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910th Airlift personnel explain their jobs at YARS
VIENNA
Courtney Chism El’s visit to the Youngstown Air Reserve Station’s open house Saturday got off to a great start.
Along with a tour of one of the several big C-130 Hercules cargo planes on display, the 7-year-old’s favorite part of the open house was the shuttle-bus ride from the parking area to the event.
Courtney attended the free open house with her parents, TLee Chism El and Tamisha Harris-Bey of Youngstown.
Chism El, who served in the Army from 1987 to 1991 as a member of a multiple-launch rocket squad, described the open house as a “good family outing.”
But though Chism El said he was impressed with the C-130H and the organization of the event, he had hoped that one of the transport planes big enough to carry tanks would be on display.
The Youngstown Air Reserve Station open house itself also got off to a good start.
The weather cooperated with sunshine and warm weather, factors which perhaps contributed to an estimated 4,000 through the gates by 11 a.m. The open house ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We expected between 4,000 and 6,000 visitors, but with the good weather, the total could be well over that,” said Air Force Col. James D. Dignan, commander of YARS and the 910th Airlift Wing there.
Dignan said the next public event at YARS will be a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Air Force in 2017. The Air Force was established as a separate branch of the United States military in 1947.
Among the civilian visitors was Sophia D’Urso, a Champion High School sophomore, who tried on an air crew helmet, one of several interactive activities available in Hanger 295.
She said the helmet was “musty and hot.”
Her father, Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Anthony N. D’Urso, a member of the 910th’s 757th Airlift Squadron, said the helmets can be hooked up to oxygen in the event of an emergency or when flying over 14,000 feet.
Hanger 295 was set up with military, veterans and aviation displays, said Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr. of the 910th public affairs office.
One of the displays was one of the four 5,000-pound turbo jet engines that propel the C-130H through the air that Air Force Reserve Technical Sgt. Brian Lanzendorfer helps maintain.
“It is really fun, but it can be challenging at times,” said Lanzendorfer of New Waterford, who works as an assistant physical therapist in civilian life.
A Meadville, Pa., couple, Kim and Jason Hudson, said the open house was a great event for their children: daughter, Brookelynn, 9, and son, Dakota, 6, both of whom enjoyed sitting high in the C-130H cockpit, and son, Gavin, 3, who smiled a lot.
“It is nice of the air base to do this for the public, and it is free. You don’t see that very often,” Jason said.
While Saturday was a successful event for YARS personnel and their open house guests, YARS is fighting to gets its fleet of C-130H aircraft updated or receive newer C-130J planes to ensure its future.
Over the last several years, the YARS C-130H fleet has been reduced from 16 to 8.
Toward that end, Col. Dignan next week will visit members of Congress from 10 or 12 states which the 910th aerial spray mission touches.
Aerial missions are executed in combat areas and to control disease-carrying insects, pest insects, undesirable vegetation and to disperse oil spills in large bodies of water.
Dignan plans to tell them, as he puts it, “why this little base in a cornfield in northeast Ohio is important.”