C-17 recovered in joint effort

Army vehicles pull the C-17 Globemaster from its location to the staging area at Forward Operating Base Shank in eastern Afghanistan. The aircraft ran off the runway and crashed due to inclement weather and freezing during the winter months. Boeing plans on recovering the aircraft to sustainable levels, so it can be flown back to America, where it will be reconstructed and reintegrated into the Air Force fleet. Photo by Sgt. Victor Everhart,/ 3rd BCT, 1st AD Public Affairs.

Sgt. Victor Everhart,
3rd BCT, 1st AD Public Affairs:

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – In February, a C-17 Globemaster III encountered inclement weather during a landing and overran the runway, causing damage to its landing gear and other critical parts.

Through months of planning and teamwork by the joint forces at Forward Operating Base Shank, this 282,500-pound aircraft was moved with no incidents from its location after the crash to a site where the servicemembers and Boeing employees could get the aircraft back to operational readiness.

“As soon as the aircraft overran the runway, we were looking at planning and how to recover the aircraft,” said Air Force Maj. Mel Ibarreta, officer-in-charge of the 777th Expeditionary Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force Squadron at FOB Shank. “We contacted the aircraft maintainers at Boeing and got an understanding of what they needed. Once we finalized our planning, the heavy equipment operators, Tech. Sergeant Albert Fanini, Tech. Sergeant Robert Livingston and Staff Sergeant Johnny Resendez were able to execute the construction of the engineered wadi bridge ahead of schedule”

Army vehicles pull the C-17 Globemaster from its location to the staging area at Forward Operating Base Shank in eastern Afghanistan. Photo by Sgt. Victor Everhart,/ 3rd BCT, 1st AD Public Affairs.

“We were tasked with building the bridge the aircraft was going to be moved over to stage for repair,” said Air Force Tech Sgt. Ursula Rothweiler, an engineer assistant assigned to the 777th EPBS. “Also included was completing dynamic cone penetration testing to assure that the bridge would hold the weight of the aircraft without sinking or giving way.”

With the necessary equipment and personnel named, and the tasks given, all that was left was the execution of the plan, moving the aircraft from the crash site to the repair site, a little more than a mile away.

“By the time I got on the team, the plan was set and it was mostly time for execution of mission,” said Sgt. Dennis Stout, the project noncommissioned officer in charge of personnel and equipment. “We were out here every day, busting butt, moving dirt and filling the areas needed to hold the weight of the huge bird, plus the equipment needed to pull the aircraft from its location to the objective.”

Once the preparation was done and everybody working on the project knew the plan, all that was left was the rehearsal and the move itself.

Army vehicles do a dry run of the C-17 movement where they build the confidence to move in unison at Forward Operating Base Shank in eastern Afghanistan. Photo by Sgt. Victor Everhart,/ 3rd BCT, 1st AD Public Affairs.

“The move went 100 percent better than I could have ever anticipated,” said Sgt. 1st Class Pierre Dye, the construction operations sergeant for the 7th Engineer Battalion. “We planned on the move requiring around five hours and I was amazingly surprised it took less than an hour. But that goes to show you when Soldiers, Airmen and civilians alike all put their minds and effort into a joint task that nothing is impossible.”

“What stands out the most to me about this whole affair is that it was a mixture of many, many people from many different sources, who all meshed together and worked extremely hard,” said Lt. Col. Gilbert Mestler, the FOB Shank garrison commander. “Around 200 people were involved in the planning and execution of this move, from construction engineers, design engineers, Boeing employees, Air Force security police, Army military police, Army pathfinders, all kinds of Soldiers, Airmen and civilians from many different fields have been involved in this effort.

“For a lot of those people this will be the culminating point of many weeks of effort from people of divergent fields,” said Mestler. “And we’re really proud of having successfully moved the aircraft without doing any more damage to the aircraft. As well as getting a C-17 back into the fleet, the runway should be back opened up to C-17 use for redeployment and deployment.”

Share

Short URL: http://fbmonitor.com/?p=12184

Comments are closed

Advertisement
Military Discounts ENMU

Recent Entries

Featured Links

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Advertisement
Advertisement Military Discounts
Advertisement Ruidoso, New Mexico

Photo Gallery

Advertisement
Log in | Designed by Gabfire themes | The Monitor and The Monitor Online are published by Laven Publishing each Thursday.
The Monitor is an unofficial publication authorized by AR 360-1 and printed each Thursday in the interest of the Fort Bliss and El Paso, Texas, communities. It is the only publication allowed to be distributed on Fort Bliss property. The contents of The Monitor are not necessarily the views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, or The Laven Group, LLC. The appearance of advertising in The Monitor does not constitute endorsement of the products or services advertised. Any article or service advertised in The Monitorwill be made available for purchase, use or patronage without regard to any non-merit factor of consumers. If a violation or rejection of this equal opportunity policy by an advertiser is confirmed, advertising from that source will be discontinued until the violation is corrected. The Monitor has a circulation of 15,000 copies. Editorial content is prepared, edited and provided by the Public Affairs Office of Fort Bliss, Bldg. 15, (915) 568-4088 or fax (915) 568-3749. Items submitted for publication in The Monitor should be sent to monitorbliss@gmail.com, or sent to Fort Bliss, Texas 79916, by noon on Friday before issue. All submissions become Army property and should be typed, double-spaced with the author’s name, signature, and mailing address. Photos should have information attached describing photo and have photographer’s full name. The editor reserves the right to reject or edit all submissions or advertising that do not conform to The Monitor’s journalistic standards. All photos are U.S. Army unless otherwise designated. The Monitor’s classified ad page is a free service reserved for active duty personnel, military retirees, military family members and DAC’s only. Because there is no fee, the only advertisements permitted to be published on this page are ads that cannot be considered commercial ventures. Ads must be written on the standard form published from time to time, or located at Bldg. 15. As classified ads are personal in nature, The Monitor cannot publish ads received through “Shotgun” mail or by fax. The Monitor is a registered trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Jan. 12, 1988, #1472244. The Monitor is published by the commanding general of Fort Bliss through The Laven Group, LLC, 5959 Gateway Blvd. West, Ste. 450, El Paso, Tx. 79925 • 772-0934, fax; 772-1594, email: susan@lavenpublishing.com. Check out the online version of The Monitor at fbmonitor.com. Click on the e-Edition tab to view the entire newspaper electronically. For Monitor advertising information, call the Laven Publishing Group at 915-772-0934. For rates and mechanical information, visit www.lavenpublishing.com and click on the advertise tab.