Photo By Senior Airman Adam Enbal | A map inside the 426th Air Base Squadron Traffic Management Office displays locations...... read more read more
STAVANGER, Norway — Bright colored pins dot a map hanging inside the 426th Air Base Squadron Traffic Management Office. Scattered across Norway, they illustrate the scope of the team's logistics mission that extends far beyond Stavanger.
While many logistics units focus on supporting a single installation, the 426th ABS Logistics Flight supports military organizations operating throughout Norway. The team works with U.S. and Norwegian partners to coordinate transportation, customs clearance and cargo movements for a wide range of missions, including Navy underwater research projects, Marine Corps equipment programs and joint military exercises.
For Master Sgt. Donald J. Perez, 426th ABS Logistics Flight chief, the mission's importance becomes clear when considering what would happen without logistics support.
"We're pretty much the lifeline of [the mission]," Perez said.
Without that support, equipment can be delayed, exercises can be disrupted and units can face significant challenges moving personnel and cargo throughout the region.
Military activity in Norway has increased as NATO allies and U.S. forces train and operate throughout the region. To better understand the challenges facing those missions, members of the logistics team have traveled to the high north during winter exercises, where subzero temperatures, heavy snowfall and remote operating locations can complicate the movement of personnel and equipment. Working alongside units in the field has helped the team better anticipate logistical requirements before problems arise.
Over the years, the team has supported bomber task force deployments, special operations exercises, Marine Corps training events and Navy missions across the country.
"Most people think Stavanger and the 426th is a sleepy hollow, and they don't fully understand the mission and the things we do," said Stephen G. Skinner, 426th ABS transportation specialist.
Unlike larger logistics organizations where responsibilities are divided among multiple sections, the team in Stavanger manages a wide range of functions.
"There's four of us, and we all have to wear 15 different hats," Skinner said.
Skinner has spent more than two decades in Norway and has helped support military logistics operations throughout the region. His experience, combined with that of the rest of the team, helps solve challenges that visiting units often encounter for the first time.
Whether supporting a military exercise, coordinating customs requirements or helping units operate in the Arctic, the team's work often begins long before a mission starts.
Most Airmen, Sailors, Marines and NATO partners will never see the planning required to move personnel and equipment across the globe for exercises or missions within Norway and the high north. They will simply arrive and begin their mission.
Behind many of those operations is a four-person team in Stavanger working to ensure the right people, equipment and supplies arrive where they are needed so the mission can continue.
| Date Taken: | 06.25.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 06.25.2026 10:41 |
| Story ID: | 568551 |
| Location: | STAVANGER, ROGALAND, NO |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Moving the Mission Across Norway, by SrA Adam Enbal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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