Deployed tanker units integrate for total teamwork
By Staff Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
United States Central Air Forces Public Affairs-Forward
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AMCNS) – In a deployed location, one thing is for certain – teamwork makes a unit. For the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron here, teamwork went beyond that of one unit, combining assets of five KC-135R Stratotanker units.
The 340th EARS held for a short time planes and people from the 91st Air Refueling Squadron, 6th Air Mobility Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.; 319th Air Refueling Wing of Grand Forks AFB, N.D.; 22nd Air Refueling Wing of McConnell AFB, Kan.; 19th Air Refueling Group of Robins AFB, Ga.; and 92nd Air Refueling Wing of Fairchild AFB, Wash.
Four of the five units had combined before the recent arrival of the 92nd ARW. In transition, they further combined to perform hundreds of missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa for several weeks. On any given day, it wasnt't unusual to see a Fairchild crew, flying a McConnell-based tanker, with Grand Forks maintenance crews helping get the plane ready.
“Having so many units under one commander from one unit and having the director of operations from another unit can be a challenge, but not from here,” said Maj. Eric Brumskill, formerly the 340th EARS director of operations. “There are always issues with deployed members and home units that must give their inputs about their people. The challenge is finding the right belly button to push to make things happen with no familiarity. Overall, the crews and staff have been nothing but professional, and truly exemplify ‘one team one fight.’ We integrated well, and I certainly will see more of these faces from other bases in the future I'm sure.”
Lt. Col. Seth Beaubien, current 340th EARS commander here recently from Fairchild, said the work that was done here before his arrival was exemplary.
“I have an immense amount of respect for the team we replaced last week,” Colonel Beaubien said. “Lt. Col. Jeff Smith (former 340th commander from McConnell) and his staff did an outstanding job forging a team from units with different policies, operating instructions and cultures. They were 100 percent mission effective, and accomplishing every air tasking order over the two months they were here.”
Aircrews have certainly seen the combined effort. Capt. Joel Rivard, a pilot from Grand Forks AFB, said despite being from different bases everyone got along just fine.
“Well, look at it this way, we had people and planes from different bases deployed here and except for different faces, it was pretty seamless. We all come from the same schoolhouse (at Altus AFB, Okla.) so we’re all working off the same sheet of music. Yes, there are some differences from base to base but they’re minor.
“Tanker folks all get along very well with one another so we all started off as friends from the beginning,” Captain Rivard said. “I’m sure when I see these folks in the future, we’ll all remember the time we were deployed together.”
From the aircrew to the support side, the combined effort continued.
“I thought it was an interesting combination,” said Staff Sgt. Shenandoah Ellis, an intelligence NCO who deployed from McConnell and worked at the 340th EARS. “People from different units and different ways of conducting business working together almost flawlessly. At times it made it fun because we had so many personalities in the same office. But we began to act like we all were from the same unit, and then we began to ask the question of, ‘Are you from McConnell, Grand Forks, MacDill, Robins and eventually Fairchild?’”
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