MANSFIELD — Members of the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio National Guard responded to Hurricane Maria relief efforts last week.
Two aircraft took off from Mansfield’s Lahm Airport, home of the 177th, to provide airlift support relief efforts in the Virgin Islands. The second of two C-130H Hercules aircraft departed the following day to pick up a seven-member team and cargo from the 269th Combat Communications Squadron (CBCS), based out of Springfield, Ohio. That team’s mission was to provide tactical communications support in the aftermath of the recent hurricane.
The first C-130H took off last Wednesday with a flight crew of five members plus two Loadmasters to move more than 50 Virginia National Guard Calvary troops from Blackstone Army Airfield in Blackstone, Virginia to Savannah, Georgia in preparation to deploy to the Virgin Islands.
Mansfield’s C-130 Hercules are being staged in Savannah, where operations are being coordinated, for the next several weeks to complete follow-on missions for the National Guard Bureau.
Equipment being loaded on a C-130 Hercules, from the 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield, Ohio for a seven-person team from the 269th Combat Communications Squadron, Springfield Ohio Air National Guard Base as the 269th CBCS prepares to depart for St. Thomas.
Tech. Sgt. Erika Rogers, 179th Airlift Group Mansfield, Ohio guides Senior Airman Timoth McCarty, 269th Combat Communications Squadron, Springfield Air National Guard Base, Ohio as he backs a vehicle onto a C-130 Hercules at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
