Soldiers distribute supplies

Courtesy Photo | Spc. Beatrice Griffin tightens the straps on a palette of vehicle repair parts at Baghdad International Airport Jan. 11. Griffin is a water treatment specialist assigned to the 155th Cargo Transfer Company personnel conducting Arrival Departure Airfield Control Group operations.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

02.02.2006

Courtesy Story

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BAGHDAD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT " Loading or unloading cargo from a plane is a little different from piling sundries in the back of a humvee.

Pallets require careful packing or unpacking, and the Soldiers of the 155th Cargo Transfer Company, 4th Sustainment Brigade, who run Arrival Departure Airfield Control Group (ADACG) operations at Baghdad International Airport do just that.

Working with the Air Force and various civilian airport agencies, ADACG Soldiers act as a sort of large-scale post office " packing cargo bound stateside and sorting through incoming repair parts to get them to their final destinations in theater.

"We give everyone their supplies," said 1st Lt. Michael Hallinan, platoon leader. "Once the Air Force loads the cargo off the plane, my platoon will take it and put it into customer lanes " with each lane representing a different FOB [forward operating base]."

Using heavy forklifts and other materials handling equipment (MHE) to arrange the pallets, the ADACG essentially is a staging ground for Army supplies.

If the customer is on the Victory Base Complex, they can come to the ADACG directly and the cargo will be loaded onto trucks for them with the MHE, said Staff Sgt. Randall Welch, section sergeant.

"Two days is our target time," he said. "We want everything that we get to be delivered within two days."

For deliveries outside the complex, the cargo is put into containers and sent to the nearby Centralized Receiving and Shipping Point (CRSP), where it's sorted further and placed onto combat logistics patrols, Hallinan said.

The other half of ADACG operations is getting cargo on air-worthy palettes."We do the weighing and marking of the palettes," Welch said. "We'll get the center of balance and stuff like that."

Pallets for aircraft must meet certain size and weight requirements, Hallinan said. The weight must be distributed a certain way throughout the load.

The 39-person platoon processes some 3300 pallets every month, and that number is expected to grow.

"The more the air operation grows, the more we'll move," Hallinan said.

• Date Taken: 02.02.2006
• Date Posted: 02.02.2006 07:25
• Story ID: 5281
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ