THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410150197
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
An Air Force C-17, in the first operational deployment overseas for the new $280 million aircraft, left Virginia on Friday carrying 28 tons of Army equipment - and three soldiers - to the Middle East.
The destination of the Charleston, S.C.-based plane wasn't disclosed, but its cargo belongs to the Fort Eustis-based 7th Transportation Group that operated ports in Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf war.
In all, about 650 soldiers from the Army post in Newport News have shipped out of Langley Air Force Base in Hampton this week as part of the buildup of U.S. forces responding to Iraqi troop movements near Kuwait.
While most of the troops and their equipment have traveled in charter aircraft or older C-141s and C-5s operated by the Air Force, three soldiers who left Friday and 56,000 tons of gear were aboard one of the 10 C-17s that the Air Force has stationed in Charleston, S.C.
Adrienne Combs, a Fort Eustis spokeswoman, said a second C-17 is expected to carry out additional equipment today.
Langley also has been sending its personnel, about 250 members of the 27th Fighter Squadron, to support nine F-15s that flew to the Arabian peninsula Monday.
The Fort Eustis unit is comprised of tug operators, truck drivers and cargo handlers who typically are among the first deployed and the last to leave world trouble spots.
About 1,100 7th Transportation soldiers are in Haiti, she said, and some of the troops who went to the Middle East this week had just returned from Haiti.
The C-17 technically hasn't been declared operational but has showed ``a high reliability rate'' in testing, said Maj. Bob Watson, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon.
Senior Master Sgt. Jay Strobel, a spokesman for the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, said the C-17 that left Langley was carrying a five-ton truck, a trailer and generator, three pickup trucks, a humvee and other Army equipment. by CNB