The C-23B Sherpa Cargo Plane
[Specifications of the C-23B Sherpa]
Story & photos by SPC Charles Ames
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The C-23 Sherpa is the Washington Army National Guard’s answer to missions requiring an aircraft that is capable of faster, higher-altitude and longer-distance coverage than helicopters. The Sherpa comes with a low operating cost due to its simple, robust construction, compared to that of other cargo aircraft.
"The C-23 is a multi-role utility airplane. And it’s really the only cargo airplane in the Army", says Operations NCO of Detachment 2, Company A, 249th Theater Airplane Company, SSG Mark Logan. "We are organized into 4 theater airplane companies. Each company has four detachments. The detachments are all located in different states. Each detachment has two aircraft." SSG Logans enthusiasm for his rather unique job is equaled only by his knowledge of his equipment.
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"Our mission is movement of critical troops and supplies in a theater area. We can do both static line and free-fall para-drop, air medical evacuation, and command and control communications platform, which requires special equipment. We can carry up to 30 passengers in airline-type seats. We can carry palletized cargo, four small pallets, and do airdrop of those pallets, or 18 litter patients plus their medical personnel. It has a range of a thousand miles, cruises up to two hundred knots, and it’s square because most of the things we have are square rather than round. It has six-and-a-half feet of headroom. "It is unpressurized, but we don’t need it to be pressurized for our mission. If we go above 10,000’ for an extended period of time, we wear oxygen masks. It has state of the art avionics, and can fly anywhere in the world, provided we can ferry our own fuel. We got our first Sherpa in October of 97. We got our second Sherpa in May of this year (98). These are brand-new aircraft right out of the factory."
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The Sherpa has a crew of three, but sometimes we fly with four man crews if we need two flight engineers. We have 12 people in our detachment, six officers (Pilots) and six enlisted (Flight Engineers)." The designation of Sherpa seems appropriate as the craft resembles the plane seen in the old movies that show a tough little hopper as it passes over high icebound mountains, usually with a map super-imposed while a line traces its’ route in red.
On one particular day, the detachment supports an active-duty Air Force special operations unit, the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron, headquartered at McChord Air Force Base, Tacoma WA. SSG Mark Smith is a Combat Controller with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron and is the NCOIC of the jump team. "What we’re finding out is that it is very difficult to get airlifted from the conventional side of the house. The Sherpas were something we found about only recently.
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We didn’t even know they were at Fort Lewis. We gave Chief Lake a call. He was very helpful in giving us airlift support. If we didn’t have them here right now, we wouldn’t be jumping today."
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"Chief" is Chief Warrant Officer Jim Lake, the Detachment Commander. Today he doubles as a pilot for this particular mission along with CW4 Lloyd Williams. The flight engineer is SGT Brian Brazell. During the jump rehearsal, a lieutenant trips on a stabilizing pin in the floor which sends up a great howl from the jump team; apparently the presence of any misstep is considered a bad omen.
Awaiting the okay to board, the jumpers have now "chuted up" and resemble astronauts fallen to earth while sprawled out on the tarmac pad in front of the hangar at the Washington National Guards section of Fort Lewis Grey Army Airfield. After a pre-flight check, the flight engineer loads the first jump team. Ten people, half the complement, begin their one way trip to a drop zone near Yakima.
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The C-23 Sherpa enters the clouds at 4,000’. The plane circles to find landmarks and gains altitude to 18,000’. Over Yakima, the clouds dissipate. 10 minutes out, a red light comes on near the ramp. After some tricky alignment onto the jump target, the cargo ramp (which is capable of lowering or lifting out of the way) raises up. You expect a giant roar and a bone-chilling turbulence that threatens to claw you out of the fuselage, but a spring-like breeze misleads you into forgetting you are 3 miles up.
One minute out - the green light glows to notify the jumpmaster of the team that they may jump when ready. The jumpers immediately drop out of sight, and minuscule green bubbles appear miles behind the Sherpa, and the plane is empty. These jumpers are practicing a parachuting technique called High Altitude High Opening jumps, or HAHO. Jumpers jump at altitudes much higher than traditional paratroopers use for their jumps.
The chute used is very different from the traditional parachute. It is designed to maneuver more like a glider. Using this maneuverability the jumpers can travel many miles from the point at which they initially left the aircraft. Also, they are able to stay aloft much longer than other parachutes - partly by design and partly due to the very high exit altitude.
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They will glide into their drop zone, establish a ‘very forward’ air control base, then pack up and catch a bus back to Yakima’s Municipal Airfield to repeat the training. Meanwhile the Sherpa wings back toward Gray Army Airfield. Each trip takes them by Mt. Rainier, which doesn’t seem so big from 18,000’. They pick up the second crew and disappear back into the grey sky.
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