ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Airmen from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, departed their home station like any other deployer recently. They came with their luggage, paperwork, completed outprocessing requirements and stepped onto the aircraft that would fly them thousands of miles to another location of the world.
They arrived at Andersen Air Force Base, walked onto the flightline, in-processed at their new base and went to their respective living quarters before reporting for duty the next day.
From the transportation of tools and equipment from Whiteman Air Force Base to Andersen, the crews had what they needed to begin work the moment the wheels of the aircraft touched down.
“There is a large amount of planning and coordination involved in getting equipment and personnel here, staged and ready before the first B-2 aircraft arrives,” said Master Sgt. Daniel Jirsa, 509th Logistics Readiness Squadron NCO in charge of plans and integration. “Most people don’t realize the months of work that goes into a movement like this. They simply show up and prepare to go to work. A seamless transition to deployed operations means the efforts put in beforehand were productive.”
Airmen from the 509th LRS are responsible for getting people and cargo where it needs to be when and where they’re needed, Jirsa continued.
“Our job starts four to five months before the deployment,” said Tech. Sgt. Tavis, Riley, 509th LRS cargo deployment function craftsman. “There are about [many] people between both our shops making this happen.”
Essentially, the job of LRS is to set the stage and figure out what is needed for a deployment, make the plan and execute.
“People go to concerts all the time to watch their favorite band perform,” Riley said. “Do you think they ever wonder what would happen if the stage or instruments weren’t there?”
In addition to loggies making the “concert” happen, a small group of Airmen, including Jirsa and Riley, from Whiteman deployed before the main unit and make sure the cargo arrives on time and personnel are able to start their jobs upon arrival.
As effortless as this seems, problems occur and planning an entire deployment is often challenging and tedious.
“The most difficult part of our job is the last minute changes to the plan,” Jirsa said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into making corrections, whether it’s swapping individuals out or changing cargo increments.”
Whether on the ground or in the air, the key to air power is flexibility, and the logistics Airmen are prepared to fix, create and coordinate anything necessary in support of the B-2 Spirit mission.
“The entire point to logistics is creating a plan,” Riley said. “In a perfect world, everything would be planned and executed, but like every career field, change happens and you adjust.”
The logistics Airmen are deployed to Andersen to conduct familiarization training activities in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. This deployment demonstrates continuing U.S. commitment to regular, global strategic bomber operations throughout the theater.