Active Duty, Reserve get rolling with joint intiative

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Regina Agoha
  • 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  The 50th Airlift Squadron and the 22nd Air Force, Detachment 1, have united to support a joint initiative to merge into a combat coded C130H squadron.

With Det. 1's flying experience and the Red Devil's heritage and deployment knowledge, all parties are geared up and making the necessary adjustments to meet the October 2014 merger deadline.

The new squadron in progress launched their first dedicated weekend sorties Dec. 14.
"This is one of the first unit training assembly weekends that we are flying alongside our future associate partners," said Lt. Col. Joseph Janik, 22nd Air Force Operations commander. "The Reserves take advantage of the drill weekends in order to train the traditional reservists who work in the civilian sector and may live out of state. I can take advantage of flying them today, as well as getting their training accomplished."

Both parties said they are adjusting efficiently and effectively to make sure the process of combining as one unit continues to go well.

"Working together is going very well," said Lt. Col. Michael Fellona, 50th AS commander. "They moved in (the same building in) October and we are now starting to work together and meld our processes to start working as one unit."

Fellona said the force structure changes on the base are driving the active duty C-130H model crew forces to significantly reduce. October 1, 2013, was day one to start the transition to be complete by October 1, 2014. The base has a full year to make the transition, but there are a lot of moving parts with Det. 1 trying to help with the legacy C-130 training mission to then come down and go from training with a squadron to a combat coded squadron. The whole time, the 50th is going to maintain combat mission, but we will significantly downsize.

"Today, [Dec. 14], represents the first reserves specific weekend that we've brought active duty in," said Fellona. "We're using 19th Airlift Wing airplanes and 22nd Air Force, Detatchment 1 is using their airplanes, and we're going to fly together to try to work through the processes."

The combination of skill and experience each unit possesses has the merger moving in the right direction.

"I think each component brings some great benefits to the table," said Fellona. "Reservists traditionally have a broader experience set; active duty Airmen are traditionally younger and so we are able to learn quite a bit from them. That's a two-way conversation of course because with our recent deployment experience we are able to help them stand up as a combat coded squadron. So, it's a mutually beneficial relationship."
Janik said he is enthusiastic about the initiative.
"Not too many folks will have the opportunity to build two units," he said. "I've been here for 27 months, and there were four of us to start operations back in September of 2011. We had the opportunity to start the school house unit and this past October we have had the opportunity to start something new again. We're building this unit from the bottom up, and it will be here for many years to follow. It's a big step on the way to becoming fully operationally capable by October 2014. It's a great partnership."

Maj. Frank Bonnin, 22nd AF Det 1, maintenance operations officer, said, "I think it's fantastic, the way we're doing this because total force integration is the way forward for the AF and our partnership here is truly an integrated plan. We're moving from two units that are separated into an integrated unit. That's what the set of sorties today and the missions are: the integration of the two units. I see it as a big step here at Little Rock."