Photo By David Kujawa | LIELVARDE AIR BASE, Latvia-- Master Sgt. Steven Haven aims a radio frequency kit...... read more read more
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LIELVARDE AIR BASE, Latvia- While highly visible assets of the 127th Wing are flying around Europe this week, equally important assets work tirelessly, and have been for months, laying and maintaining the foundation for a successful mission.
Members of the 127th Mission Support Group, out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich., traveled sooner and will stay longer than fellow troops during Saber Strike 18 to provide mission-essential personnel, logistical and equipment support. In doing so, they allow aviators and other non-support-unit Airmen to conduct successful warfighting and training missions.
“No matter how much you plan and communicate, there’s always going to be a great deal of miscommunication,” said Master Sgt. Steven Haven, a communications planner and liaison with the 127th Communications Flight, 127th Mission Support Group. “You’ll have to find ways to work through and circumvent it.”
Haven attended several mission planning conferences in advance of Saber Strike 18, a U.S. Army Europe-led exercise designed to enhance interoperability and collaboration among a variety of organizations and allied nations in Eastern Europe. He worked to identify communications assets and requirements needed while he and other members of the 127th Wing are deployed in Latvia for the mission. Communications needs range from providing a team cell phones or Simm card for internet access while abroad, to more complicated needs, such as coordinating personnel needs with the supporting combat communications squadrons and U.S. Airforce Europe.
“I ease the transition between the communications world and the maintainers and pilots. It could all be done without me but [is] done a lot easier with somebody that speaks both languages,” Haven said of the need for members of the 127th Operations Group to procure communications support, such as person-to-person and pilot-to-pilot radio, from service providers. “I speak ‘Geek’ and ‘Non-Geek.’”
While Haven is working inside the hangar assisting fellow servicemembers, Tech. Sgt. Justin Sawgle works out on the flight line with his aerospace ground equipment and petroleum, oil and lubricants teams to fuel up support equipment and jets on the ramp. Sawgle has worked for months with higher Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency to procure fuel, coordinate delivery to Latvia and then utilize it on the ground.
“I’m responsible for ordering fuel into the Latvian troops’ tanks, filling our trucks, aircraft and support equipment,” Sawgle, a fuel craftsman with the 127th Logistics Readiness Squadron said. “We refuel the A-10 fleet twice a day.”
Sawgle was one of several Airmen to arrive ahead of the majority of servicemembers assigned to the mission, traveling on what the military refers to by the acronym, “ADVON,” or the term, “advanced echelon.” Support personnel travelling on ADVON left Michigan on the Memorial Day holiday and will stay in country longer than most others to secure the block of hotel rooms, collect and return the fleet of rental cars, coordinate room assignments, food arrangements and unload and load equipment pallets.
While the majority of Wing members settle down for the night, a duo consisting of Capt. Paige Campbell and Tech. Sgt. Melissa Siegler begin their nightly reporting procedures, ensuring accountability of all personnel and equipment assets assigned to the mission. Siegler, a personnel specialist with the 127th Force Support Squadron, 127th Mission Support Group, during her fulltime job, is a considered PERSCO here, or personnel support for contingency operations.
“My main function is to ensure that everyone shows up, if anyone needs to return to home station early then I have to report that,” Siegler said.
Siegler reports personnel information to the servicing PERSCO team assigned to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. This daily reporting can take two to three hours depending on daily activities and begins at 11:00 p.m. each night.
On a Thursday evening while other servicemembers were finishing dinner and making plans for the evening ahead, a smiling and affable Siegler walked into the hotel restaurant, looking for her friends. When invited to join a group for dinner in downtown Riga, she politely declined.
“I have about three hours until Capt. Campbell gets here, I’m going to meet my friends and see if I can relax a little before the meeting,” Siegler said.
Although the hours may be longer, the mission may not match up with the majority of the team and they don’t have as much visibility, members of the 127th Mission Support Group attending Saber Strike 18 accomplish their tasks largely without complaint and with smiles on their faces.
For Haven, traveling internationally is only one of the high points of his Saber Strike participation.
“I like visiting different countries and learning about different cultures,” Haven said. “But one of the best parts of being here is that everyone who I’m working with appreciates it and they’re expressing that to me.”
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.10.2018 16:16 |
| Story ID: | 280310 |
| Location: | LIELVARDE AIR BASE, LV |
| Web Views: | 276 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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