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USAFE, a look back at 2002

USAFE News Service

01/03/2003

By Capt. Dani Johnson USAFE News Service

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS) - More than 4,200 U.S. Air Forces in Europe members deployed worldwide in 2002. These deployments were only a part of what USAFE accomplished this past year.

According to Gen. Gregory S. Martin, USAFE commander, OEF and the global war on terrorism are without question the two most significant events during the past year. In Martin's opinion, the year 2002 for USAFE actually started in October 2001 when OEF began.

"It has sort of been a blur, if you think about the events on Sept. 11 and all of the events from then to now, we have been very heavily focused on Operation Enduring Freedom and the global war on terrorism," said the general. "But at the same time we cannot lose site that day in and day out, we have airmen in the Balkans and supporting operations Northern Watch and Southern Watch, in addition to their normal training and engagement activities throughout the theater."

USAFE's role in Europe and U.S. European Command

The first event that USAFE was involved in at the beginning of OEF was the humanitarian relief missions into Afghanistan from October to December 2001. All of the humanitarian relief and the supplies and equipment to the special operations forces came through the European theater said Martin.

"While we were doing that, we had a noncombatant evacuation operation in the Central African Republic. We've had people responding in the Cote d'Ivoire with the French to stabilize a country near civil war."

The medical community also conducted numerous exercises in the theater as well as training many countries, such as Czech Republic and Hungary, in stress and disaster control techniques.

"We conducted a MEDFLAG exercise in Uganda to help serve those people and train many of their medical technicians on proper medical techniques," said Martin. "We assisted the British in Sierra Leone on AIDS/HIV education and treatment.

"So overall, USAFE people, in addition to conducting a full-blown crisis response and war, have continued some very important humanitarian and education activities," he said.

As the air component for USEUCOM, USAFE has been active in numerous NATO exercises and operations throughout the year. For the first time in history, the Air Force, at the request of the Czech Republic government and in conjunction with the Czech air force, provided the air defense to the NATO Summit in Prague Nov. 21 - 22.

According to the general, USAFE will have a large role in embracing the new NATO members and teaching them our procedures, techniques, training and to work with them on their modernization priorities so they can begin to develop the same kinds of standards in their base structures we have benefited from.

The general is confident there is still a place for USAFE in the European theater. He believes that the focus will turn more to the east and south, from exclusive attention on the west, for two main reasons. "First, that is where the new (NATO) member nations are, and we will work with these member nations to develop their interoperability with us.

"Second, more and more this (east and south) seems to be where the troubled spots are. When we are asked, we go in and provide peace and support operations, humanitarian relief, and, in some cases, military force when required. We have to be careful because there is clearly a need for American military forces and our allies to stabilize the Central Asia area, as we are seeing now in Afghanistan.

USAFE's priority issues

"The first and most important priority for all of us has to be force protection whether on base, with our families or in deployed locations," said Martin. "Second is when we are not deployed, not engaged or haven't sent small teams forward to work on tactics, techniques and standards with some of the new (NATO and Partnership for Peace) nations, we will work on standard routine training activities."

The Air and Space Expeditionary Force concept is an important part of how USAFE does business. The Air Force focused first on getting the aviation packages scheduled into the 10 AEF "buckets" which has for the majority of airframes been accomplished. The second phase is to schedule the expeditionary combat support units.

"That (ECS) is where the difficulty is today, but we are beginning to understand it better and make some progress," said Martin. "This is where our communications, force protection, services, personnel and our civil engineers are - it's where our mission support group resides -- and some of those specialties are undermanned for the number of bases we've established in the AEF construct.

"The third phase is changing our administrative, personnel, training and, sometimes, our assignment practices align with the AEF construct," said Martin. "The system has already recognized this and is beginning to change some things."

Another hot topic, according to Martin, is safety. USAFE had a difficult year from the safety standpoint. Seven people died from injuries sustained during off-duty accidents and two flight mishaps.

"We lost equipment, and that's important, but it is the people that are the really irreplaceable resources. They are the friends, family members, mothers, fathers, parents, brothers and sisters, these are the people that make our Air Force what it is today," said the general. "We must do better amongst ourselves, encouraging and providing support to one another."

One of the ways the Air Force takes care of people is through the Chief of Staff Survey. After the 2002 survey results were released, the results were reviewed and determined that there were three areas of concern for USAFE - recognition, resources and operations tempo. Martin tasked Lt. Gen. Wally Moorhead, then USAFE vice commander, to chair a task force to review these areas and offer recommendations on how to improve them.

"The task force has offered its recommendations and now we are in the process of reviewing and figuring out the best way to implement their ideas," said the general. "I want the men and women of USAFE to know we pay attention to what they tell us.

"I read the Stars and Stripes (letters to the editor), not every letter, but I scan all of them, and read many of them. I read the hotlines in the base newspapers. I respond to complaints that come in because ultimately, I accept that an airman who has been trained, cares about doing his or her job right," said Martin. " I accept that as a given, so if they got a problem and they explain it to me, then I'll look into it."

While many things have occurred in USAFE in the past year, Martin is quick to commend the men and women.

"As I think of the past year, it has gone very fast, and there has been a bunch of activities that people have been in involved in, but we have been served by some great Americans serving our Air Force in all those activities."