CDF gets cargo "downrange" during exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jamal Sutter
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Without equipment, Airmen and aircraft downrange aren't fully-capable of completing tasks critical to mission success.

The 35th Logistics Readiness Squadron's cargo deployment function recently ran operations during phase one of Exercise Beverly Sunrise 10-01 to ensure its crew can supply out-bound units with the necessary components to get the job done.

"The purpose of a cargo deployment function is to generate air combat power downrange," said Master Sgt. Mark Umfleet, 35th LRS NCO in charge of the CDF. "And we do that by moving the cargo, resources and equipment that are going to be needed to support the war efforts."

The team specializes in ensuring pallets are properly built, labeled and ready to load on transport aircraft, but isn't entirely made up of 35th LRS personnel.

"The CDF is comprised of eight separate mobility functions and those functions are filled by 80 augmentees throughout this base," Sergeant Umfleet said. "We have roughly 25 to 30 actual transportation experts and the rest of the team is built up of augmentation forces."

The augmentation force is made up of personnel from various units and grants those people a chance to experience a different realm of base support aside from their day-to-day jobs.

"Whether you work at the communications squadron or the medical group, this allows you to see the full picture," Sergeant Umfleet said. "In coming down here, you get to see what it takes to mobilize a wing and get a unit downrange to fight that war."

According to Staff Sgt. Charice Roberson, 35th LRS CDF lead in-checker, team members are responsible for such jobs as processing paperwork, preparing baggage pallets, marshaling and driving forklifts, weighing and measuring cargo and checking hazardous material. During the exercise, those functions and duties were accomplished just as they would be in the event of a real deployment.

"For us, this is our battleground," Sergeant Umfleet added. "We don't simulate much of anything down here. We see the actual cargo, and we're physically moving those pallets and rolling stock. That hazard is physically there, that classified material is there, that member is sitting with that secret piece all day just like we normally would."