LITTLE ROCK — Col. Archie Frye flew his first C-130 cargo plane last week in preparation for commanding Detachment 1, a new Air Force Reserve unit being built from scratch to ease the growing pains at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Frye’s assumption of command March 13 will double the unit’s size. Lt. Col. Amy Boehle, personnel director, is currently Detachment 1’s only member.
But by October, the unit is expected to grow to 75 airmen. And by 2016, it is to be a full unit of more than 706 C-130 Hercules crew members, maintainers and support personnel.
Sitting in a splash of afternoon sunshine at the Little Rock Air Force Base golf course in Jacksonville last week, Frye explained the task ahead.
He’s a former aircraft maintainer-turned-pilot with flying time in a variety of jets over the past 34 years in the Air Force and says he always wanted to fly C-130s.
“I’m not officially here yet,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve got some catching up to do.”
Frye is to graduate March 7 from C-130 training - the same training his new unit will eventually assume as its full-time mission.
Detachment 1 was established by the Air Force as a stopgap measure to supplement the C-130 training mission at the Jacksonville base as the 189th Airlift Wing of the Arkansas National Guard builds its fleet with the new avionics upgrade variant C-130AMP and the 314th Airlift Wing slowly increases its new C-130J fleet.
Those upgrades are being funded, in part, by the expedited retirement of the more than 45-year-old C-130E fleet.The loss of those planes in the years that it will take to upgrade the H-models and purchase new J-models will leave a shortage of planes. Guard and Reserve units from across the nation have loaned 18 planes to the detachment until the upgrades and new Jmodel purchases can be made over the next decade. Eleven borrowed planes have already arrived and are being flown by the 314th Airlift Wing.
“I don’t think anyone has decided it’s temporary. I don’t see this mission going away soon,” Frye said of Detachment 1. “I honestly don’t think it’s temporary.”
Little Rock Air Force Base is the largest C-130 base in the world, with more than 100 planes.
The 314th Airlift Wing trains all new C-130 crews across all military branches in the nation and for 44 allied countries. The 189th Airlift Wing of the Arkansas National Guard trains C-130 crews as instructors to feed the 314th faculty and provide trainers across the force.The 19th Airlift Wing manages base facilities and is the expeditionary unit on base, deploying around the world.
In May 2010, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley ordered the expedited retirement of the nation’s oldest C-130s, the E-model. The plan is estimated to save $256 million in operational and maintenance costs, freeing up funds for new planes and upgrades. A new C-130J costs about $68 million as it rolls off the Lockheed Martin line. An avionics upgrade kit to turn a C-130H into a C-130AMP carries a price tag of about $9 million, not including installation.
The avionics upgrade replaces the flight controls in the circa 1980s-1990s C-130H. The plane’s upgraded communication and navigation systems use digital satellite technology, and flight instruments will be displayed on heads-up displays - transparent displays that allow the pilot to view information by looking forward and not down at instruments. The upgrade eliminates the need for a navigator, reducing each plane’s crew from five to four.
Expediting retirement of the E-model fleet, however, creates a shortage of planes for training new C-130 crews during the coming transition years. Eventually, all active duty units will fly C-130Js, and the National Guard and Reserve will fly a mix of C-130Js and C-130AMPs.
Over the next four years, the 189th, Detachment 1 and the 314th will participate in a shift of responsibilities that is part juggling act and part dance.
The AMP program is just moving into low-rate production, allowing upgrades for 21 of the nation’s 221 C-130Hs and the last step before full production can begin.
The Arkansas National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base is ground zero for the AMP upgrade. The base will be home to the nation’s C-130AMP school and will be responsible for the final operational tests of the planes before full production is approved.
Three C-130AMPs are now undergoing an engineering change review. The 189th will begin flight training for its instructor pilots in April, said Col. Steve Eggensperger, 189th Operations Group commander. The 189th will begin final operational flight tests in January and build the national training program on the upgraded planes.
As the 189th begins testing the C-130AMP and rotates more of its C-130Hs out to be upgraded this year, Detachment 1 will step in to help train instructor crews.
At the same time, the 314th will add personnel and planes to the 48th Airlift Squadron, the C-130J training unit. Over the next four years, the 314th plans to double to 14 the number of J-models on its ramp and shutter the 62nd Airlift Squadron, which flies Es and Hs.
Detachment 1 will grow in pace with the 62nd’s phaseout, taking over the H-model training mission as the 314th expands C-130J operations.
“It’s kind of a innovative solution,” said Col. Kirk Lear, vice commander of the 314th. “And it works.”
The melding of Guard, Reserve and active-duty cultures is just as complicated as the logistics.
“You’re bringing a couple of different cultures together, and that’s not easy,” Lear said. “[Frye] is absolutely the right guy to do it.”
The personnel and facility plans are being finalized next month in a final Site Activation Task Force meeting. The29th Weapons Squadron on base has already loaned the detachment three offices in its building.
“They will meld into our facilities to begin with,” Lear said. “Office space may be an issue, but we’ll be fine, we’ll be fine in the step-out.”
Frye said it has been “amazing” how flexible everyone has been.
“I’ve got a simple philosophy. I’m willing to lose today’s argument to save tomorrow’s relationship,” he said. “We’re in a position to do whatever it takes to make it work.”
The 62nd and Detachment 1 crews will be flying together over the next four years as one shrinks and the other grows at a rate of about a third a year. The 48th Airlift Squadron, the 314th’s J-model squadron, will grow at the same time.
In four years, the detachment will have a new name and 700 Reservists - about 400 traditional part-time airmen and about 300 full-time airmen. It will operate as an associate unit under the direction of the Arkansas Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing.
Working with the Arkansas National Guard is nothing new to Frye, even though his latest assignment was at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan. He is married to Col. Tamhra Hutchins-Frye, who works at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock as the Arkansas National Guard’s director of air staff.
They married 2 1/2 years ago and dated for several years before that.
“I was looking for any way to live a normal life with my wife. We’ve never actually lived together,” he said. “So this is like a dream assignment for me. It’s the best of everything. It was time to live with my wife but not time to retire.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/27/2011