| Springfield, Dutch complete first joint deployment |
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Royal Netherlands Air Force and the Springfield-based 178th Fighter Wing completed the first joint deployment, titled OPERATION SNOWBIRD, Jan. 19. OPERATION SNOWBIRD encompassed the deployment of both Dutch and American student pilots, 16 jets, half of which were Dutch and half of which were American, maintenance, services and others supporting squadrons. The 178th deployed to Gulfport, Miss., Jan. 5 through the Jan. 19, and occupied the Gulfport Training facility. This facility offers turn-key support for flying and training. “The significance of this deployment is two fold. First, we have formal Dutch B-Course students. This is a chance to get them away from the bad weather back home and get them both (Dutch and American) on and ahead of schedule. “Secondly, a big part of this deployment is CT, or continuation training. Without students in good flying weather; this keeps them on a timeline for sorties and hours,” said Col. Richard L. Lohnes, the former commander of the 178th who deployed for the last time. Flying over the Gulf of Mexico is very similar to flying in the Netherlands, in that they train over water, said Lt. Col. Jacbus van Praat, the Netherlands 306th Detachment senior national representative. “We were able to bring six students, five instructor pilots and three maintainers and the training was outstanding, with great weather,” said Colonel van Praat. “It was a lot warmer there. The jets just perform better in warmer weather,” said Capt. Adam T. Brann, the officer in charge of the Sortie Generation Flight. The two groups of pilots worked well together during the all-day flying sorties, said Colonel Lohnes. “This deployment lets us basically see how the Guard deploys, see how you do business. Deploying to Gulfport takes the hassles out of the process; back home we have a hard time getting all the support together to deploy. We have to bring everything, where here it is supplied and not a worry,” said Colonel van Praat. “Practicing our mission here and how it’s supposed to be done made accomplishing our maintenance deployment easy,” said Capt. Adam T. Brann, the officer in charge of the Sortie Generation Flight. However, there are many challenges when facing a joint deployment. U.S. requirements are different than the Dutch requirements, said Brann. For example, the Dutch require their aircraft to be washed every 30 days due to corrosion issues with the sea. While the aircraft are here, they require them to be washed every 120 days like American aircraft. However, if the plane has a five-day grace period to be washed. After that, the plane is grounded. As far as maintenance goes, other issues arise. Where is the priority when you have two different engines in the Avionics engine shop that need to be fixed? “We’re focusing all (of) our assets on the Dutch,” said Captain Brann. “We’re trying to provide the best service to our customer” Needing to work on an aircraft and being able to are different stories. “The average time we’re waiting on part delivery is 21 days,” said Captain Brann. “We are not allowed to use U.S. assets on Dutch jets.” Like if your car is broken and you don’t have the parts, all you can do is stare at it, he said. “It was good to see that you could have two entities that perform as well as they did,” said Captain Brann. “It actually went very smooth. It all comes down to the maintenance professionals. They know their job and they do it well.” |
