Allied Air Command Izmir provides stability, security

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sara Csurilla
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Public Affairs --  The mission of Allied Air Command Izmir is to plan, execute and support air operations, deter any aggression and ensure the peace, stability and security for NATO's southern region.

"Our primary task is to have command and control for the air operations within NATO's southern region," said Lt. Gen. Ralph Jodice, AC Izmir commander. "Within that command and control we execute such things as air policing missions. We do these day to day, ensuring the security and stability of NATOs southern region. We do that through five combined air operation centers that range from Spain, Portugal and Italy to Greece and Turkey."

With such an essential mission, General Jodice said it is important for all U.S. forces that are assigned within the European area of operation to understand the role that they not only play on the U.S. side but also the role played on the NATO side.

AC Izmir is comprised of 350 people from 14 different nations.

"The roles that everyone plays here are key and essential for our partnership capacity and partnership capability," the commander said. "With the missions that they're assigned day in and day out within the U.S. military, they play key and essential roles to building those close relationships. And that's what it really comes down to.

Those key relationships that will go on to ensure our overall relationships with our allies in Europe continue to get stronger and stronger," he continued. "Above all, we need to realize our number one role and responsibility is to provide combat air power so that we can support the NATO alliance."

To hold up these strong alliances throughout Europe, General Jodice expressed his top priorities as the principle air advisor to the Commander Joint Force Command Naples.
"First and foremost, provide combat air power for the NATO alliance from AC Izmir HQ," he said. "We do this by deterring aggression and ensuring peace and stability for the southern region."

"My number two priority is to take care of Airmen here from all 14 different nations and their families," General Jodice explained. "We all know that when the Airmen are well cared for, they will ensure the mission is well cared for."

"Number three, is to ensure we are all appropriately trained to provide the combat air power," the general said. "The way we prepare is through a series of exercises and something we call Battle Staff Training. BST is what we do internally to ensure all of our members on our staff that hold key positions within our headquarters are ready to execute any one of those missions. For example, right now we are the Air Command for NATO Response Force 15 for the alliance. We are on-call right now, so this past spring we ran internal exercises, full-week exercises and even live fly exercises out of Greece and Germany. "

According to NATO's Web site, the NRF is a highly capable force which allows NATO to have an agile quick response to anywhere in the world across the whole spectrum of operations. These forces consist of land, air, sea and special forces components that could be called upon to respond to things such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief or any type of military operation.

It is called NRF 15 because the Response Force is based on a system of rotations. NATO member countries commit land, air, naval or special forces units to the NATO Response Force for a six-month period. The standards are very high, and participation in the NRF is preceded by a six-month training program, which includes testing the units' capabilities in complex exercises.

General Jodice's final priority is to ensure AC Izmir has the resources to do the job, like the appropriate facilities to execute small and large scale exercises.

Although the commander of AC Izmir has several priorities he focuses on in order to ensure the mission is completed, he said "It's the people here that really get the job done. I'm proud, honored and privileged to be the commander of this NATO represented by 14 different nations."