News

Out-of-box effort aids another country

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • Robins Public Affairs
When there's space available on a military cargo aircraft, there's an opportunity to airlift humanitarian goods to destinations across the globe. 

One such operation took place in February at Robins by the 78th Logistics Readiness Squadron's Deployment and Distribution Flight, involving the transport of a fire truck and fire rescue supplies on a C-17 Globemaster III. It was an effort that once again shows that "Success Here = Success There." 

The special shipment, part of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Denton Program, was bound for Matagalpa, Nicaragua, and was the third shipment donated to the country by Emergency Response Services for Latin America. 

All goods were distributed among three firefighting systems, one to the city of Sebaco, which has a fire station but no equipment. The goods will benefit more than 45,000 people. 

The Denton program is a Department of Defense transportation program, managed by U.S. Transportation Command, which moves humanitarian cargo donated by U.S. non-governmental organizations to developing nations to ease suffering. 

A phone call last December got things moving. Once coordination took place with a unit at Travis Air Force Base, California, which was conducting a training event at the same time, items were delivered from Robins on February 12. Taking about six hours, cargo was palletized by the flight before loading it on the aircraft. 

"This was outside the box for us at Robins, and we accepted the challenge," said Master Sgt. Andre Turner, 78th LRS Small Air Terminal superintendent. "We played a huge role to provide support to a country in need, and it was a great opportunity for some of our airmen to see something different."