history.

The 440th Airlift Wing was originally activated at Fort Bragg for World War II and helped carry American paratroopers to war in France on D-Day. In 2007, the Air Force moved the wing to what was then Pope Air Force Base from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

About 200 airmen made the move. Most of the rest of the unit was filled by North Carolinians and others recruited from nearby regions.

"I was the fourth person here," Nadzan said, describing his move from another Air Force unit. "I wanted to be a part of this wing."

Gorse made the move from Milwaukee. The men estimate that only two or three of those original unit members remain.

"From cradle to the grave," Nadzan said. "It's tough to say goodbye."

Of the unit's 500 members, the majority are not full-time employees. That means the task of preparing the aircraft and moving them on to their new homes falls on a relatively small group of airmen, with about a dozen more flown in from Alabama, Colorado and elsewhere to assist.

"We wouldn't have near the manpower to do this on our own," Johnson said.

Airmen are working closely with the 189th, she said, to ensure any issues with the planes are resolved before they are turned over.

"It's a matter of pride," Johnson said.

While a newer model of C-130 exists, the planes - built in 1987 and 1988 - likely have two or more decades of service ahead of them. Johnson said the first plane could leave as early as this week, with others following in the weeks ahead.

Officially, the 440th Airlift Wing has 11 planes, she said, but one is on loan to another unit. And another is receiving more intensive maintenance elsewhere.

Tech Sgt. Alan Hunter, the 440th's quality assurance superintendent, said readying the aircraft to leave Pope Field was bittersweet.

"It's kind of sad to watch it happen," he said. "It's kind of like moving your house."

Gorse and Nadzan, both set to retire this year, agreed. Gorse, the 440th Operations Group commander, recently completed his final flight in uniform. Others in the wing have had similar final flights in recent weeks.

Now, the 440th Airlift Wing only has two crews capable of flying, he said.

But when the 189th offered to send crews to get the planes, the unit declined all the same, Gorse said.

After flying the planes around the world — to Afghanistan, Haiti, the Horn of Africa, Kuwait, Iraq, Cuba and more locations the pilot can count — he said 440th air crews wanted one final mission with the planes.

"I said, 'Let us do it,'" Gorse said.

In the Reserves, airmen stay in their units longer than in the active force, he said. For some, they've spent an entire career working with those planes.

"It's their kid, it's part of their family," Gorse said.

And in the near future, they'll have to let that family go.

"That's the rough part," Nadzan said, "to know you're never going to jump in that plane again."

 

Source:  http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force/440th-airlift-wing-prepares-planes-for-transfer-ahead-of-inactivation-1.409861

 

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