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1st SOW satisfies ORI requirements

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman David Salanitri
  • Air Force Special Operations Command Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, fla. --  The Air Force Special Operations Command commander declared that the upcoming 1st Special Operations Wing operational readiness inspection is complete today.

"In light of the recent short-notice deployment to Port au Prince, Haiti, in support of Operation Unified Response, the objectives of the upcoming ORI have been fully satisfied," said Lt. Gen. Donald Wurster during a 1st SOW commanders call here today.

The ORI had been scheduled in February and was postponed due to the command's participation in Haiti relief operations.

"I am proud of the way the wing reacted to a real world situation," said Col. Gregory Lengyel, 1st SOW commander. "All of your training and hard work have paid off and the people of Haiti and the world appreciates everything you have done. But there were many other factors that contributed to this decision. The AFSOC/IG has been recording maintenance generation and operational flying metrics in OIF/OEF for two months to count towards the ORI employment phase. Also, the 1 SOW's aggressive ORE program was a key factor in convincing the AFSOC Commander that we are operationally ready."

AFSOC's contingent of 220 Air Commandos were the first U.S. military boots on the ground in Haiti.

"After the 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, we were on the ground controlling aircraft within 28 minutes," said Col. Buck Elton, Joint Special Operations Air Component commander for Joint Task Force Haiti and 1st SOW operations shop commander.

Colonel Elton and his team arrived at the Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport in Port au Prince and faced immense challenges.

The single runway, single taxiway airport was gridlocked with 42 aircraft - parked under each other's wings and nose to nose in some cases, he said. Within a day, combat controllers had sorted out the airfield and established regular airflow. Two days later, they managed 240 landings in 24 hours. Meanwhile, civil engineers built a base out of nothing. They constructed a field hospital where medical staff treated 212 critical Haitian and U.S. citizens and aerial porters off loaded more than 4 million pounds of supplies and humanitarian aid.

"The JSOAC's ability to adapt to the mission needs, build the base, facilitate the beddown of incoming - though not JSOAC assigned - forces, continuous lateral assistance for collocated agencies might have overwhelmed another unit," said Colonel Lengyel.

"Air Commandos are a different breed of Airman," said General Wurster. "They are creative. They do what is required to project force - in this case, humanitarian force - around the world with little to no notice. They do it with confidence and humility for they are truly America's 'Quiet Professionals.'"
Inspection officials graded the short-notice deployment to Haiti, satisfying the requirements for the first phase of the ORI, said Col. Brad Arnold, AFSOC Inspector General. The next 1 SOW ORI will not be scheduled until at least 2013.