Fort Bragg's Joint Operational Access Demonstration, a Teaching Opportunity

The Joint Operational Access Demonstration took place at Fort Bragg on June 4 and 5 showing a wide range of capabilities of what Fort Bragg does to prepare for a variety of missions around the world. Combined Army and Air Force personnel showed the Distinguished Visitors, around 90 combined on both days, how Fort Bragg alerts, martials and deploys their troops and equipment through the planned demonstrations on those days.

 “I believe what you’ll find today is that who we are and what we do and why we call ourselves the center of the military universe,” said Gen. Rodney Anderson in his opening remarks. “We are the first to be called and that is because we are home of the Airborne, the Special Forces and the Joint Special Forces.”

Anderson explained in a Powerpoint slide presentation that while the Army has the capability to provide the paratroopers, the Air Force has the air frame to provide  the delivery for operations needed in a deploy sequence.

Around 3,500 paratroopers are always on alert, at the ready, in one of Fort Bragg’s brigades to move along this sequence with about 1,900 other troops, a few key pieces of equipment, jumping in if necessary, but usually air landing when the mission allows.

The group was escorted by a military police vehicle, complete with siren blaring, around Fort Bragg on Tuesday. The first stop was at the Arrival/Departure Airfield Control Group (A/DACG), operated by the 82nd Airborne Division, Sustainment Brigade.

Inside the A/DACG, the group learned about the Green Ramp Operations Area and saw firsthand where the line of demarcation is where the Air Force operations begin and the Army preparations end at Pope Field. It is here where the process is used to deploy an Airborne brigade task force, anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

Col. Chris Sharpsten, Commander of the 82nd Airborne's Sustainment Brigade, explained that sometimes the issues involved in heavy duty dropping are due to equipment failure. One example he gave was when the M1 release block fails, the parachutes will not work and the equipment will have not lift capacity.

The Fort Bragg A/DACG provides quick and effective deployment processing. The alert holding and call forward areas of Green Ramp have the capacity to stage up to 80 chalks of vehicles, cargo or supplies.

The next stop on the tour was the rigging area where riggers wearing their red ball caps gave briefings on how vehicles and heavy equipment are prepared to be air dropped for either training or mission purposes.

The mission for the heavy drop mission sites is to prepare aerial delivery support to the 82nd Airborne Division by rigging all heavy drop platforms and CDS bundles, providing Joint Airdrop Inspectors for all rigged loads and conduct in-plane activities for all heavy drop aircraft.

The group was given an extensive tour of the Assembly Line Rigging Area that consisted of six stations. Inside the area were Container Delivery Systems and Type V Platforms to demonstrate how they are packed to be air dropped.

One participant, an accounting professor at , Dena Breece, was attending the JOAD today with her spouse, George Breece. The last time she came weather cut the day short, so she was excited to be able to observe the afternoon jump.

FORSCOM employee attached to the J3 shop, Donna Aspelin, moved to the area from Atlanta under the BRAC in July 2011. "I'm looking forward to an awareness of what it is for the soldiers to jump out of the airplanes," Aspelin said.

The most anticipated demonstration occurred at Green Ramp in the mock up area where 20 paratroopers went through rehearsals for Wednesday's jump. The paratroopers performed the safety procedures that each soldier goes through before jumping to ensure each point of his equipment was inspected before jumping out the door.

The 40 civilians were assigned a helmet and got suited up to walk out onto the flight line and board the C-130 to get a bird's eye view of the paratroopers jumping over the Sicily Drop Zone at 4:00p.m.

Following the jump demonstration the civilians were paired up with a soldier and walked through the static displays before being treated to dinner under the tents, complete with entertainment from the 82nd Airborne's All American Chorus.

Next came the Global Response Force Mission Brief, then the Night Vision Goggle Orientation and night movement demonstration, on the Sicily Landing Field.

The evening rounded out with a demonstration of monitoring Forcible Entry Airborne Operation via tactical satellite (TACSAT) and observing a Howitzer de-rig.

Fort Bragg and Pope Air Field are made up many components and experts who get the job done everyday keeping the units mission ready. Only a handful of other Army installations are as fortunate to be adjacent to the Air Force to provide mobility.