Bosslift gives employers an inside perspective on Kentucky Air Guard mission

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Annaliese Billings
  • 123rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
PADUCAH, Ky. --  The 123rd Airlift Wing flew a group of civilian employers to Barkley Regional Airport here aboard a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft May 14 to see how Kentucky Air Guardsmen would respond to a major earthquake.

The flight was part of a “Bosslift,” a federal program designed to enhance employers' understanding of Guard missions by offering an inside perspective on military operations, said retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mike Ritchie, chairperson of the Kentucky Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, which sponsored the Bosslift.

Before flying to Paducah, the employers received briefings at the Kentucky Air National Guard Base in Louisville about the broad range of mission sets supported by the 123rd Airlift Wing and its 1,200 members. Those missions include tactical and humanitarian airlift, contingency and disaster response, pararescue, combat control, explosive ordnance disposal, critical care air transport, security forces, and civil engineering.

The employers then boarded the flight to Western Kentucky, where they saw Airmen from the 123rd Contingency Response Group respond to a simulated magnitude 8 earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the most active seismic area in the Eastern United States. The Zone covers parts of five states, including Paducah.

The scenario, called Exercise Grindstone, tested the Airmen’s ability to rapidly deploy to Paducah via C-130 airlift and establish an aerial port using only the equipment and supplies they brought with them, including an all-terrain fork lift, a fuel truck and communications gear.

Within hours of their arrival, the Kentucky Air Guardsmen began offloading disaster-relief supplies arriving by C-130J aircraft, including pallets of water. The water was then handed off to Soldiers from the Kentucky Army National Guard’s 1792nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, who trucked it to emergency managers in nearby counties for further distribution to the public.

Bosslift participants also had the opportunity to see a five-person Critical Care Air Transport Team provide in-flight emergency medical treatment to a simulated patient injured in a vehicle roll-over.

The CCATT members, who included a flight doctor, flight nurse and nurse practitioner, acted as an airborne intensive care unit, stabilizing the patient during an aeromedical evacuation.

Exercises like Grindstone help ensure that military members will be ready to provide aid to areas at risk for earthquakes, Ritchie said. According to a study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake here would displace more than 700,000 people from their homes and cause over $400 billion in property damage.

Richie said the Bosslift flight to Paducah provided an outstanding opportunity to “help educate the public on what the Guard and reserve do.”

“The go-to-war posture of our Department of Defense is now totally dependent on the integration between the active and reserve components,” he noted.

The nation’s military simply cannot carry out its mission without the contributions of the National Guard, Richie said. And because most of the Guard’s force structure is comprised of part-time Soldiers and Airmen who leave their civilian jobs to serve their nation when needed, that makes employer support a crucial element of national defense.

In Kentucky, ESGR talks to employers and community leaders about what the Guard and reserve do, and why it’s to their advantage to employ members who are part of those military components. The Bosslift experience, in particular, helps employers understand why their employees who serve in the Guard need to participate in training events or occasionally deploy for extended duty.

“The level of engagement that you see by these Soldiers, Airmen and civilians is what makes the National Guard an aspirational, desirable mindset,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Haldane Lamberton, adjutant general of the Kentucky Air National Guard. “They want to do something more for their community than the average person, and they’re able to do it on a part-time basis.”

U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Bruce Bancroft, Kentucky’s assistant adjutant general for Air, briefed the employers on the deep range of skills and worldwide experience the state’s Airmen possess, noting that the 123rd Airlift Wing is “very, very unique.”

“There’s no place in the United States that has the capabilities that Kentucky has,” he said. “And all the skillsets we learn overseas can be applied within the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

Bancroft noted that Guard Airmen, unlike their active-duty counterparts, serve their states and local communities during times of crisis or disaster — a role that would not be possible without the support of civilian employers.

“These folks bend over backwards for the national mission and for our state mission,” he said, speaking to the employers. “The balance that they have in their life is amazing, and you all in this room allow that to happen.”

Bosslift participants included representatives from Disabled American Veterans, Hillcrest Partners LLC, The Catalyst Group, The Healing Place, United Parcel Service and the Transportation Security Administration.