85th APS Deactivitation

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. - Master Sgt. Gary Lane, 85th Aerial Port Squadron, prepares to move a pre-packaged cargo for shipment during a 2004 deployment to Southwest Asia. The 85 APS deactivates Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. during a ceremony held at the Hanscom Aero Club Hangar after nearly 50 years of aerial port operations supporting the nation’s wartime and peacetime military and humanitarian campaigns since 1960. (Courtesy photo)

85th APS Deactivitation

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. - The aerial port training aid, which belongs to the 85th Aerial Port Squadron, sits at Hanscom following repairs made by squadrons within the 913th Airlift Wing from Willow Grove Air Reserve Station, Penn., in 2006. The future of the wingless C-130 APTA, nicknamed ‘Old 5019’ because of its tail number, is uncertain. The 85 APS deactivates Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. during a ceremony held at the Hanscom Aero Club Hangar after nearly 50 years of aerial port operations supporting the nation’s wartime and peacetime military and humanitarian campaigns since 1960. (U.S. Air Force file photo)

85th APS Deactivitation

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. - Tech. Sgt. Michael Welch, 85th Aerial Port Squadron, inventories his deployment equipment prior to being deployed to support Army cargo and personnel movements into and out of Southwest Asia. Sergeant Welch and other members of the 85 APS activated in early 2004, among multiple other occasions, to support Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. The 85 APS deactivates Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. during a ceremony held at the Hanscom Aero Club Hangar after nearly 50 years of aerial port operations supporting the nation’s wartime and peacetime military and humanitarian campaigns since 1960.(U.S. Air Force photo by Linda LaBonte Britt)

85 APS deactivates; plans to imbue pride, experience, skill in cousin units

Published Sept. 9, 2009
By Capt. Geoff Buteau
66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- Eight months shy of its 50th birthday, the 85th Aerial Port Squadron will deactivate Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Aero Club Hangar here, concluding a string of dedicated aerial port missions that supported the Vietnam conflict, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and everything in between.

Causing the deactivation are the needs of the Air Force Reserve, meaning the majority of the 80 Airmen currently assigned to the unit will take positions at Westover Air Reserve Base, integrating into either the 42nd or 58th Aerial Port Squadrons.

The remaining Airmen not relocating to Westover will pursue positions with New England area Air National Guard units, transfer to Air Force Reserve vacancies throughout the nation, retire, or switch to civilian transportation jobs equivalent with their aerial port duties, said Chief Master Sgt. Joanne Boczanowski, the transportation superintendent at the 85 APS.

"It's a sad day more than anything," said Capt. David Auretto, the officer in charge of air freight services with the 85 APS and a 17-year reservist. Calling the unit a family, he acknowledged that some Airmen have been part of the squadron for more than 20 years.

"There's a lot of pride in this unit; not just putting on the uniform, but the unit patch; it symbolizes what we've accomplished," said the captain. "To see all that go is difficult."

While the mission of the 85 APS was primarily training for moving cargo and people in and out of the air system, the unit regularly and dependably supported deploying troops all over the United States, backfilled for other deployed aerial port squadrons, and forward deployed as a unit and sometimes in lieu of other units to places including Western Europe, the Far East, Guam, Turkey, Greece, Afghanistan and Iraq.

A standard unit training assembly weekend, which is a monthly requirement for traditional drilling reservists, was composed of deployment and job proficiency training, as well as getting everyone ready to go at a moment's notice, said Captain Auretto. For job training, the unit used the aerial port training aid, which is a 50-year-old, recently refurbished wingless and tailless C-130 Hercules.

But members of the 85 APS also spent an additional UTA weekend every month at Westover, training on live aircraft during actual missions with the 42 APS and the 58 APS, said Chief Boczanowski.

"We deploy with them all the time, we know them, they're our cousins, and we've been through a lot with them," said Chief Boczanowski.
She believes the move that most of the Airmen are making to one of the two aerial port squadrons at Westover "gives people a sense that they're not going along on their own and that they're joining family out there."

Calling the people in the 85 APS the best in the aerial port business, Captain Auretto said despite the sadness, there's a hum in the unit. "That pride's going with the folks to make their new units better; you can hear that already."