Eleven years ago, Squadron Leader Emily Hartley took a leap of faith, leaving her corporate career to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in search of more challenging and meaningful work.
At the time, she was inspired by news stories of Australian military aircraft delivering humanitarian aid around the world, yet she never imagined she would one day receive a Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC) in the King’s Birthday military honours list for her outstanding achievement in helping keep those aircraft operational.
The recognition stems from a three-year posting to the United States between 2022 and 2025, where she represented Australia as part of the Heavy Air Lift Systems Program Office detachment within the United States Air Force’s (USAF) C-17A Program Office at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.
During her US posting as the platform’s logistics and sustainment manager, she played a key role in ensuring the ongoing capability development of the RAAF’s fleet of eight C-17A Globemaster III.
The C-17A provides Australia with strategic airlift capability, enabling the rapid deployment of troops, supplies, combat vehicles, heavy equipment and helicopters all over the world.
The posting came at a critical time. Australia acquired its first C-17A in 2006, and as the fleet matured, maintenance requirements also became more complex.
At the same time, demand was growing for new capabilities to support a wider range of Defence operations.
“The C-17A is so ubiquitous across the ADF. It underpins so many of our missions,” Squadron Leader Hartley said.
“That strategic airlift capability is essential not just to RAAF, but to the sustainment of the entire ADF.
“We also regularly operate alongside our international partners, so with only eight aircraft in the fleet, maximising their availability is absolutely paramount.”
‘The C-17A is so ubiquitous across the ADF. It underpins so many of our missions.’
Squadron Leader Hartley focused on one of the key challenges facing the RAAF’s C-17A fleet: balancing the need to install new capabilities with the need to keep aircraft available for operations.
Many capability upgrades could only be installed by Boeing at its facility in Texas, requiring Australian aircraft to be flown to the US and temporarily removed from operational service.
This process was both costly and time-consuming.
Working closely with Boeing and the USAF, Squadron Leader Hartley sought opportunities to streamline maintenance and upgrade schedules, reducing the amount of time Australian aircraft spent overseas and away from operational tasking.
“Like most aircraft, the C-17A goes through a regular maintenance cycle,” Squadron Leader Hartley said.
“We conduct routine maintenance in Australia every six months, but every six years the aircraft must travel to the US for a major overhaul.
“So we looked closely at what future capabilities were coming online and tried to fit as much work as possible into those six-yearly visits.”
One of the team’s most significant achievements was using those scheduled maintenance periods to prepare aircraft for upgrades that were still under development.
“A big win for us was taking the opportunity to install hardware for capabilities that were still in development,” Squadron Leader Hartley said.
“That meant when the software became available in the future, we could complete the installation in Australia rather than sending the aircraft back to the US.”
Another key aspect of Squadron Leader Hartley’s work focused on engine preservation. Working alongside RAAF engineers, she helped drive initiatives with Boeing to address corrosion risks across spare engines.
“So when we brought in new engines, we knew they were safe, we knew we’d get the maximum flying hours out of them, and we were also reducing the burden on our maintenance crews to complete technical work,” she said.
‘We worked with a very big team. To me, it’s a sign of how well the team worked.’
Squadron Leader Hartley also focused on the broader question of logistics preparedness.
Australia’s C-17A fleet operates within a global shared Virtual Fleet spares pool used by nine international operators – including Canada, the UK, NATO, Qatar, the UAE, India and Kuwait – allowing countries to draw on common resources when required.
Following the 2024 Defence Strategic Review, Squadron Leader Hartley worked with US Air Mobility Command and other partners to examine how that system would function in a crisis or conflict environment, and how Australia could ensure it remained adequately prepared.
“The goal was to make sure Australia was not only participating in that system, but that we were properly prepared for how it would operate under pressure,” she said.
Her advocacy helped drive the development of more formalised policies for international logistics support in contingency scenarios, as well as new multinational planning exercises designed to strengthen cooperation between C-17A operators.
Squadron Leader Hartley said she was humbled by the recognition of the Conspicuous Service Cross, though she stressed the award reflected the work of a broader team rather than any individual effort.
“We worked with a very big team. To me, it’s a sign of how well the team worked,” she said.
Squadron Leader Hartley said one of the key lessons from her posting was the extent of influence Australian personnel can have in international roles, even at relatively junior ranks.
“I think the fact that our allies and partners genuinely want to hear our insights, and seeing the direct influence that my team and I were able to have on USAF policy and the future of the platform internationally, was really amazing,” she said.
For those considering an overseas posting, she encouraged them to embrace the opportunity.
“Be aware you can have a strong influence on international capabilities,” Squadron Leader Hartley said.
