4 BSB Airlift Operations

BARSTOW, CA, UNITED STATES

06.28.2017

Story by 2nd Lt. Kent Williams 

1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division

FORT IRWIN, California - The glare from the sun reflecting on the sunglasses of Soldiers was cut out almost immediately as dust was sprayed onto every possible surface within 50 meters from the dual rotors of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter. For a moment the composition of the air and the ground may well have been the same.
The Chinook had come to airlift a M-1 Abrams turbo fan tank engine weighing more than 14,000 pounds.
Many of the routes through Fort Irwin are rock strewn, uneven and unforgiving for track or wheeled vehicles. To compensate for the rough terrain, speed is often reduced with some convoys moving at 10 miles per hour for extended periods of time. Logistics convoys are at the greatest disadvantage with the restrictive terrain given the fact that logistics vehicles are often large and extremely heavy.
This presented many challenges to the Soldiers of the 4th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team; and the 68th Combined Service and Support Battalion of the 4th Sustainment Brigade both in the 4th Infantry Division.
The extra hours it takes for those convoys to move, may take hours that combat units do not have, especially in the new Reconnaissance and Surveillance mission set that the 1SBCT was experimenting with while at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. With this mission set the combat units are spread out over vast distances with limited routes to conduct resupply.
To ensure that time lines are met and operational needs are satisfied creative and unorthodox solutions came into play. For instance - to overcome terrain like Fort Irwin’s it can be easiest to simply not deal with the terrain at all.
“Terrain may be too kind of a word- we dealt with the tyranny of [Fort Irwin]; we fought the tyranny of the environment, the tyranny of distance” to accomplish the mission, said Lt. Col. Eric McCoy, commander, 4BSB, 1SBCT, 4ID. The CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopter is ideally suited for moving large heavy pieces of critical equipment over the terrain.
“The Chinook provides unique distribution abilities for my company that we don’t have organically and provides us with the ability to make tactically capable plans for combat units” said 1st Lt. Alex Kahn, executive officer for Alpha Company, 4BSB, 1SBCT, 4ID.
The practice of using the using a helicopter to accomplish moving any kind of object or objects, or “package,” is known as “sling loading” and it involves a variety of formulas, nets and knots to ensure the “package” is protected and secure.
“It can be difficult to do, but it’s something our enlisted teams and officers work very hard to perfect, and they consistently preform beyond all expectations” said 1st Sgt. Christopher Marrow of Alpha Company, 4BSB, 1SBCT, 4ID.
The concern is especially pressing when the object is as heavy as the engine of a 72-ton tank. All concerns were eased as another dust storm spun up, and the seven-ton engine lifted off the ground and headed toward the slowly closing eye of the dust storm and into the cloudless sky, quickly making its way to the Soldiers of the Raider Brigade tank company that desperately needed it for the fight ahead.

• Date Taken: 06.28.2017
• Date Posted: 11.17.2017 15:35
• Story ID: 255737
• Location: BARSTOW, CA, US