That’s How I “Role”

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Kevin Gordon
  • 3rd AS commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Nearly 23,000 feet above the Afghanistan moonscape, the night sky glows green through the magic of the night vision devices. The big gray C-17 Globemaster III and its crew prepare for yet another delivery of Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected vehicles to an austere base in Helmand province. The usual mundane banter between aircrew members with many hours of cruise time is replaced with the oft rehearsed checklist items and responses that are called out. The copilot echoes the commands to ensure that everything is done precisely by the book. "Slats extend ... flaps one-half ... gear down ... before landing checklist". The plane is slowing as a transformation takes place to allow 500,000 lbs of aircraft, fuel and cargo to slow to 230 knots. 

Approximately 25 miles from a dimly lit airstrip that won't be seen until much lower and closer, the plane noses over. It descends at a rate that often appears to the layman that something surely must be wrong - it isn't. Down it dives with the pilots searching. "Pilot has the field in sight." "Roger, Co-Pilot has the field in sight 10 o'clock." "That checks." 

The skilled air traffic controllers that have guided the behemoth through the night sky and around the congested airspace call out ..."Check wheels down, cleared to land runway one-nine" The pilot maneuvers the aircraft to align perfectly ... "flaps full". The copilot calls out aim points, airspeeds and alignment in what truly is a team effort. The plane touches down 1,000 feet down the 90-foot wide runway and stops well short of the desert landscape that lies ahead. 

"Nice one," is the only feedback that is given because there is much to do. More checklists must be run as the loadmaster readies the lifesaving cargo for download. The expeditionary aerial port members quickly clamber aboard and prepare to drive the MRAPs down the back of the aircraft like they've done hundreds of times before. Twenty minutes later, the plane is back in the air, destined to a base in Southwest Asia for a crew change and more cargo. 

This story doesn't' happen every day just because someone flies a plane. It happens because brave security forces Airmen protect a base where civil engineers construct and maintain facilities that allow force support specialists to account for all the people and provide them food, lodging and recreation, so hundreds of logistics Airmen can accept, process and load cargo on an aircraft that the best maintainers in the world maintain as if someone's life depends on it ... because it does. The proud Maintainers then hand the jet off to a highly skilled aircrew that safely deliver the cargo to a combat zone that is expertly watched by the world's finest air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists, in skies patrolled by fighter and reconnaissance aircraft designed and trained to find, fix and kill the enemy in the air or on the ground. 

All of this happens because Airmen from all walks of life and from all over the United States answered a call. They come together every minute, of every hour, of every day to Fly, Fight, and Win! We are all cogs in an elaborate machine that produces the most powerful Air Force in the history of mankind. Know and embrace your role and know that you make it all happen. That's how I "role"!