History Highlight: Devil Raiders set the template for Afghan retrogrades

  • Published
  • By Jamien Parks, 621st Contingency Response Wing Historian
  • 621st Contingency Response Wing
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST --  

In 2021, Devil Raiders worked tirelessly to complete the retrograde of American military forces in Afghanistan, an effort that culminated in the dramatic evacuation of U.S. and Afghan civilians from Kabul International Airport in August of that year. While national attention focused heavily on those final airlifts, major base closures in the country actually began in 2014, and the 621st Mobility Support Operations Squadron played a critical role in making the broader retrograde possible.

In July 2014, Capt. Aaron Hines, an air mobility liaison officer, became the liaison to the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan. He also served as the Regional Command South West liaison for the brigade. Shortly after his assignment, Hines joined the planning teams for Operation Steel Horizon, the retrograde operation for Camps Bastion and Leatherneck.

This massive logistical effort required intricate coordination between U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Central Command, Marine Forces Central Command, U.S. Air Forces Central Command, 18th Air Force liaisons, the Tanker Airlift Control Center and United Kingdom military liaisons.

U.S. Central Command set an Oct. 31 deadline for the base closures and the disposition of all equipment and assets. Hines successfully campaigned to provide inputs to the force flow conferences between the participating organizations. He determined that planners had used conservative cargo-loading capacity numbers and suggested breaking apart unit line number cargo to better maximize the use of C-17 and C-5 aircraft. He also recommended that units perform pre-joint inspections to ensure cargo would be ready on the available-to-load date.

These changes ultimately increased aircraft cargo loads by 32% and reduced the total number of aircraft required.

Operation Steel Horizon concluded on Oct. 27, 2014, beating the established deadline by four days. The Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan completed 700 missions on 128 C-17s and 55 C-5s to move 16,000 short tons of cargo and 9,000 passengers. On the last two days of the mission alone, aircraft onloaded 1 million pounds of cargo, and three C-5s set aircraft load records.

Ultimately, the plans drawn up for the closure of Camps Bastion and Leatherneck set the strategic template for future retrogrades in Afghanistan.