Alaska National Guard mechanics become honorary air crew after Afghanistan pullout

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (KTUU) - It’s a good day to fly, as Tech. Sgt. Jorge Machado walks around a C17 Globemaster III stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

He’s conducting a preflight inspection as a mechanic and crew chief for the Alaska Air National Guard’s 176th Wing.

“When I’m at home, I maintain the airplanes here, troubleshoot, [and] fix the airplanes,” Machado said. “Then when I go on missions, I fly with the crew and make sure, if the plane breaks on the road, I fix it and we continue on our mission.”

Machado has gone on several missions in his career with the Air Guard, but one that he’ll never forget happened in 2021 during the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.

While heading to Germany for a separate mission, Alaska Guardsman from the 144th Airlift Squadron and 176th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron were rerouted — in flight — to join the United States Air Force with Joint and Coalition Forces to support the execution of Operation Allies Refuge.

The mission became the largest non-combat evacuation in American history.

What was supposed to be a five-day mission in Europe became a 20-day mission in The Middle East.

“It was a completely different mission that we were supposed to be on,” Machado said. “We got rerouted in flight, not knowing until we hit the ground what was going on.”

The days and weeks that followed had crews flying in between Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul to aid in the evacuation of refugees. The overwhelming number of refugees and the arid climate placed a strain on service members and the aircraft.

“It was chaos. It was like the wild west over there,” Machado recalled. “Every jet I stepped on, I had to do some sort of maintenance or fix to get it to be flyable.”

According to Machado, crews were working 40-plus hour days — volunteering for each new task that arose that required him and his fellow crew chief, Tech. Sgt. Alvin Ting, to perform beyond their maintenance duties.

Lt. Col. Eric Rutter, Commander of the 176th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, said the mission was well beyond the scope of what the National Guard typically does.

“The overall duration of this mission was intense and very wearying,” Rutter said. “They were on the road for more than a week — day in, day out — moving as quickly as they could, dealing with people and situations that we cannot train for.”

On top of ensuring the aircraft were flight-ready, Machado and Ting supervised passengers, loaded cargo, assisted security forces personnel with security, and aided aircrew during ground evacuations.

It was a piece of history, Machado said, he had no idea at the time he’d be a part of.

“I didn’t know it was going to be like that,” Machado said. “But looking back, I’m proud of what we did and I’m proud that we got those people out of there.”

It was work that didn’t go unnoticed by Gen. Mike Minihan, Commander of Air Mobility Command who insisted Machado and Ting be recognized for their heroic efforts by being awarded a single event Air Medal with a combat device — a medal not often given to crew chiefs as US Air Force regulations designate the medals to be awarded to Airmen or Aeronautical Orders.

Machado and Ting are the first crew chiefs to receive the medal in the history of the 176th Wing.

“This is Major Command outside of the Air National Guard — a 4-star general that said ‘recognize these people,’” Rutter said. “We have some remarkable professionals here [and] Arvin Ting and Jorge Machado are absolutely among them.”

During the 20 days in theater, the Alaska Air National Guard crews flew nearly 150 hours, transported over 1.3 million pounds of cargo, and evacuated 2,620 Afghan refugees.

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