Missions to extreme-cold climates are nothing new for members of Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 446th Airlift Wing, which flies cargo to research bases in Antarctica each year.

But 11 airmen from the Air Force Reserve unit will soon embark on a mission that’s a bit similar – or the exact opposite, depending on your view. They’ll take part of a joint-service humanitarian mission that will provide medical care to people living in a handful of villages in a remote corner of northwestern Alaska.

“Those villages are so remote, they just don’t see a lot of regular medical care,” said Senior Master Sgt. Margaret Anderson, a logistician and the senior noncommissioned officer overseeing Lewis-McChord’s participation in the event.

Airmen from the 446th Airlift Wing will run the logistics of setting up and breaking down the makeshift military camp and ensure cargo can flow to the remote sites. The wing will also send a pharmacy technician to help with medical care.
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Forward Operating Base Cobra, the bare-bones outpost in northern Diyala province that soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division’s cavalry squadron moved into last year, has been receiving some upgrades lately. Among one of them is a new dining facility with contracted cooks (when Joe Barrentine and I were there, food was a major complaint among the joes). The soldiers named the new DFAC after Pfc. Erin McLyman, the Oregon native who was killed last month from indirect fire.

“I didn’t get a chance to know Pfc. McLyman, but I knew about her,” squadron commander Lt. Col. Joseph …

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Thirty Air Force reservists from Joint Base Lewis-McChord returned home Monday after a six-month deployment to Iraq.

The airmen, members of the 446th Civil Engineer Squadron, served in Kirkuk. They deployed in August 2009; eight of the squadron’s firefighters remain in Iraq and will likely return this summer.

This story from the public affairs staff at the 446th Airlift Wing is particularly touching. It’s about a lieutenant colonel diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma while in New Zealand for Operation Deep Freeze last year.

Lt. Col. Joe Nauman, the commander of the 97th Airlift Squadron, is feeling better. But he wanted to thank the Kiwi doctor who diagnosed him, so he flew back to Christchurch to show his appreciation in person.

This blog is often filled with stories of death and suffering, so a story like this is a nice change of pace to start the day.

Other local …

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The big U.S.-Afghan operation to clear the Marjah district of Helmand province has succeeded in allowing coalition forces to take control of main roads and government centers, the top Marine commander in southern Afghanistan said. For a refresher, Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment is along for the fight.

Other local links:

4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
Crater Analysis Class Makes Big Impact on IA Soldiers [DVIDS]

17th Fires Brigade
Security Exercise [DVIDS]
Poll Station Recon [DVIDS]

Air Force
AMC Vice Commander Visits 380th AEW in …

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Look which aircrew gave the veep a lift to Iraq:

Sean Naylor of the Army Times has this cool piece about soldiers from Fort Lewis’ 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment using info ops in their fight against the Taliban.

From the story:

As a crowd gathered to watch the spectacle, loudspeakers mounted on a Stryker rammed the message home: “We took these weapons from the dead Taliban that decided to fight Task Force Legion, and we took them from the cowardly Taliban that surrendered to us and are currently sitting in our jail.”

The in-your-face challenge to the insurgents was unprecedented. For years the Taliban had held sway here

…

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Tech. Sgt. Heather Normand of Tacoma has loaded a variety of cargo on jets over the years: food, water, troops, toilet paper, generators, helicopters, Humvees and more.

But the the latest mission for the loadmaster from McChord Air Force Base has an added wrinkle. The cargo will munch on frozen fish throughout the flight.

“Dolphins will be a first for me,” the 33-year-old Normand said Friday. “It’s definitely my most unique cargo so far.”

Two aircrews from McChord’s 446th Airlift Wing leave today for New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific. In an event dubbed Lagoon MINEX 2009, the American military — with a little help from four bottlenose dolphins ¬ is working alongside French, Australian and New Zealand forces to find and destroy more than 200 contact mines in the waters around the island.

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