CAB aviators support Camp Bucca transportation needs

Photo By Monica Guthrie | The back seats of a Company A, 4th Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, is packed with passengers and luggage during a flight from Camp Bucca, Iraq, to Camp Buhering, Kuwait, on April 15.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

04.17.2008

Story by Spc. Monica Guthrie 

Multi-National Division-Central

By Pfc. Monica K. Smith
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs Office

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – The distance between Camp Buehring, Kuwait, and Camp Bucca, Iraq, is less than 50 miles. However, due to the condition of roads and the high threat of improvised explosive devices, the time to travel by ground convoy is more than four hours.

"Everybody in this country knows the safest way to travel is by air," said Chief Warrant Officer Jerry Emmons, Company A., 4th Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment.

Each week 4-3rd Avn. Regt., sends a company to do the "Bucca Mission." The company sends three Black Hawks to Camp Buehring, and for three days their entire mission consists of transporting people to and from Camp Bucca and Camp Buehring.

"It's faster to fly and we can move a lot more people in a lot less time," said Lt. Dan Morse, Co. A, 4-3rd Avn. Regt., who served as the team's officer in charge.

"We fly to keep those guys off the roads so they don't get hit by IEDs," added Chief Warrant Officer Alford Grey, also with Company A.

The six pilots and six crew chiefs fly seven trips a day between the two locations carrying 33 people each trip; they potentially move more than 400 people a day.

Typically flights begin at 8 a.m. sometimes earlier, said Sgt. Dennis Hart, Co. A, 4-3rd Avn. Regt. "We get done at 5 p.m. but when we land we have an hour's worth of maintenance to do on the aircraft – sometimes two. We won't usually leave the aircraft till 6 or 6:30 p.m."

Grey, a maintenance officer with Company A, has come to Bucca on every mission. He is the company's direct adviser to the battalion command, said Hart.

"A maintenance officer and a (technical inspector) come on each trip in case we have to do anything with the aircraft," Hart said. "If something happens and the aircraft needs to be worked on and test flown, we can do that here."

The Soldiers enjoy their mission; though the hours are long, everyone who serves on the Bucca mission volunteers to go.

• Date Taken: 04.17.2008
• Date Posted: 04.24.2008 11:51
• Story ID: 18736
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ