MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan –
In his full time work, Staff Sgt. Douglas Brock is a police officer for the city of Fremont, Calif. As a traditional Air Force Reservist, he is attached to the 940th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Beale Air Force Base.
Now, he's in a new environment, deployed to Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan on a six-month tour.
"When I first arrived in Kyrgyzstan it was snowing and cold and I didn't know what to expect, but I was quite excited to do something different from normal police duties," said Sergeant Brock. "It's a good break from police work to be involved in a different type of important Air Force mission on the other side of the world."
He said his communication skills and problem-solving ability have been sharpened because of experiences at Manas.
"Back at dispatch in the LRS, we get squadrons constantly calling for mission support," said Sergeant Brock. "I've learned not to stress out too much. I have 12 other guys who can help back me up. Much like police work in the field, you really depend on your partners here to get the entire job done."
Sergeant Brock worked in Baghdad in 2005 and he sees the mission importance and the actual work details as being very similar. This story will be inspirational to other members of his unit who look for ideas.
"We are always moving personnel and cargo and taking care of flight crew transportation issues," Sergeant Brock said.
He and his teammates work with multiple squadrons on base to move heavy equipment and cargo with their tractor trailers.
"We lifted a 40-foot bin using a crane onto our tractor trailer and then transported the bin to where it needed to go on base," he said.
Teamwork is the key to getting lots of different people in a deployed environment to work together with their individual styles.
"A guy I work with showed me a quick fix on an air pressure tube for a tractor trailer brake line that I wasn't aware of. That kind of interaction will help me back at Beale communicate some important new ideas and that is what makes deployments like this great," Sergeant Brock said.
Sergeant Brock is one of more than 1,000 Airmen and coalition forces deployed to Manas Air Base and assigned to the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.