Airpower 101: an expeditionary air base model

Air & Space Power Journal,  Fall, 2004  by John Dobbins

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While I was running fast to get airpower generated out of Tallil, the model also reminded me that I could not forget the people aspect of the model's Airmen component. Although we had covered our air concerns and were prepared to use the one set of chemical gear that we had brought with us, we needed to establish the other people value chains--water, food, shelter, hygiene and, later, recreation.

Initially we used bottled water, meal ready to eat (MRE) rations, and some abandoned Iraqi buildings to supplement our very limited number of tents for shelter. Although the Army was our source for water and food, we were a very small part of its huge sustainment task. An open runway and an attached HH-60 CSAR detachment at Tallil AB gave us the opportunity to move our food and water on the 339d AEW's HC-130 aircraft that were supporting the rotation of CSAR personnel into and out of Tallil. Al Jaber AB was a supplemental, or backup, source for getting these things from the Army, especially bottled water. With this alternate source of water, I was able to avoid the Army's bottled-water rationing, thus avoiding a risky measure. As a stopgap measure, we used old Iraqi facilities as shelter for both work centers and living locations until the Harvest Falcon structures arrived, (3) Hygiene was a daunting task, given the limited amount of water and the many demands for it. Fortunately, the British engineers were innovative, digging slit trenches with their heavy equipment to help create functioning latrines; then, they used their limited plywood to make outhouse supports and seats using tarps for the walls. They also built showers from scrap material, using the existing Iraqi water storage tanks located on the tops of buildings, and drained the showers' wastewater into cisterns as septic tanks. The Brits also developed improvised washing machines using Iraqi kitchen sinks. Our hygiene water had to be delivered by Army trucks from off base where reverse osmosis water purification units (ROWPU) provided the source of support for our personal hygiene requirements for the first month of flight operations. We established an alternate delivery method/value chain, separate from the Army, using HG-130s from Al Jaber AB to deliver the critical people support--water, food, and other hygiene-related items. British engineering personnel provided a great deal of help during the early buildup of Tallil. This was probably not the preferred solution for bare-base buildup, but since time was of the essence and Harvest Falcon assets were not available, I used all existing means. I still needed to address the preventive and acute medical-care aspect of hygiene. This was a less pressing issue since the Army had already located a combat surgical hospital on Tallil AB. Recreation was not yet a pressing problem since we did not have any free time and were too exhausted for anything other than resting in our make-do shelters. Although we were surviving, our living standard was not yet people-sustainable, and we still had much to do. Hopefully, these examples illustrate the strength of the model and how it was used to determine the order of the people priorities that I communicated to Al Jaber AB with requests for assistance. The fact that we used the model at Al Jaber AB gave us a common reference and assisted us in getting our needed support.