512th Airlift Control Flight wins two Air Mobility Command awards

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Danella Shea
  • 512th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  The Air Mobility Command released the winners for the 2010 Airlift Control Flight competition July 8, with the men and women of the 512th Airlift Control Flight earning top honors.

The unit was named AMC ALCF of the Year and Master Sgt. Sean Pyne, one of the unit's loadmasters, was selected as the command's ALCF Senior NCO of the Year.

This isn't the first time this year the flight has earned command recognition. The unit also won the 2010 Air Force Reserve Command Airlift Control Flight award in March. For this award, they were selected from among five units within AFRC.

Lt. Col. Mark Visco, 512th ALCF commander, said he is extremely proud not only of the ALCF awards but of the men and women who comprise his unit.

"I'm happy to see them get recognized for all of the hard work they put in," Visco said. He added that the command awards speak volumes toward their capabilities as Citizen Airmen and the capabilities they have in their jobs.

Two members of Visco's unit were singled out for their unique contributions to the success of the 512th ALCF.

In addition to AMC honors, Pyne is also the 2010 AFRC ALCF Senior NCO of the Year.

"He is one of our most experienced ALCF personnel," said Visco. "He has (a Mission Support Team Chief) qualification, which means he is capable of being in command of an entire airfield without an officer present, running the operations there. It is a very high-level qualification. He is one of my go-to guys - one of our best and a highly respected source of ALCF experience."

Staff Sgt. Johnathan Concepcion, one of the unit's operations specialists, was selected as the 2010 AFRC Airlift Control Flight NCO of the Year.

"He's one of our younger guys, but he's extremely sharp and hard-charging," said Visco. "He's very confident in what he does. He has won many awards in the past in the ALCF community and here at Dover. Anything I ask of him, I know it's going to get done."

Visco added that while Concepcion is a Citizen Airman, his level of participation is very high. He puts a lot of days in for the Air Force each year.

"I really wasn't expecting this award," said Concepcion. "I volunteered to go on these missions because I wanted to help out and do all these cool things."

"It was a huge deal when I found out I was being put up for it," he added. "I really feel so honored. This is my third base since joining the Reserve, and I really love being a part of the unit here."

An airlift control flight is the front line of command and control, comprised of experienced airlift personnel to manage, coordinate and control air mobility assets. They provide a capability for operating at locations where there is limited support and are self-sufficient to be able to sustain operations under bare-base conditions.

"Keeping it in a nutshell, we are a quick response, quick reaction unit that gets in there, gets the place opened up and running until the permanent facilities and personnel can get in place," said Visco.

The 512th ALCF had a very busy year, planning and participating in several training exercises, as well as running the biggest affiliate training program in AFRC. However, their biggest contribution to the mobility mission came when an earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010.

"We were preparing to deploy on a training mission when we got the call about the earthquake in Haiti," said Visco. "We were told they needed us to deploy down to Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida, set up shop and run the humanitarian relief supplies to Haiti. As a Reserve unit, we have a 36-hour window to call our people and have them in the air for deployment."

The 512th ALCF made it in 12 hours.

"We show up; and, within 12 hours of notifying us that we were going to go down there, we were up and running and receiving aircraft," said Visco.

Over a two-week period, their unit had more than 600 aircraft bringing thousands of tons of cargo from all different types of agencies in and out of Homestead ARB bound for Haiti.

"When all was said and done, it was a record set for an ALCF unit as far as the operational tempo and how much cargo we were able to move over a short period of time," said Visco. "Nobody had ever done that before, as an Air Force Reserve ALCF unit. We set the record for that."

(Senior Airman Joe Yanik, 512th Airlift Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this story)