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C-130 News: Air Force’s inaugural touchdown at Belen Alexander Municipal Airport


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2016-10-27 Belen Alexander.jpg

In dramatic fashion, a U.S. Air Force C-130J swept through the Hub City skies last week, landing in full force for the first time on the new crosswind runway at the Belen Alexander Municipal Airport.

The dignitaries on the ground for the inaugural landing stood in awe with cell phones in hand pointed to the sky to capture the moment that’s been years in the making. The 58th Special Operations Wing out of Kirtland Air Force Base, along with the150th Special Operations Wing New Mexico Air National Guard unit will also use the runway.

Col. Brenda Cartier, the commander of the 58th Special Operations Wing, stood on the loading ramp in the rear of the plane Thursday and thanked city, state and federal representatives for the opportunity to use the municipal airport.

“Thank you for letting us bring this capability to your city,” Cartier said. “We promise to be good stewards of your airfield and to put it to good use for training. This airfield is going to be critical to our capabilities in the wing because we train special operations air crew, we train global strike air crew, who guard the nuclear missile sites around the country and we train air combat and search and rescue forces.”

Among its missions, the C-130J also counts capabilities as diverse as special ops, aerial refueling, close air support, as well as humanitarian relief, such as after hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.

“In order to do those high-end missions, which are very dangerous and high risk, we have to be able to train our crews in the toughest conditions possible that will mimic what they’ll see in combat or in rescue or humanitarian situation,” Cartier said.

The commander said New Mexico is perfect for the type of training the 58th Special Operations Wing does, acknowledging the flat plains to the mountains and hot and cold weather.

“We can load up the back of (the plane) with special operators ... and we can either land or just open the ramp in the back and parachute out,” she said. “We can also parachute out equipment; so you can put vehicles back here, beans and bullets, and you can drop them off the back.”

Cartier said the C-130 can also operate totally blacked out, meaning the crew would be on night-vision devices. The high-performance airplane can also land and take off on a very short runway, such as the newly constructed taxiway at the local airport.

“To give our students that realistic training, to mimic the austere fields we operate in is an airfield like this where we can get really good blacked-out operations; it’s a shorter and narrower runway that we’re used to,” she said. “It’s what we see in other nations so it’s a good challenge for our students and instructors to land and practice here. It’s going to give us that combat and training capability we haven’t had yet.”

The commander said when they wanted to do the type of training they’re going to do in Belen, they would have to go somewhere else in the country, which takes a lot of time a taxpayer money.

“We will save hundreds of flying hours to be able to come here and put those flying hours to good use, practicing take offs and landings and black-out operations,” Cartier said. “We are so appreciative of it, and like I said earlier, we promise to be good stewards of the airfield and we’ll be providing resources for crash, fire and rescue. The partnership is going to work out terrific.”

The Air Force and Air National Guard will utilize the runway in a 12-hour block, normally between the hours of 1 p.m. and 1 a.m., limiting the flights to 14 every two weeks. The New Mexico Air National Guard will be flying in and out on occasional weekends, while the Air Force’s operations will take place during the week.

Most of the C-130 planes will approach from west of the airport and turn around near the east side of the mesa’s bluff.

The agreement between the city and Air Force, which is for a total of 10 years, says the federal government will pay the city $1,483,758 each year.

Source: http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/air-force-s-inaugural-touchdown-at-belen-alexander-municipal-airport/article_b3ddf69e-9bb9-11e6-bb01-03e03413295b.html


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