AIR FORCE PHOTO Capt. Kimo Lowe, front, a pilot with the Hawaii Air National Guard's 204th Airlift Squadron, and Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Bragg, loadmaster with the 535th Airlift Squadron, unload medical supplies on Sept. 17 in the Marshall Islands to replace medicine lost in a fire at the Majuro Hospital.

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Hickam fliers get
emergency airlift duty

A cargo jet training flight
becomes a humanitarian
mission to the Marshalls

It was supposed to be a routine four-hour training mission for six members of the first active Air Force and Air National Guard team to form a C-17 Globemaster jet cargo crew.

Instead, members of the active Air Force's 535th Airlift Squadron and the Hawaii Air National Guard's 204th Airlift Squadron ended up flying 600 pounds of pharmaceutical and medical supplies to the Marshall Islands to replenish what was destroyed Sept. 16 in a fire at Majuro Hospital.

"We found out about the mission Saturday morning," said Lt. Col. Chris Davis, commander of the 535th. "When we arrived, the plane was ready to go."

This was the second official mission of the composite Air Force-Air Guard unit that is not expected to get the first of its eight C-17 cargo jets until Feb. 8.

Davis, who has flown C-17s for 11 years, said the Hickam Air Force Base unit has been training on C-17 cargo jets that transit through the islands. "We try to take advantage of every C-17 coming to Hickam on routine missions," Davis said.

Two four-hour training flights had been planned for Sept. 17-18 to include flights to Kona and the Marine Base at Kaneohe Bay as well as air refueling missions using a C-17 from Altus Air Force Base.

The Majuro Hospital fire left the city's only medical facility with less than 24 hours of medicine. The call for help went to the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith and the Kenney Warfighting Headquarters at Hickam.

Col. Mark Andersen, Kenney's Air Mobility Division chief, said he received the call for help at 9 p.m. Sept. 16: "PACOM directed us to bring two pallets of medical supplies to the Marshall Islands."

Medical supplies were brought in from Tripler Army Medical Center, Hickam's medical clinic and the Queen's Medical Center, Davis said. Within 12 hours, all the supplies were loaded on pallets.

By 8:10 a.m., Davis' C-17 -- with Greta Morris, U.S. ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, aboard -- was airborne. Morris was in the islands awaiting a commercial flight to the Marshall Islands after attending talks in Washington, D.C.

Five hours later, the humanitarian mission touched down in the Marshalls.

"We were greeted by local folks who worked at the embassy, and the medical staff," Davis said. "They were super appreciative of our getting this to them so fast.

"To be able to deliver humanitarian relief in only our second mission -- that's pretty cool," he said. "It's fulfilling to us whenever we can move cargo and equipment and see the end results."

Capt. Kimo Lowe, one of eight Hawaii Air National Guard C-17 pilots, said the one-day mission was "a great introduction to the capabilities of the C-17."

"It was great to show up for a training mission and end up with one that had a real-world impact," said Lowe, a 1991 Kamehameha Schools graduate.

At 8:10 p.m. and 4,400 miles later, the same C-17 was back at the ramp at Hickam.

"This mission demonstrated the fact that the Air Force can get to places immediately to help people in emergency situations," Davis said.