53rd Airlift Squadron reactivates
Posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/225944/
The 53 rd Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base reactivated Friday, emerging with a new mission of combat airlifts.
A part of the 463 rd Airlift Group, the 53 rd has 100 to 200 airmen and will eventually include about a dozen C-130 E cargo planes, known as the Hercules. The unit, which currently has airmen deployed with other units, will join the 463 rd’s deployment rotation in the summer, officers said.
For 14 years, the 53 rd, nicknamed the “Blackjack” squadron, helped train C-130 crews. Flight training is becoming more simulator-based, reducing the need for as many flying squadrons and planes even though the demand for training continues.
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended that the 463 rd grow from a group to a wing, expanding from two flying squadrons to four and more than doubling its C-130 fleet.
Between late summer and early fall, the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command will establish a wing at the base, which will include the 463 rd, said Lt. Col. Carlos Ortiz, director of operations for the 53 rd.
Squadron crews will be deployed to support the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and will perform combat airlifts to assist other armed forces units. The squadron, which is an expeditionary unit under its new mission, will distribute equipment and deliver troops via airdrops or by landing on paved or dirt runways. They will also evacuate injured troops, said Lt. Col. Sean Bordenave, the new commander of the 53 rd.
Nearly 200 airmen, family members and others attended a ceremony at a base hangar marking the reactivation Friday morning. The 53 rd’s flag, which was rolled up and cased in January, was unfurled again as Bordenave accepted command of the unit.
“As we open a new chapter in this squadron’s rich heritage, we will remain focused on serving our nation, our sister services and we will strive each and every day to succeed in our combat air mission,” Bordenave said.
“The Blackjacks are back in the fight.”
Bordenave, who was most recently chief of safety for the 314 th Airlift Wing at the base, said he was honored by the opportunity to lead and care for the airmen under his command.
“We have aircraft, but those aircraft are really unusable without the crews and personnel to support those operations [and ] to fix them and fly them,” Bordenave said.
The 53 rd has six planes, some of which have come from Pope Air Force Base, N. C., which the Base Realignment and Closure Commission ordered closed. Most of the squadron’s members came from other units at the Little Rock base, Bordenave said.
Ortiz spent six months preparing for the reactivation, Bordenave said.
The unit is comparable in size, level of expertise and the number of instructors to its sister squadrons, Ortiz said.
“The 53 rd Airlift Squadron is already running at full speed from the day we started off,” he said.