African Partnership Flight

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stefanie Torres
  • U.S. Air Forces Africa Public Affairs
More than 70 Airmen and a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules are traveling to Accra, Ghana, Mar. 10-24 to participate in a first-time flying program designed to promote U.S. and African partnerships regionally.

Approximately 160 students from Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Benin will meet in their neighboring country of Ghana to participate in African Partnership Flight, a program that brings neighboring countries together to learn the different facets of air safety and security from U.S. Airmen.

The African Partnership Flight program was developed by Air Forces Africa (17th Air Force) to not only develop on U.S. and Africa relationships but to promote communication between the neighboring countries as well, something Lt. Col. Kevin Palko noticed was lacking during an African Air Chief's Conference in Ethiopia in March 2011.

"We were hearing from the African Air Chief's that some of them have never really met their neighboring Air Chiefs before the conference," said Palko, the APF team lead. "We thought this program would be perfect to bring together the regional partners so they can work together for future missions."
One example would be a humanitarian assistance request for Ghana, he said. If Ghana is tasked to perform a humanitarian mission and they don't have everything they necessarily need to keep the mission going, they could go to their neighbors to work together.

The C-130J from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, will be used as a platform of teaching for nine classes that will be taught by approximately 38 U.S. Airmen. The classes will include load master training, safety, fixed wing maintenance, airfield security, chaplain training, an aerospace physiology course, a global aid peacekeeping course, public affairs operations, and search and rescue, explained Palko. These baseline skills will be taught in a classroom and brought together with hands-on training and incentive flights for the students attending.

"Right now we are planning to have two flights for the students to break up between the different courses," said Maj. Kristy Steenberg lead deputy planner on APF. "We do this so those taking aerospace physiology will be able to experience the noise and vibrations of the aircraft while it's in flight for example. For the medical crew, they can see how the flight is going to affect them and their patients."

Although a C-130J will be used for training with additional aircraft from Ghana, the classes will be generic enough to be transferred over to any type of aircraft and safety training.

"APF is trying to teach skills that are independent of the aircraft we are using," said Palko. "The C-130J will be used as a platform for teaching because we have them but because the African nations who will be present don't have that type of plane, so we can still bring a skill-set that translates all over."

There is no doubt the training is extremely important for both the U.S. and Africa. The APF planners agree the best part is the relationships that develop out of programs like this one.
"This is a great way to allow countries to share their strengths and solve their weaknesses in an environment where we can all get together and work through it," he said. "We all get to learn from each other and it's a great way to do business because it allows us to do the event, teach skill sets and provide practical application in a real-world environment."

Members of AFAFRICA, U.S. Air Forces Europe, 818th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. and the 119th Air National Guard Unit in N.D. will all play a part in APF and have their own special relationships with Africa, said Steenberg.

"If there were people that worked with African training teams before we preferred it but it was not a requirement for this trip," she said. "However, it turns out great because the 818th MSAS is set up to do these types of events so they have become very useful. Also, the North Dakota National Guard has a state partnership with Ghana so they know what works and what doesn't because they have had a long-standing relationship with them."

"The best part about this is to build on continuing relationships between the U.S. and these five countries involved," said Richard johns, air domain safety and security program manager for Africa. "In the future down the line hopefully these other countries will be able to participate."
After more than a year of planning and unseen logistics that involved working with a number of different countries, the small planning team of three would like to see this expanded in the future.

"We are not expecting this to be a one-time thing," said Palko. "We would like to do this all over Africa. We have seen how successful the Navy's African Partnership Station has been and would like to work in all different regions in Africa. I know this is going to be a great experience and even through all the challenges we have run into, it's been worth it every step of the way."