RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (USTCNS) --- The 623rd Air Mobility Control Flight responded to a higher headquarters tasking from Air Mobility Command by deploying to Hoedspruit, South Africa, and supporting Operation Atlas Response 2000, humanitarian relief for flood ravaged Mozambique, from March 2 through April 7.

A team of nine TALCE members led the first American presence into Hoedspruit Air Base, South Africa, within four hours of notification and established vital diplomatic relations with South African military, embassy and key civilian officials to conduct strategic airlift for AMC, C-130 in-theater airlift, and special operations HH-53 and HH-60 helicopter missions.

They established the informational nucleus directly affecting the successful melding of more than 700 Air Force, Army, and host nation military forces in the accomplishment of essential humanitarian support. Through continual communication with the director of mobility forces and joint task force commanders, they created an operational foundation that enabled timely delivery of life saving food, water and clothing to the needy people of Mozambique.

In addition to 24-hour mobility operations, six airfield surveys for Durban, Waterkloof, Hoedspruit and Johannessburg, South Africa, and Beira and Maputo, Mozambique, were tasked and completed before redeployment of the entire Joint Task Force Staff.

While in Maputo, TALCE operations NCOs realized the overcrowded airfield had minimum control of ground taxi operations and immediately took photographs revealing possible hazardous situations. Their findings and solutions were presented to the DIRMOBFOR and quickly implemented resulting in increased manning and a safer mobility environment.

In Durban, they took the initiative and taught local volunteers proper loading and securing procedures for pallets, expediting shipments to the needy people of Mozambique. The director of mobility forces lauded the team's leadership of round-the-clock command and control airlift operations providing the delivery of 1,312 short tons of cargo, and 1,398 passengers in 31 days.

With the redeployment in full swing, the TALCE took the initiative once again by assuming control of all AMC assets in South Africa. Providing stage crew management for a KC-10 deployed tanker task force located in Johannesburg, 240 miles away, offered no challenge, so the TALCE upped the stakes by also assuming total control of outbound DOD assets to include personnel and equipment.

By advantageously adjusting KC-10 and C-5 airflow, the TALCE reduced the number of total redeployment airframes required to accomplish the mission by two and saved over $2 million. The feat accomplished by the nine-member TALCE was a job originally assigned to the air mobility division and a joint task force with more than 100 personnel.

The uniquely distinctive accomplishments of the 623 Tanker Airlift Control Flight and the international goodwill it established between the United States and Mozambique and South Africa will be forever remembered as the beginning of an unbreakable bond of friendship that will reach far into the new millennium. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).