AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy -- When Aviano Air Base personnel, equipment or aircraft are needed on the battlefront, who do commanders call?

The 31st Fighter Wing Installation Deployment Readiness Cell has answered the call several times in the past 12 months, deploying more than 1,700 Airmen, 900 tons of cargo and 56 aircraft to more than 40 different locations.

“The IDRC is the hub for all personnel who are deploying,” said 2nd Lt. Yra Meehleib, 31st LRS assistant installation deployment officer. “It’s comprised of logistics plans, installation personnel readiness and air operations Airmen.”

Pre-deployment tasks can put a multitude of stress on expeditionary Airmen, so IPR Airmen try to make the deployment process as seamless as possible.

“IPR [Airmen] handles all the checklists,” said Meehleib. “They're the ones who provide reporting instructions to unit deployment managers, who then inform personnel of their deployments.”

Once Airmen have their deployment orders, it’s the logistics planners’ responsibility to coordinate the movement of these Airmen and their cargo. Air operations fills in the last piece by composing airlift requests and creating load plans to get the Airmen or cargo to their deployed locations.

“We’ve been knocking each tasker out of the park with the minimal staff we have,” said Master Sgt. Jesus Osuna, 31st LRS Plans and Deployments section chief. “We made sure all our combatant commanders’, fighter training deployment and other taskings were met.”

According to Meehleib, the IDRC’s ability to continue to deploy Team Aviano Airmen, equipment and aircraft hinges on how well every member understands their role in the deployment process and works to support the team.