Operations Commence

After two days of in processing and four vaccinations, the Commander committed our six aircraft in support of troop movements to the Port of Charleston, SC. The good news was that our report date to field training was delayed; the bad news was that we had 24 hours to prepare for the mission. Since my additional duty is to serve as the Company Operations Officer, my life has been chaos ever since. The Operations Officer is responsible for planning, briefing and coordinating flight activities along with requesting lodging, rental cars, and travel orders for a 35-member unit. I went from barely knowing anybody’s name to learning their job positions, experience level and the configuration of each aircraft. I believe the Commander’s true intent was to see if the unit could come together and pull off a short-notice operation—from a Commander’s perspective, a good way to find out what you have is to create a crisis. In this case, a Blackhawk helicopter unit is dropping off 32 aircraft and the troops need to get back to Ft. Dix. In addition, we need to ensure mechanics and parts are available for helicopters that may encounter maintenance issues in route to SC. To meet the need, our unit currently has C-23 aircraft staged in South Carolina and on standby status in New Jersey. An 18-hour day has been the norm, but I’ve scheduled myself for a couple days in Charleston later in the week…I guess being the Operations guy does have some advantages