Local Airman Deployed to Afghanistan
Working in Air Advisory Role
MSgt. Jonathan Crain, a resident of Williams, is currently assigned to the 440th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group at the Kabul International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Crain is serving on a one-year deployment as the 440th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron Commander. In this capacity, MSgt. Crain is part of a 43-person advisory team responsible for training over four hundred Afghanistan National Army Air Corps personnel how to properly maintain and operate their fleet of Russian-made Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters, An-32 cargo planes and Italian-made C-27 airlift aircraft.
Since his arrival in January 2009, MSgt. Crain has been instrumental in helping the Afghan's double their Mi-17 fleet, re-energize their Mi-35 gunship program and bed-down their first-ever western-designed aircraft, the C-27 Spartan aircraft. Aside from his mentoring responsibilities, MSgt. Crain performs convoy duties ferrying passengers and cargo throughout Kabul city and travels to various forward operating bases on an as-needed basis.
Under MSgt. Crain's mentorship, the Afghanistan National Army Air Corps has flown over 5,000 sorties delivering 33,000 passengers and 739 tons of cargo throughout Afghanistan over the past year. The Corps also delivered 27 tons of ballot materials supporting the Afghanistan presidential election, rescued over 5,000 villagers displaced by floodwaters, stood-up three forward operating bases and hosted several high-ranking officials including Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates; the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces Afghanistan Commander-General Stanley McChrystal; the Czech Minister of Defense; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Chief of Staff for the British Ministry of Defense and many others.
Thanks in large part to MSgt. Crain's efforts, the 440th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron is on schedule to complete their task of preparing the Afghan's to independently operate their Air Corps before 2016. At present, the Afghan's have 45 military aircraft and less than 3,000 assigned personnel. Those numbers are expected to grow to 154 aircraft and over 8,000 personnel between now and 2016.
MSgt. Crain is permanently assigned to the 9th MUNS, Beale AFB, CA as the Air Force Combat Ammunition Center's Curriculum Flight Production Super. Before deploying to Afghanistan, he completed several weeks of intensive pre-deployment training covering live-fire weapons operations, cultural awareness, convoy tactics, unexploded ordinance identification and mitigation, conversational Dari language and a full week of hands-on evasive driving.
MSgt. Crain is married to Laura E. Crain and has two sons, Trevor and Trenton.
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