Haiti flight coordinators explain chain of command at airport

[The Straight Story]

Haiti flight coordinators explain chain of command at airport


1/22/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- U.S. military officials are working across organizational boundaries in a concerted effort to keep supplies and people flowing into Haiti's main airport.

"Port-au-Prince is the center of gravity for the relief effort currently in Haiti. If something happens to that airfield, we are in trouble to get supplies there until the sea pods are open," Lt. Col. Brad Graff, from the 601st Air Operations Center at Florida's Tyndall Air Force base said during a Jan. 21 during a "DoDLive" bloggers roundtable.

Colonel Graff said he's aware of frustration expressed by relief groups requesting flight landing slots but he said, the Port-au-Prince airport is running "24/7" and is averaging 140 flights a day.

"We've tripled the flow through that field, he said. "So your chances of getting in are better now than ever. You just do need to follow the procedures that are in place. We don't like to think of ourselves as limiting that airfield; we like to think of ourselves as facilitator that are allowing things, the proper agencies, allowing people to get in there in a more timely manner."

Col. John Romero, the chief of the air mobility division for the 612th Air Operations Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., also participated in the discussion.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123186890

[WolverineDG]

1. The haters don't want to hear this

obviously, since it interferes with their anti-US whining rants.

dg

[The Straight Story]

2. Sad but true - easier to complain than to read about the difficulty in it all

Guess we are used to things being instant these days.

[WolverineDG]

3. well, I'll give it another kick nt

[alarimer]

4. Nothing but fucking excuses

Every doctor interviewed on Democracy Now complains about the lack of supplies.

Face it, Obama fucked up yet again. But the fucking cheerleaders don't care about all the people that will die because Obama decided a military occupation was more important than saving people.

Too many fucking troops and not enough aid workers and supplies.

[WolverineDG]

7. Another member of the Fightin' 404th Chairborne checks in

Never mind that the folks on the ground are working 24/7 to get things up & running, that they had to truck in all the support personnel & equipment, otherwise the aid that is there would not even get off the planes. Now apparently, the problem is getting the aid from the airport to the clinics, so does ATC now focus on getting trucks & drivers shipped in or keep the food & medical supplies coming instead?

You can yell & rant all you want, but even the US can't overcome the laws of physics. ONE runway. ONE ramp.

:eyes:

dg

[TxRider]

8. ROFL only to the simple minded

Like you can actually move enough people and supplies to relieve a disaster of this scale through one single runway in a few days.

What a joke. No facts, all hot air rhetoric.

Too many troops? Many more aid workers were flown in than troops.

As if you don't need organized men to spread out over the area and assess needs and report back so effective coordination can happen.

Almost all the "troops" are actually sailors, and most of the troops, the few marines, came by amphibious landing craft bearing supplies and water treatment.

We even used Guantanamo bay airstrip to offload supplies, because it can be reached from haiti by helicopter. Planes landed with supplies, and Navy and CG helicopters ferried supplies to Haiti.

[TexasObserver]

5. Recommend

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

6. K&R

[WolverineDG]

9. kick