March officials help celebrate C-17 milestone in Long Beach

  • Published
  • By Capt. Andra Higgs
  • 4th Air Force Public Affairs
LONG BEACH, Calif. --  The C-17 Globemaster III surpassed its millionth hour of flight with a Total Force crew that evacuated injured U.S. troops March 20 from Iraq and transported them to Germany for medical treatment. A jolly band of Brits from the Royal Air Force also joined the blue-suit crew on the mission.

At a ceremony here Monday, which marked the aviation milestone for the backbone airlifter of the U.S. Air Force fleet, Gen. Duncan McNabb, Air Mobility Command commander, provided more than 2,000 attendees at the event perspective about the lifecycle of the aircraft that became operational January 1995. 

"It's been a privilege to play witness to this aircraft over a few years," said Gen. McNabb. A former C-141 pilot, he has been involved in every phase of the C-17 master planning. "The C-17 has emerged to fulfill every challenge." 

From landing on dirt strips in Afghanistan to provide support to special-forces troops to humanitarian relief mission in Asia and the Gulf Coast regions, the C-17 provided unprecedented strategic access to support tactical operations at austere locations around the globe. No more significant than its work-horse role in providing supplies in the logistical channel for troops stationed in Iraq, as well as its aeromedical evacuation role from that theater of operations. 

"The C-17 has proven its weight in gold," said. Gen. McNabb. "The movement of troops and air mobility are always critical for military operations. The C-17 has provided our great nation the ability to project its power around the globe and you, Boeing [employees and subcontractors] built it for us."

The flight-hour milestone came significantly sooner than Air Force or Boeing planners anticipated. Officials at the Tactical Airlift Control Center, the Air Force's nerve center for global airlift operations, confirmed that C-17s have been pressed much harder since Sept. 11, 2001, than originally planned. The C-17's million-hour journey began with its first flight from Long Beach, Calif., on Sept. 15, 1991.

Designed to handle military and humanitarian airlift, the four-engine, T-tailed aircraft has hauled troops and equipment to remote international hotspots from Kosovo to Africa. Its rear-loading ramp aided in the largest paratroop drop since World War II when Army soldiers dropped into northern Iraq during early operations of the current war there. 

"The C-17 is the world's best," said Col. Jeff Barnson, vice commander, 452nd Air Mobility Wing. "No other aircraft can deliver America's peacekeepers and angels of mercy anytime, anywhere. The citizen Airmen of the Air Force Reserve Command have found the airlift, medivac, and airdrop capabilities legendary. We look forward to the next million hours in the C-17." 

The 174 feet-long aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 585,000 pounds, with speeds of more than Mach .75, can fly greater than 6,000 miles on a single tank of fuel and land on a dirt-field less than 3,000 feet in length.

"This aircraft (C-17) brings the ability to take cargo or people over strategic distances for delivery directly to the combatant commander," said Col. William Hill, commander, 172nd Airlift Wing, Jackson ANGB, Miss. He was the mission commander on the sortie that crossed the symbolic millionth-hour barrier. It was a theater cargo mission on the front end and moved injured troops from the desert to Germany and eventually back to Andrews AFB, Maryland, on the back end. "The C-17 brings this unit a viable future with a state-of-the art weapon system with a mission that we can really sink our teeth into."

The aeromedical-evacuation mission that transforms the C-17 into a medical transport has largely been credited, along with extraordinary advance in the practice of battlefield medicine, with saving countless lives of American troops, coalition forces and Iraqis during this conflict.

"This aircraft allows us to give better care and respond to emergencies in a more timely fashion than we could before the C-17 era," said Maj. Lazaro Bravo, a pulmonary doctor assigned to a Critical Care Transport Team of the 60th Medical Operations Squadron, Travis AFB, Calif. "The difference between this aircraft and others we've used in the past is night and day. The environmental factor on the C-17 is like having a flying intensive-care unit. This is so important in the golden hours of care. We're now able to get injured troops back to the states in less than 72 hours and in the past this may have taken weeks."

On the ground in Long Beach, Boeing officials received praise heaped on by Gen. McNabb for the Globemaster III's superior craftsmanship and outstanding performance record. Mr. Ron Marcotte, Boeing's vice president of tanker and airlift operations, further engrained the aircraft manufacturing team aboard USAF mission.

"With every flight that you take, there is one additional passenger and that is our reputation," Mr. Marcotte said.

The C-17 customer base includes seven current Air Force installations, encompassing four major commands (Air Force Reserve Command, the Air National Guard, AMC, Pacific Air Forces and Air Education and Training Command). The bases are: March ARB, Calif., Jackson ANGB, Miss., Charleston AFB, S.C., McChord AFB, Wash., McGuire AFB, N.J., Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and Altus AFB, Okla. Thirteen aircraft slated for assignment at Travis AFB, Calif., are currently on the Boeing assembly line. Four additional Globemaster IIIs are operated by the Royal Air Force.

"This aircraft will fly around the world and do wonderful things for America and for many other people," said Maj. Gen. Robert Duignan, 4th Air Force commander. "It will deliver troops, equipment and humanitarian supplies to people around the world who've never seen anything from America."

For SMSgt. Monica Fletcher, a medical technician deployed with the 791st EAES, Ramstein AB, Germany, working on the C-17 has been a welcome, hands-on transition from the C-130 platform that her home unit, the 94th AES, Dobbins ARB, Ga., normally flies.

"This deployment has been an introduction to the C-17 other than in the books or on computer-based training," said SMSgt. Fletcher. A reservist, she is a registered nurse in her civilian occupation. She's been on 18 aeromedical evacuation mission from Iraq since being mobilized in December 2005. "On the C-130, we had to bring on electrical converters, bring on additional oxygen bottles, but on the C-17 everything we need to take care of patients is already on-board. I really applaud the medical team that was involved with the development phase of this aircraft; they really thought ahead about what our needs would be."

Boeing currently is on a multi-year production contract to design, build and deliver 180 C-17s to the U.S. Air Force through 2008. To date, the USAF has 148 C-17s in its fleet.

"The intense, non-stop pace of C-17 operations is like driving the Indianapolis 500 on a daily basis, rather than once a year," said Dave Bowman, Boeing vice president and C-17 program manager. "Our unparalleled customer support of the operational fleet has been a key element in enabling the C-17's surge mode. Boeing teams are working side-by-side with the customer's maintenance crews around the globe, 24 hours a day. We are there for our customer - anytime, anywhere."

(Boeing's Global Mobility Systems contributed to this article)