Senior Airman Michael Cotton, a crew chief with the 374th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, passes humanitarian supplies to a member of the Sri Lankan air force at Jaffna International Airport in Sri Lanka on Dec. 8, 2025. (Jacob Wood/U.S. Air Force)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — A relatively new Air Force logistics team at this airlift hub in western Tokyo proved its mettle in recent months by responding to two natural disasters, according to a pair of its officers.
The 374th Airlift Wing’s Logistics Quick Reaction Force deployed for the first time in early November to assist people displaced by typhoons in the Philippines. Weeks later, the team flew to Sri Lanka to deliver aid to cyclone victims.
“We can deploy on our own aircraft and get to an area that needs help immediately,” said Capt. Shawn Edgecomb, a logistics officer from Stockton, Calif.
The team includes a forklift operator, two aerial porters, a logistics readiness officer, two communications airmen and about six security forces personnel, said Edgecomb, who spoke to Stars and Stripes on Tuesday at the unit’s Yokota headquarters.
The force is designed to operate on its own when necessary, he added.
Members of the 374th Logistics Readiness Squadron prepare to load family food packs onto a C-130J Super Hercules during disaster-relief operations at Clark Air Base, Philippines, on Nov. 15, 2025. (Spencer Tobler/U.S. Air Force)
More than 450 U.S. troops were ordered to assist storm victims in the Philippines after Typhoon Kalmaegi and Typhoon Fung-Wong struck the Philippines in early November, killing hundreds and displacing more than 1 million people.
The Yokota logistics team quickly deployed to Clark Air Base on the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, Edgecomb said, where it helped deliver 10,000 family food packs.
“We were able to get the forklift downloaded and started immediately providing upload for the food packs,” he said. “I saw airmen uploading food packages that would, potentially, save someone’s life.”
In late November, heavy rains from Cyclone Ditwah triggered flooding and mudslides in Sri Lanka, displacing nearly 78,000 people. About a week later, the Yokota-based airmen arrived to assist with relief efforts.
The team worked with the Sri Lankan air force to deliver aid to eight airports, said 1st Lt. Stafanie Antrican of Lebanon, Ohio, also a logistics readiness officer with the wing.
“We were literally handing out items to people to offload the plane,” she said Tuesday at Yokota.
The team’s forklift can lift up to 5 tons — slightly more than a pallet of bottled water — Antrican said.
Edgecomb said the wing hopes to expand training for the quick-reaction force to support future humanitarian missions.
“If there is a storm tomorrow on Okinawa or anywhere we can reach, this is something we can put on a plane and provide immediate assistance,” he said.
