15th Wing C-17s get their close up on Indian television

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nathan Allen
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM, Hawaii --  The word "bakaya" might soon be used by new fans of 15th Wing C-17s once they make their debut on an episode of New Delhi Television's show "Bigger, Higher, Faster."

This word meaning "outstanding" in English was also used with gratitude to describe the Indian news crew's experience with the 15th WG and its Airmen during their visit here Jan. 25 through 27.

Vishnu Som, associate editor and senior anchor of NDTV, said the show's purpose is to introduce state of the art military and civilian aircraft to its audience with a tactile approach.

"It's nice to understand technology through the eyes of the user," Mr. Som said. "I could have easily done this program based on file footage and stock footage based on information that's out there."

"To hear about the experiences of U.S. aviators on this aircraft is what would give this documentary an edge as it were," he said.

According to Mr. Som, the close working relationship between the Indian Air Force and Pacific Air Forces along with the 15th WG's location in the region made shooting the documentary a logical choice

"We were really happy to come over here," Mr. Som said. "To my understanding, it's the Pacific Air Forces which deals with the Indian Air Force to a very large extent in terms of the deployment or the responsibilities assigned to different Air Forces within the U.S. In fact we've had exercises over here in Hawaii when we've had Indian airmen coming down and doing joint exercises at Hickam as well."

Jerry Drelling, Boeing C-17 media relations, said the C-17 has many noteworthy capabilities. The aircraft has unparalleled short landing and takeoff capability, the ability to fly strategic intercontinental missions, tactically land on austere runways and carry anything from humanitarian supplies to personnel anywhere around the world.

"The ability to conduct and airdrop by dropping that ramp down to drop materials, whether it's humanitarian, disaster relief, or paratroopers, makes for a tremendous capability," he added. "There's no other airlifter like the C-17."

Major Victor Aguilar, aircraft commander for one of the training missions, said the Indian crew seemed impressed by the aero-medical and low-level flying demonstrations during the mission. The aero-medical capabilities of the airplane were put on display as 11 aero-medical evacuation personnel on board demonstrated how to load patients and what equipment is available AE missions.

"They were able to see how easy it was to set up the equipment on the C-17," the Major said. It only took them about 30 to 40 minutes to set it all up so they were pretty impressed with that."

"We were also able to simulate a tactical descent going into Kona and demonstrated the low-level capability of the aircraft by flying at 500 feet over (Hawaii)," Major Aguilar said.

On the Indian crew's other flight, they were able to witness in-air refueling, multi-ship airdrop, night-vision goggle assault landings, "touch-and-gos," and short landings with runway backing.

Mr. Som said he was very pleased in the skill and hospitality shown by members of the 15th WG - an outcome he predicted before making the long flight from India.

"Everything was outstanding in one word; Absolutely outstanding," he said. "If I weren't confident it would be, I wouldn't be here halfway around the world."

Mr. Drelling said the thoroughness in which the wing's presented the C-17's abilities was the best he's ever seen.

"The wing offered a very thorough presentation and examination on the capabilities of the C-17," Mr. Drelling said. "Sometimes when you do these things, you'll take a crew up on a media flight and they'll do a quick in and out and that's it. This is pretty impressive. I have not seen one this thorough so hopefully it was worth the 70-plus hours the crew flew to get here."

The NDTV episode will air in approximately two weeks and can be seen on the New Delhi Television website.