Oil's well that ends well Published Nov. 15, 2006 By Tech. Sgt. Ken Sloat 910th Airlift Wing HOUSTON,Texas -- Crossing below a horizon dotted with offshore oil rigs and cargo ships, an Air Force Reserve C-130 swoops down to just 100 feet above the water. It lines up on a bright green slick on the water and seconds later begins spraying a pink liquid from the aerial spray boom protruding from its rear paratroop doors. If this had been a real oil spill response, the specially modified C-130H assigned to the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio - one of just four such airplanes in the Department of Defense - would have been spraying an oil dispersant designed to break up the oil and deter it from reaching the shore. But, this was in fact an oil dispersant exercise envisioned by the Texas General Land Office's Oil Spill Division. The participants included a host of governmental and civilian agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard and Texas A&M University. It was designed to give potential responders a chance to practice together. For the 910th Aerial Spray Mission it meant the chance to work with several of their civilian counterparts. According to Capt. Phil Townsend, an aerial spray pilot with the 757th Airlift Squadron, the 910th aerial spray team would most likely not be in charge of the operation. "Typically, we'll be in a support role," he said, adding that the organizations hired by the responsible party would be the primary responder. "If the spill is beyond their capability they would contact us," said Capt. Townsend. Companies involved in the handling, transport or storage of oil are required by federal law to maintain a contingency plan for the clean up of an accidental oil spill. Although the U.S. Coast Guard maintains an oversight role, the company responsible for the spill - known as the Responsible Party - is also responsible for the clean up. Rather than maintain expensive resources for this, many companies contract this emergency response out to other organizations. One such contractor is the Marine Spill Response Corporation. The MSRC is an independent non-profit organization funded by more than 120 separate companies worldwide with more than $450 million in assets dedicated to this purpose. During the clean-up of Hurricane Katrina the MSRC was called into service for, what company officials report to be, nearly 86,000 man-hours of clean-up. To provide for rapid response aerial spray capability the MSRC maintains contracts with several civilian aerial spray companies. One of these contractors, International Air Response, owns and operates six C-130A aircraft that they have modified for aerial spray. According to Travis Grantham, a C-130A pilot and Vice President with IAR, the experience of working with the 910th and the other agencies involved in this exercise is an important step in preparing for a emergency response. "Communication, that's the huge barrier," said Mr. Grantham, adding that working together with the other aerial spray components of an oil spill response is very helpful. "The last thing we want is to have a natural disaster and not have a plan," he said. "The hardest part," he explained, "is the non-pilot stuff," he said explaining that things like knowing who to talk to on the ground and knowing who is in charge on the ground are examples of what make this a valuable training exercise. Explained Maj. Bill Whittenberger, an aerial spray pilot, "Everybody is learning here,"