USTRANSCOM's Joint Operational Support Airlift Center details eligibility for official DOD CONUS travel

SCOTT AFB, Ill. (USTCNS) --- Many official DOD travelers may not be aware of U.S. Transportation Command's ability to provide transport on military Operational Support Airlift aircraft within the continental U.S.

Official travelers on active duty, members of reserve components on active duty or inactive duty for training and DOD civilian employees on TDY orders in CONUS are eligible to travel on military OSA aircraft if commercial travel cannot reasonably meet time requirements .

USTRANSCOM's Joint Operational Support Airlift Center, now in the third year of operation, is the DOD single point of contact for scheduling all CONUS OSA aircraft (except service unique, outside CONUS or theater assigned airlift assets).

JOSAC is part of the USTRANSCOM's Operations and Logistics Directorate located at Scott AFB, IL. The joint organization is staffed with 60 personnel from all services and government civil service employees.

"The clear advantage of joint consolidated scheduling is total visibility of available service aircraft and the capability to provide equal access to DOD for high priority travel requirements. More than 30% of all scheduled missions are joint - where one service or component is traveling on another service's aircraft," said Army Col. Tyrone L. Graham, chief of JOSAC.

JOSAC's primary mission is assisting the services in maintaining wartime readiness training, proficiency, and seasoning of OSA flight crews through daily scheduling of aircraft made available by the service. As a by-product of the wartime training mission, JOSAC provides free CONUS OSA travel to eligible DOD passengers and cargo.

In calendar year 1999, JOSAC received more than 49,000 OSA requests and transported 290,000 high priority DOD passengers and 5 million pounds of cargo on 16,000 separate missions. JOSAC scheduled missions resulted in an estimated 60 million-dollar travel cost avoidance for DOD.

Eligible travelers and units seeking to move cargo on OSA aircraft, request OSA through their service-established validation procedures. Service validators assign a priority code based on the importance of the mission.

JOSAC schedules requests based on the priority assigned by the service validator and proximity of aircraft available for scheduling.

After an airlift request is scheduled, the validator and the assigned flying unit are notified. The validator relays the scheduled itinerary to the requesting passenger. Flying units also coordinate directly with passengers for pick up points at the airfields and any other requirements.

Space Available travel is another benefit provided by OSA travel. Last year, over 14,000 Space Available passengers traveled on JOSAC scheduled missions. JOSAC does not schedule or manifest Space Available passengers.

JOSAC schedules more than 260 military OSA aircraft based at 101 CONUS locations. The C-12, C-21, UC-35, C-38, C-9, C-20, C-22, C-23 and C-26 aircraft provided by the services, make up the CONUS OSA fleet.

The services are responsible for personnel, training, standardization, and maintenance of the aircraft fleet.

According to Army Maj. Dean W. Barnes, scheduling team leader, "the unique capabilities of each aircraft type available in the joint OSA scheduling pool, provides JOSAC with operational flexibility."

JOSAC is divided into three teams.

The Small Aircraft Team schedules the C-12, C-21, C-38 and UC-35. These aircraft have a capacity of 8 passengers or less.

The Large Aircraft Team schedules the C-9, C-20, C-22, C-23 and C-26 which have a capacity of 9 or more passengers and large cargo movements.

The 24-hour Execution Team monitors all scheduled missions on the day of flight. During a typical month, JOSAC receives 2,500 requests for OSA support, schedules more than 1500 missions, and moves over 24,000 DOD customers in CONUS.

"Our team of joint military and civil service professionals work daily to effectively match available service aircraft with DOD customer requests," said Air Force Lt. Col. Raymond G. Torres deputy chief of JOSAC.

JOSAC provides a World Wide Web searchable daily OSA flight schedule. It also shows the seats available on each aircraft for eligible Space Available travelers.