AFSC chief retires after 26 year Air Force career Published June 1, 2015 By John Parker Staff Writer TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- In March 2003, the four high-pitched propellers of a highly modified, special operations MC-130H chopped through the midnight air only a few hundred feet above the Western Iraqi desert. Inside the blacked out cargo compartment, the rear cargo ramp stretched out into the dark. Loadmaster Gregg Jones, sitting in the troop door scanning for threats, readied a knife at the edge of a nylon strap holding back about 25,000 pounds of cargo. The Combined Joint Special Operations mission was the first overt air drop of Operation Iraqi Freedom. When the green light signaled the precise drop point, Jones raked the knife across the strap. Multiple bundles of ammo, water and other vital supplies screamed by within inches of Jones, spilling out of the aircraft like a snake falling off a cliff. As the Combat Talon II peeled away, Iraqi ground forces arranged a delivery of their own. An anti-aircraft missile. Chief Jones visually acquired the threat and started directing evasive actions over the aircraft comm system, triggering the pilot to execute a series of defensive air maneuvers and other countermeasures designed for the aircraft to survive. Chief Jones credits training for what happened next. "You do what you're trained to do, and lo and behold, you've survived to fight another day," he said. Chief Jones, along with the Talon pilot, earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor for quick action under threat in the Iraq air drop. Today, the chief will be recognized in a retirement ceremony marking 26 years in the Air Force. The command chief master sergeant for the Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker AFB said he is thankful for the Flying Cross recognition, but the entire crew was deserving of the award. It took the coordinated action of all aboard to survive the engagement and successfully execute the mission, he said. Chief Jones spent the majority of his career with Air Force Special Operations Command performing humanitarian and combat missions, such as delivering special operations forces to and from mission objectives. His time as a combat aviation adviser was punctuated with the award of a Bronze Star for his role in standing up the Combined Air Power Transition Force-Afghanistan, established to advise and assist the Afghan Air Force. The job of a combat aviation adviser is to deploy into partner nations and help them improve their capabilities and cultivate air-to-ground integration. The chief said the air advisory mission was primarily done by Air Force Special Operations Command before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In those two conflicts, he and fellow combat aviation advisers were called up to set up national air forces on a scale not seen since Vietnam, he said. "You have to have energy at it, and I find my energy level a lot higher, a lot easier to self-motivate, when I'm going in and standing a new capability up," the chief said. Chief Jones has visited 35 countries with the Air Force and deployed outside the United States 16 times, he said. The chief also was part of the 2003 rescue mission of Army Private Jessica Lynch, an Iraqi prisoner of war whose plight gained national attention. It was the first successful POW rescue mission since Vietnam. The bodies of eight soldiers were also recovered. "I was on that mission in a supporting role," Chief Jones said. "Why this mission is so special to me is the fallen comrades we were able to recover that night." The chief said his year at the AFSC was a huge part of his Air Force development. "We talk about (combat) actions on the objective, but none of that happens without being able to back it up all the way from that first air drop mission Iraq," the chief said. "You can trace the support all the way back to everyone who had their role in making that happen. It does not matter if they were enabling, generating or employing, it took the joint team to execute. Chief Jones said being part of the AFSC team gave him a deep appreciation for how challenging it is to provide world-class depot maintenance, supply chain management and air base support. "It truly was a great day to fly, every day in the AFSC," he said. The chief said he was lucky to have worked for AFSC Commander Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield and the entire AFSC team. He plans to take the AFSC Way leadership model with him in his next endeavor, he said. A self-described adrenaline junkie, the hobbyist mini-sprint car racer said he leaves with mixed emotions. He plans to finish his schooling and look to serve supporting the fight in a civilian capacity. He aims to move back to Florida, his home state, near Hurlburt Field, the home of AFSOC. "I still want to serve," Chief Jones said. "I still love wearing this uniform, and if I can't do it wearing a uniform, then I'll figure out how I can serve in a civilian capacity somewhere."