Bringing order to chaos for nearly 30 years

  • Published
  • By Mr. Stephen Henske
  • 621st Contingency Response Wing
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  

We are CR! To be CR, or contingency response, has always been nebulous.  With nearly 30 years in and around this organization, in unform and as a civilian, I have seen the struggle of defining what we do.

 

As the current 621st Contingency Response Wing director of staff, I’ve figured out what we do.

 

We do it all. We bring order to chaos. 

 

There are many ways to describe what CR brings to the fight.

 

When I first started this adventure, the CR concept was being formulized by combining command and control, aerial port, and maintenance into cohesive units called TALCEs, Tanker Airlift Control Elements, that Air Mobility Command could employ to put anywhere to received AMC aircraft and control those actions.  The concept was tested during 9/11, and from the efforts of those brave men and women from the 621st and the 615th Air Mobility Operation Groups, U.S. Air Force Europe Airlift Control Flight and the reserve forces, came the contingency response construct. 

 

My take, someone has to be the first. 

 

Someone has to be the Air Advisor building the relationship.

 

Someone has to walk off the first airplane at some obscure airbase that hasn’t seen an American in 50 years and be able to look at the airfield, assess capability that a planner read was at a particular airfield or dirt strip and validate it. 

 

Someone has to be that voice in the Air Operations Center who understands what it takes to plan the operation or be in the field to make sense of the needs of our Joint Service partners. 

 

Someone must be left behind to keep the mission going when that C-17 Globemaster III downloads blankets for humanitarian relief and no one knows where they need to go. 

 

In the fog and friction of operations, we accept the task to be in the middle of the fray and ensure the mobility arm of our nation remains effective, especially when those who need us don’t really know how to use us.  When a senior U.S. Air Force leader needs to talk to an airman who is boots on the ground to get the best awareness of the situation, they are usually talking to a CR airman. 

 

And what makes this the best job you will ever have?  Because you will endure challenges, successes, heartbreak and feel a sense of purpose that you will never feel anytime in your career.  That is CR!