SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- During Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein’s battlefield rotation of U.S. Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) in December, he said families at home aren’t thinking about being attacked by the United States’ enemies because service members are working diligently to ensure that doesn’t happen.
A great deal of that work takes place within AFCENT Headquarters, a warfighting staff at split locations between Shaw AFB, South Carolina, and Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, that seeks to ensure the defense of the homeland by taking the fight to adversaries. A joint effort between the staff accomplishes critical mission functions such as long-term planning, sustainment operations and building and shaping partner air forces. The resulting impact is the fulfillment of AFCENT’s mission to deliver decisive air and space power on behalf of U.S. Central Command for the security and stability of the region.
Al Udeid headquarters Airmen commonly tackle near-term actions including updating tactics, rotating forces, conducting airfield operations, analyzing weapons performance, and employing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Airmen at Shaw headquarters often work long-term actions including overseeing security cooperation programs, posturing forces for operations and taking the lead in contingency planning.
While Al Udeid’s location inside the area of responsibility gives it a forward presence, Shaw’s stateside location allows for strategic interaction with other organizations across the command and control structure, including CENTCOM, component organizations such as U.S. Army Central Command, Air Combat Command, and Air Staff. Its location also provides continuity since military members can be assigned to standard length tours, and civilians and contractors serve on a more permanent basis.
“Our location at Shaw is a force-multiplier,” said Brig. Gen. Matthew Isler, AFCENT assistant deputy commander. “Because of this welcoming community, we are able to recruit and retain the best active duty, reserve, guard, civilian, and contractor Airmen to carry out our demanding mission. Their work directly affects airpower downrange and CENTCOM could not execute combat operations without Shaw Airmen.”
Together, the partnership between Airmen at HQ AFCENT at Shaw and Al Udeid is essential to AFCENT’s mission success, effectively transcending the geographic distance separating the two locations.