RTCH on a plane

Not too long ago, we received a third Rough Terrain Cargo Handler (RTCH) to augment our container handling capabilities. More recently, however, we got a call saying we needed to send one of our two older RTCHs back for a refit.

The problem is that the U.S. Army doesn't have a truck that's big enough to carry a RTCH but small enough to fit the bridges along our main supply route. We'd have to put it on a cargo flight. (Q: How did it even get here then? A: The Dutch brought it up.)

This is no small feat for a unit like us. The biggest challenge was getting it repaired to the point where it could pass inspection. We were, in essence, repairing it for transport so we could transport it for repair.

So we got the paperwork ready with some help from the movement control team, a team of mechanics came up from Kandahar to repair its leak, a Kalmar company field service representative showed us how to put it into transport mode, and we repaired a borrowed pressure washer so we could get the years of dirt and grime off the entire thing.

From then on, it was just a waiting game for the flight.

This is what a RTCH looks like in transport mode: the cab is offset to the left, the boom is lowered and extended, the top handler is rotated 90 degrees, and bogey wheels allow the top handler's weight to rest directly on the ground.

According to the driver, getting the thing up the ramp is a harrowing experience. You really have to trust your ground guides, and they have to be good -- it's considered very bad juju to mess up a C-17.

Once it was on board, we had to chain the thing down like Frankenstein so it didn't shift.

We got a little nervous when it started to piddle a bit on the floor. Luckily, we had some padding to soak it so the air crew wouldn't yell at it or kick it off the plane.

Oh man, it was such a relief when the plane finally took off. Only then did we allow ourselves to celebrate -- there was now *no way* we were going to get that thing back.