Total team provides executive airlift throughout Pacific

  • Published
  • By David Boaz
  • CACI Program Manager, 613th Air and Space Operations Center, Air Mobility Division
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii --  Consolidating missions and operations is the wave of the future for the Department of Defense, and a total team here is leading the way by combining the Air Force and Navy regional executive airlift mission planning. 

As part of the mission consolidation, a civilian contractor is performing for the first time what previously was a strictly uniformed military function. CACI International, Inc., the contractor team, has handled Pacific Air Force's mobility aircraft planning and dispatch functions for the 613th Air and Space Operations Center's Air Mobility Division for six years, but this represents the first time a civilian contractor will perform these services for Commander, Pacific Fleet' s Executive Transport Detachment. 

"The consolidation makes sense with Hawaii being home to the U.S. Pacific Command and the headquarters for the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines in the Pacific." said Lt. Col. Mark Glynn, AMD Division Chief. "With America's future more and more focused on our relationships with partner nations across the Pacific Rim, our ability to provide timely, quality support to our senior-most leadership across this vast theater is extremely important." 

The 613th AOC is responsible for flight planning, dispatch, and command and control for all PACAF airlift, air refueling, and operational support aircraft, including Air Force C-37A and C-40B executive airlift aircraft flown by the 65th Airlift Squadron, said Ed Salisbury, task lead, executive airlift support and operational support airlift,.
"The association of the CACI team and AMD essentially began in 2001 under Information Systems Support, Inc., which was acquired by CACI last year," he said. "Providing services for Naval aviation begins a new chapter for our operations here in the Pacific, and one we're all particularly proud to help write." 

Hickam became the home of a U.S. Navy C-37A last November when the Navy teamed with the 15th Airlift Wing and the AMD to provide a new era of executive airlift throughout the region. Last December, the Navy retired the venerable P-3A Orion turbo-prop executive support aircraft, which had flown U.S. Pacific Fleet Commanders for decades from Marine Corps Base, Hawaii in Kaneohe. The faster and long range C-37A, the military version of the Gulfstream V executive jet, replaced the reliable, but slow, old workhorse. 

The Executive Transportation Detachment, Pacific also packed up and moved its entire operation in with the 65th AS at Hickam. In March, ETD PAC contracted flight planning and dispatch services to CACI. To complete the transition, aircraft maintenance was fully integrated into Hickam's existing Gulfstream contract logistics support operations and is co-located with the PACAF jets. 

Teaming the Navy with the 65th AS, AMD and CACI has proven beneficial. Putting scheduling, planning, and dispatch for all three Hickam-based executive airlift aircraft under one roof has already resulted in greater synergy and inter-service cooperation.
According to Navy Commander Brian Rosgen, Officer in Charge, EDT PAC, the benefits of the consolidation are shared resources and experience in all areas and phases of mission planning and execution. 

"ETD PAC has been embedded within the 65th AS' existing footprint and day-to- day operations. The two units share office space in operations, training, Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures and Standardization/Standardization Evaluation, safety, and flight planning, as well as a heritage room and galley, break room and conference rooms," said Commander Rosgen. This leads to shared experience and an overall higher efficiency in both units, while providing a way ahead for potential further integration." 

Executive airlift is a vital, relatively unheralded, military function. It means getting senior DoD officials, Cabinet and congressional members, and flag and general officers where they need to go, when they need to be there --often at short notice and over long distances across the world's largest ocean. 

In April, Admiral Gary Roughead, former Pacific Fleet Commander, recognized Hickam's newest team before his last mission by thanking them and presenting to CACI team members his personal coin. The entire team is now providing that same world-class support to their new Pacific Fleet boss Admiral Robert Willard.