Serving at Air Mobility Command in the Tanker Airlift Control Center on 9/11, U.S. Air Force Major Kevin Schiller was immediately tasked with building an air refueling support plan for the initial combat air patrols over key American cities and, eventually, for units deploying to Operation ENDURING FREEDOM as well as for detainee moves from the Afghanistan theater back to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. An experienced KC-135 pilot, Schiller was later trained in the C-17 and, beginning in December 2003, began flying strategic airlift missions and helped deploy and redeploy ground units in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. In addition, he also resupplied troops in the vicinities of Balad, Taqaddam, Kirkuk and Baghdad in Iraq, and Kabul and Kandahar in Afghanistan. "Once the issue with convoy attacks started becoming more prevalent and trying to come up with a better solution for that," Schiller said, "we started convoy relief missions, which made sense. We provided aerial delivery of more supplies to the forward bases, so we started picking up a circuit where we’d make shorter trips to multiple airfields dropping off cargo.” Personnel, ammunition, wounded soldiers, Humvees, five-ton trucks, construction equipment, plate steel for up-armoring vehicles, and Apache and Chinook helicopters are among the items Schiller transported in his C-17s as part of the 8th Airlift Squadron of the 62nd Airlift Wing.

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