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Building partnerships off the beaten path
Posted 5/22/2012
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Commentary by Col. Chad Manske
AF Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
5/22/2012 - NEW YORK (AFNS) -- As the Air Force Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think tank in New York City this past year, I have had the privilege to share my experiences and tell the Air Force story in a city where military presence lacks. Besides meeting interesting business leaders, facilitating roundtable discussions and writing articles and op-eds, among the most interesting aspects of my fellowship are fulfilling requests to speak to many diverse groups in the city.
One of those recent opportunities that piqued my interest came through Air Force Public Affairs channels in New York City in the form of a request to address the Reserve Officers Association of French in the USA (www.ACREFEU.org).
Once I accepted I began preliminary Internet research on the organization. After translating the organization's web page, I learned that "most members are simply interested in international affairs and defense" and "to build friendships with their comrades of the American Forces." I then knew exactly what I would say to them!
Before coming to CFR, I was the commander of the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England. On the evening of March 18, 2011, I received a call from U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander, General Mark A. Welsh III. The call was an assignment to depart the next morning to survey and stand up the 406th Air Expeditionary Wing at a Western European base that would conduct combat operations that evening over Libya we came to know as Operation Odyssey Dawn.
After accomplishing the tasks General Welsh set out for me for the 406 AEW, I returned to RAF Mildenhall to command my wing and an in-garrison air expeditionary wing structure that encompassed additional geographically separated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets and organizations for the operation coming under my command.
As Operation Odyssey Dawn evolved, March turned into April, and Operation Odyssey Dawn became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Operation Unified Protector. After a couple of months into the operations, our aircrews were starting to reach maximum flying hour limitations, or "time out," after flying nine-to-eleven-hour sorties to the Southern Mediterranean Sea no-fly zone and back.
We had to come up with a way that would not disrupt the operations tempo while reducing flight hours. A plan was developed in which a number of our crews and aircraft would deploy to Istres Air Base in Southern France in which sortie durations would average six hours.
Nearly halving our flight times had a significant and sustainable impact on our ability to support the operation that would continue from mid-May until the end of the operation on October 31. This deployment to France was exactly what I would address with the members of ACREFEU!
That evening with my French counterparts in New York City was a night to remember. I described how our Airmen arrived with few of them speaking English, and how the French bent over backwards to accommodate us. Our Airmen never missed a beat operationally as they stood up in a matter of days.
But, these Airmen did not merely go to France to conduct combat operations. During their precious down time, they built bridges with the community that included attending parades and participating in ceremonies, Rotary functions and other goodwill events. The French Air Force Academy was headquartered near the base and our Airmen freely conducted static aircraft tours and cultivated close ties and partnerships with their French hosts. All of this I talked about that night in New York City, and with my audience, I realized I was also building similar international partnerships, in an unlikely place.
A week later, I spoke at the Iron Gate Air Force Association Chapter in New York City. During the meeting I was reminded how important these international relationships are and how far they reach.
A representative of ACREFEU, French Air Force Reserve Colonel Frederic Vigneron, presented the Iron Gate Chapter president a letter of appreciation along with a book, From the Gulf to Libya - 20 Years of Air Operations, from his commanding general in Paris. The letter detailed the close relationship between the French and U.S. Air Forces dating back to our unique connection when American pilots flew as volunteers in the World War I Lafayette Escadrille.
This camaraderie continues today with ongoing operations in Afghanistan in support of NATO objectives. I will never forget what our Airmen did in France last year and what they did for us. It was another milestone of cooperation with a fellow ally. I certainly would not have believed it a year ago if someone told me I would continue to build partnerships off the beaten path!
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