A week in the life of 17th Air Force

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jim Fisher
  • 17th Air Force Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Air Forces Africa, also known as 17th Air Force, serves as the air component for U.S. Africa Command and in a typical week conducts engagements in a wide range of locations, from Africa and Europe to North America.

This was the case July 12 to 16 as planned events reached execution in Botswana; Camp Lemonier, Djibouti; Langley Air Force Base, Va.; and at Ramstein and Sembach in Germany.

The events were designed to build capacity and share expertise between the U.S. Air Force and Africa airmen from Djibouti, Botswana, Mali and Ghana, said Col. Michael Wormley, director of Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, who engineers engagements for 17th AF. He said the pace and range of activity is in keeping with the expanding outreach of 17th AF.

"This was a busy week for us, with activities on three different continents, but it's not that exceptional. Our engagement activities continue to expand as we work together with African airmen to increase capacity and to build and strengthen our partnerships," Colonel Wormley said.

Engagement activities include theater security cooperation events in Africa, where 17th AF assembles teams of Airmen from across the Air Force to share expertise and experience with African air forces; senior leader engagements, which provide senior leadership from 17th AF the opportunity to engage with embassy and host nation defense forces in African partner nations; familiarization visits by African defense and air force delegations to Europe and the U.S.; and participation in joint and multi-national capacity-building exercises in Africa.

Events conducted July 12 to 16 included TSCs and familiarizations. At Langley, a Malian air forces flight surgeon visited Aerospace Medicine at the 633rd Medical Group. The visit included a review of Aerospace Medicine operations, altitude chamber training and a flight physical orientation. The visit was coordinated and led by Master Sgt. Bernadette Simmons from 17th AF's Command Surgeon's office.

Meanwhile, in Botswana, 17th AF's Manpower and Personnel Directorate led a TSC with the Botswana Defence Force focused on junior enlisted development. Officials from the Air Force Culture and Language Center at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., were seeking Botswana expertise in tailoring training programs for U.S. Airmen visiting Botswana, so during planning, arrangements were made for those experts to attend as well.

Also, on the African continent, Djiboutian air force officials visited Camp Lemonier and 17th AF's 449th Air Expeditionary Group. Group officials said this was the first visit of DJAF leadership to the camp to specifically interact with the U.S. Air Force leadership. The intent of the Airmen-to-Airmen engagement was to establish a lasting relationship between the air forces at the leadership and technician levels, enabling the Airmen to interact and exchange ideas. That same type of interaction was going on closer to home, as 17th AF hosted a group of Ghanaian military police to share expertise in the area of military working dogs.

The week-long familiarization focused on operations, training and program management and included visits to the 86th and 26th Security Forces Squadrons at Ramstein and Sembach, respectively.

Ghanaian forces Lt. Col. Samuel Kodzo Gameli, commanding officer of Ghanaian Military Police, said that while they have a well established program with dozens of kennels and dogs, their dogs are aging and the program is being revitalized.
"This visit is an eye-opener for us to see how best we can start the new program," Colonel Gameli said.

He said they are working in conjunction with the National Narcotics Control Board, and praised the Ghanaian government and Defence Ministry for sanctioning the visit.

"We have the basics in the handling of dogs, but the importance of this training for us is to see the importance of the dog handlers and how the training emphasis is on them as well," he said.

Master Sgt. Jason Focht, the Security Operation and Anti-terrorism and Force Protection manager from 17th AF's Logistics, Installations and Mission Support Directorate, said partner nations in Africa share an emphasis on using working dogs for detection.

"The most important part of K-9 training in today's world is narcotic and explosive detection. This is something we can work on together and improve capacity in this area," Sergeant Focht said.

Like the Ghanaian visit, each engagement event required experts from outside the 17th AF staff as well as involvement from the staff directorates themselves. Colonel Wormley said conducting successful engagements means capitalizing on opportunities to build partnerships and improve capabilities -- and it requires a team effort.

"We couldn't make these engagements happen without a total team involvement. This week we had direct support from four of our in-house directorates, as well as experts from organizations outside 17th Air Force," Colonel Wormley said.

This type of collaboration will grow as the Plans and Programs Directorate looks to increase in the number of engagements from 60 to 91 in fiscal year 2011, a more than a 200 percent increase over 2009, 17th AF's first year of operation.

"17th AF is becoming more in tune with the needs and desires of our African partner nations through increased interaction with members of their militaries," said Lt. Col. Joel Rousey, division chief for TSC military-to-military engagements. "Many of the events we are doing this year are in pairs, where we send a USAF team to a country to discuss and demonstrate our procedures and best practices, and then follow that up with members of that partner nation visiting a U.S. base to observe those practices and procedures in action."

In addition to building capacity, integrating visits to both nations' location expands mutual understanding and fosters long-term relationships.

"Working with the same units and people multiple times helps to solidify the bond between the participants and also provides us with first-hand knowledge of the capabilities and needs of the partner nation, which allows us to better tailor future events," he said.