Sherpas dominate Iraq’s night skies

Photo By Darriel Swatts | (Left) Spc. Charles Brookens, a flight engineer for A Company, 641st Aviation Regiment, and Sgt. Clint Walker, a flight engineer for A Company, 641st, use hand and arm signals to help guide a pallet of cargo onto a C-23 Sherpa during a stop on one of their missions.  

JOINT BASE BALAD, IRAQ

06.03.2011

Story by Spc. Darriel Swatts 

40th Combat Aviation Brigade

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – “The C-23 Sherpa is a military version of the Shorts 360 civilian airliner. It was adopted for military usage for about the past 20 years,” said Capt. Adam McCarthy, commander of A Company, 641st Aviation Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard. “We use it for transporting passengers and cargo, or a variety of the two all around Iraq and even down to Kuwait.”

The soldiers of A Company, who have been stationed on Joint Base Balad, Iraq since October 2010, provide a crucial service in Iraq.

“We supply what is called the ‘last tactical mile’; the Air Force gets stuff into the country and we get it out to all the smaller bases in country,” said McCarthy. “We are extremely proficient in getting things and people around the country. We’re like the FedEx of Iraq.”

Since the Sherpa program’s arrival in Iraq, it has left an identifiable mark on operations.

“The service that we provide here has definitely made an impact on this whole war… Sherpas have been flying in this war for eight years now, and I think that the whole program has proven itself over and over again,” said 1st Sgt. Scott McCoy, A Company. “We are here to support the field commander, and if what they ask us to do is within our capabilities, we’ll get it done for them. We get the mission done, hands down, day in and day out to the best of our capabilities.”

Since the arrival of A Company, they have transported more than 2.2 million pounds of equipment and cargo, 10,000 people and have logged more than 5,000 hours of flight time on their fleet of aircraft.

The Sherpa program has gone through several modifications in order to be effective in Iraq.

“Back home we fly during the day; however, here in Iraq, we fly solely at night,” said Chief Warrant Officer Dan McCarron, maintenance officer and C-23 pilot for A Company. “When I was here in 2005, we used to fly during the day at a tactical low level altitude at a high rate of speed; but now, for safety reasons, we fly only at night under night vision goggles. Plus, we’ve had to do several modifications to the airframe and instrument panels in order to make it safer; because, it was originally a civilian aircraft, which the Army adapted for its own usage.”

With the whole drawdown of U.S. Forces out of Iraq, there are consistently fewer and fewer assets to move stuff around the theater of operations; so, the C-23 has really been called upon to go that extra mile and move those things that are required to be moved, said McCarron.

“They prove to be a priceless service here, if something is needed somewhere, if they can move it, they’ll get it there,” said Maj. Tom Stackpole, night operations officer-in-charge for Warrior Ops., 2nd Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment. “Even though we are drawing down here, stuff and people still need to be moved all the time; they are able to do so in an expeditious manner. They can carry more than a Blackhawk, but less than a Chinook, but the benefit is that they can go for longer distances, faster.”

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter and the C-23 Sherpa are both used as cargo and troop transports; however, the Sherpa is only operated by National Guard.

“I used to be a crewchief on a CH-47 Chinook, and now I’m a flight engineer on the C-23 Sherpa’s,” said McCoy. “We have limitations on what we can haul, but we move as much as we can as often as we can. The Chinook can haul four times as much as we can, but we can do it quicker and for longer hauls. But both aircraft perform phenomenally and have their own niches.”

Through the usage of the C-23 in Iraq, it has definitely shown that it excels in its field.

“The Sherpa is a very versatile aircraft; we’re able to move our loads under almost any circumstance. Our only limitations are weight, balance and weather,” said Sgt. Clint Walker, flight engineer for A Company. “The hotter the weather, the less we can carry… one of the reasons we fly at night… but we’ll fly to a location to drop off a single item, like a 15-pound box of blood, or we can load the aircraft to its max and go from there. We’ve been called the ‘Sure Flight Sherpas’, because we get the mission done.”

The nickname “Sure Flight Sherpas,” reflects a high demand for their services.

“They receive a lot of requests for their services, and it definitely keeps me busy. They are a very popular unit; they’re out flying every night, moving people and cargo all over the country,” said Spc. Byron Yates, future operations non-commissioned-officer-in-charge for the 2-228th. “The amazing thing about the Sherpa’s is that they move a lot of people and cargo, but they also pick up additional Space Available [Space A] people and cargo too. I’ll send them out saying they are going to be moving a certain amount of stuff, and they come back with doubled if not tripled numbers because of all of the Space A they moved that night too, and I’m just left wondering how they did it.”

The soldiers of A Company, 641st Aviation Regiment go by the motto “Somebody out there is waiting for us and we can’t let them down, we won’t let them down, we will get to them,” said McCarthy.

• Date Taken: 06.03.2011
• Date Posted: 06.14.2011 05:43
• Story ID: 72052
• Location: JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ