2-22 Infantry Soldiers conduct air-load training

By Sgt. Blair Neelands, 1st Brigade Combat Team JournalistMay 10, 2012

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Staff Sgt. Edison Medina, an Infantry platoon sergeant with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, ground guids a Humvee with a trailer attached backward into a C-17 airplane during the... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- The 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment from 1st Brigade Combat Team assumed the responsibility of the Global Response Force last month from 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st BCT.

By assuming this responsibility, Soldiers of 2-22 Infantry, commonly referred to as "Triple Deuce," are on alert to deploy within 96 hours to any location in the world. In preparation for the possibility of rapid deployment, the battalion is scheduled to conduct a joint operational access exercise, or JOAX, at Fort Bragg, N.C., with 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at the end of May.

Leading up to this exercise, Triple Deuce has conducted numerous Soldier and unit training to include loading and unloading equipment and vehicles in and out of a C-17 airplane May 2 at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield.

"This is static air-load training," said Staff Sgt. Richard Johnson II, 1st BCT senior movements noncommissioned officer. "They are conducting a validation of their load plans and seeing how the aircraft will look set up with the equipment they have along with the (personnel) that would be on the aircraft in preparation for the joint operational access exercise."

More than 20 drivers and truck commanders from throughout Triple Deuce practiced multiple times backing vehicles with trailers into the aircraft.

Pfc. Nicolas Lopez, a supply specialist from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2-22 Infantry, said every Soldier had to do it a couple of times, but eventually everyone got the hang of it.

"It's all about having a good ground guide and knowing how the trailer moves as you back up the vehicle," he said.

While speed and efficiency are important when the time comes to actually loading the aircraft for a mission, safety is always the No. 1 priority.

"Especially with the GRF mission, we have to be packed up and ready immediately, so everyone has to be able to get the equipment in there as fast as possible, but also as safely as possible," Lopez said.

Soldiers of Triple Deuce will put their skills to the test when it comes time to load the aircraft before the JOAX.

"When we do the JOAX, they will execute their 96-hour sequence like they are on a real deployment," Johnson said. "They will load up the aircraft in a phase timeline and push out to where they're supposed to go."