Prepositioning weapons at Balad to save $1.3 million

by Staff Sgt. Ruth Curfman
332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq: Balad Air Base has been chosen by Air Force leaders to be the test base for a weapons prepositioning initiative expected to save the Air Force approximately $1.3 million per year in transportation costs.

This initiative involves the prepositioning of M-9s and M-16s that will allow certain Airmen to travel here without weapons from their home stations.

The participants will, instead, sign for their weapons once arriving on station.

"If you consider that most people pay about $85 each way for excess baggage charges for their weapon, this is a huge savings to the military," said Senior Master Sgt. Jeffery Swartz, the 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron superintendent of supply operations deployed from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany.

The first phase of this test period has already begun.

"We currently have almost 1,000 Airmen testing this new program," said Master Sgt. Darryl Sterling, the 332nd ELRS customer service and equipment section chief deployed from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. "We figure the first portion of this test phase should save the Air Force approximately $85,000 in transportation costs."

All weapons, involved in this initiative, are considered to be Balad AB or U.S. Air Force's Central assets and will be assigned to designated Airmen once they inprocess the base. When the Airmen redeploy, they will be required to outprocess through the armory here and turn in their weapon.

"By ensuring accountability of all weapons at a more centralized location we save the Air Force additional money," Sergeant Sterling said. "Prior to this new initiative, people leaving at a moment's notice usually due to emergency leave, would often forget their weapon at the armory. This resulted in us spending additional time and money tracking them down and sending their weapon back to them."

Additionally, this new program will also help reduce the number of hours spent trying to figure out the base to which a weapon belonged.

"Accountability is everything," said Staff Sgt. Lane Woods, a 332nd ELRS customer service and equipment custodian deployed from Luke AFB. "Under this new plan, we will have the ability to look up a weapon's serial number in our database and be able to reconcile our list in a timelier manner. By having this ability, we will save many work hours allowing us to focus more directly on our other missions."

Individual Airmen play a crucial role in the success of the prepositioning program.

"All Airmen need to make sure to read their line remarks on their orders and check with their unit deployment managers to verify if they need to bring their weapon or if they are part of the test group," said Staff Sgt. Eric Michel, a 332nd ELRS armory customer service craftsman, deployed from Luke AFB.

"A lot of thought went into this process and we know it will be successful," Sergeant Swartz said. "This will be a great change for Airmen deploying in the future and we need everybody's help to show the Air Force that this program will not only save the military money, but also it benefits the Airmen by saving them time and aggravation during travel, especially with all the new rules in airports these days."