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Lt. Col. Tommy Atkinson (right) pilots a C-130H Hercules over Northern Afghanistan on a humanitarian airdrop mission. The Airmen of the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron have been dropping an average of five to eight tons of supplies and equipment per mission to Coalition forces and Afghan civilians in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)

Georgia C-130s deliver humanitarian supplies to Afghan village

By Tech. Sgt. John Jung
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan -- The Airmen of the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron performed a high-altitude airdrop mission, supporting Coalition and civilian Afghans in a remote village in Northern Afghanistan.

The Georgia Air National Guard crew that flew the mission, deployed from the 158th Airlift Squadron, Savannah, Ga., successfully deployed eight bundles of humanitarian aid from a C-130H Hercules, Aug 26.

The eight bundles, weighing about four tons, were packaged in a container delivery system, which assured the bundles and their cargo of food, water, clothes and blankets arrived intact.

Waiting on the ground were Coalition forces who helped distribute the humanitarian aid to the villagers.

"The CDS uses the aircraft's deck angle to assist its aft movement across the roller conveyors on its way out the cargo ramp and door," said Tech. Sgt. Ricky Córdova, loadmaster on the mission. "When the bundles are out of the aircraft, parachutes inflate and lower them to the ground. As each bundle clears the cargo ramp, the rigged high velocity low cost aerial delivery system parachutes deploy and quickly deliver the load to the people waiting on the ground.

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