Kadena's 733rd: The aerial port section

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zackary A. Henry
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  (Editor's note: This is the second installment of a three-part series on the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron.)

Aerial port covers a pretty large section of the 733rd. The section is responsible for everything from moving cargo and passengers to setting up flights for the Patriot Express for military members and their families.

With such a diverse section, communication throughout the flights is crucial and each flight must do their job to the best of their ability to keep the bigger picture intact.

The most visible section is the PAX terminal. This is where customers set up their Space Available flights and where most go for their deployments as well.

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ashley Govro, 733rd Air Mobility Squadron passenger service supervisor, is one of the people in charge of ensuring smooth travel to and from Kadena.

"We conduct roll call for the Space-A flights, as well as process and complete manifests," said Govro. "We have to do this for every flight, including the deployment flights incoming and outgoing."

This part of the aerial port section comes with a bit of a reward: seeing service members come home from deployments, Govro said.

Another part of aerial port, although hidden from sight, is the freight department.

The freight department removes incoming cargo from arriving planes and gets it to the proper place for delivery inside, as well as takes all the cargo and packages from Kadena and gets them onto the correct aircraft for delivery.

Takahiro Namizato, 733rd Air Mobility Squadron aircraft cargo track operator foreman, is one of the individuals in charge of ensuring the safe and timely arrival of all the cargo in and out of Kadena.

This includes all of the personal mail, household goods and supplies that units need to operate efficiently, Namizato said.

With all of these moving parts someone has to oversee all of that movement, that's where the controllers of the Air Terminal Operations Center come in.

Senior Airman Michael Casper, 733rd Air Mobility Squadron ATOC specialist, is one of those controllers.

"We gather all of the information from planes coming in or out, and disseminate it to all the sections," Casper said. "These include passenger services, freight, 909th Air Refueling Squadron, maintenance operations center and the K-5 Right Marines."

Casper went on to say that the ATOC section can be thought of as the brains of the aerial port section, as they are in charge of making sure all the parts have the same information and are working together flawlessly.

Individuals throughout the aerial port section are also in charge of all of the paperwork used to keep track of passengers and cargo, and things like load plans that perfect the weight distribution of cargo and passengers.

All of these sections put together make up the 733rd AMS aerial port and at the head of that is Cheryl Mullen, 733rd AMS air terminal manager.

"The 733rd AMS is a huge part of the Kadena mission, but not just that," said Mullen. "We help out all of Okinawa, including the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, multiple Navy and Army sections, the K-5 Right Marines, the 18th Wing and anybody else coming in or out of Kadena for deployment or permanent change of station."

If the military has to move something in or out of Okinawa, there's a really good chance the 733rd AMS is a key part, Mullen said.