58th OSS packs 3,000 pounds for 1,000 foot fall

  • Published
  • By Lee Ross
  • Nucleus editor
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  What the 58th Operations Support Squadron does to prepare a package for training airdrop is by no means simple. And, according to Master Sgt. Shaun Seredni of the 58th OSS, the Airmen who learn to rig these packages may never do anything like this again in their Air Force career.

Kirtland is one of only a handful of bases with the equipment and know-how for active- duty Airmen to put together a package for a training drop, he said. Putting together one of these packages is usually something the Army does, he explained, and, when packages are needed for training purposes, the work is often done by contractors.

The Airmen at the 58th seem to have a good time with their work, though. Signs of a serious, yet fun-loving crew are all over the hangar where the packages are built.

There are mustaches taped to both the men's and women's bathroom signs in honor of the Mustache March, an Air Force tradition.

The hangar is equipped with neatly-organized odds and ends needed to accomplish the training mission: sewing machines to repair or replace sections of the parachutes, five- and 10-ton cranes, stacks of plywood and aluminum to build the platforms, hanging parachutes with neatly coiled cords and rows of packages that are ready or being prepared to drop.

On the tops of some airdrop packages are short messages written in permanent marker, apparently there just to brighten the day of the training aircrew that will ultimately load it into a plane and release it over the drop zone.

One says, "Good news, everyone! I'm going to drop from a plane."

The packages are made to simulate all manner of goods the Air Force might deliver. At the south end of the hangar, for example, is a set that simulates the exact size and weight of a packed-up motorcycle, and next to those are dummy medical kits, which are red nylon bags filled with shredded tires.

Seredni said the Airmen use shredded tires because they float, just like a real medical kit would.

"Sometimes you have to be creative," he said.

The 58th OSS is also trained to receive the training packages from the drop zone and rate/score the aircrew, which is training to do real-world airdrops.

About 1 p.m. Feb. 6, the team retrieved one such training package, which dropped from an HC-130J cargo plane to an open, dusty stretch of land on the southern part of Kirtland.

The plane was loaded and took off from Kirtland airfield. It was traveling east, toward the mountains, at about 170 knots (roughly 200 mph) and 1,000 feet above the ground. The rear cargo bay ramp lowered and an extraction parachute was released, inflated in the slipstream and the package sailed out as the plane crossed over the drop zone.

Master Sgt. Bill Kowalski, the aerial delivery superintendent for the 58th Operations Support Squadron, said he tells Airmen not to think about the package being ejected from the plane. The package just stops and the plane keeps going, he said.

Once the roughly 3,000-pound package clears the rear of the plane, two additional chutes are deployed.

On this attempt, the package missed the point of impact, or PI, their intended target -- marked by a cone -- by about 170 yards.

To judge the drop at this drop zone, Kowalski said, the drop zone controllers draw an imaginary line east and west through the target, along the path of the plane. If the package lands on that line, the pilot did an excellent job. To judge the aircrew in charge of releasing the package, they draw a line running north and south of the target. If the package lands near that line, the navigator's timing for the drop was excellent, he said.

The Airmen at the drop zone for the mission were under the command of Senior Airman Ileana Romo of the 58th OSS and Tech. Sgt. Chrystal Cutsinger of the 150th OSS. They moved the package with a forklift and packed up and hauled away the parachutes -- which are worth about $25,000, altogether, Kowalski said -- to prepare for the next training drop.

Airman 1st Class Sean Greathead worked the drop zone as well. He took orders from superiors with a crisp "yes, sir." He has been at Kirtland for a few months and still misses California, he said, but he enjoys working with the 58th.

"It's been good," he said. "I got lucky."