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Airmen mentors: wind beneath Afghan air corps' wings

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore
  • U.S. AFCENT News Team
KABUL, Afghanistan --  A growing source of pride and a strong visual symbol of the growing strength of the Afghan government is the country's ever evolving air corps. And with the help of U.S. Air Force mentors, it's moving in the right direction.

To ensure the Afghan National Army Air Corps is able to keep their fleet in the sky and are prepared to embrace their future, a group of Air Force mentors from a range of aerial specialties are dedicated to advising their ANAAC airmen counterparts.

"The U.S. mentor role is critical to the work we do to build the ANAAC right," said Army Col. James Brandon, 438th Air Expeditionary Wing deputy commander. "The U.S. military forces and the coalition partners have done great work both here in Afghanistan and also in Iraq. I think that [there is no substitute for] the mentor program. Our mentors work shoulder to shoulder with their Afghan counterparts, and the best way for them to learn is for our folks to show them."

The Air Force mentors are not here to teach their counterparts mechanical skills since many of the ANAAC airmen have prior training and have been working on aircraft for decades. They are here to provide education on management skills and safety practices.

However, the process has met its share of turbulence along the way.

"One of the bigger road blocks here is that the more experienced maintainers don't want to share their knowledge," said Master Sgt. Guy Ricker, 438th AEW ANAAC avionics mentor. "They horde their knowledge because they don't want the young guys to know everything right away and [cause them to] lose some of their importance. We are trying to get them to see it is not just training these guys to take over their job in case they can't do the work, but to make it easier for them once new aircraft arrive and they have more work."

As more work comes in, the mentors have found tremendous motivation in every step the Afghan airmen take.

"When I first got here, they were not doing much marshalling," said Sergeant Ricker, deployed from Royal Air Force Mildenhall, United Kingdom. "The plane would get ready to go, throttle up and just move. Now, we have them out there in a better position and have the pilots paying attention to them."

The mentors have also seen other successes in the field of safety with a dramatic reduction of foreign object debris on the flightline.

"There [used to be] metal all over the place," Sergeant Ricker said. "When people were working with safety wire, they would just cut it off and throw it on the ground."

To help the Afghans fix the problem, the mentors created a FOD NCO position, placing an Afghan airman in charge of the program.

"We are now to the point where you really don't find much FOD," said Sergeant Rickert, a native of Barre, Mass. "We do FOD walks weekly and have FOD cans so they can just throw it straight in there."

To create a stronger rapport with their trainees, the mentors have taken it upon themselves to learn about the Afghan culture.

Master Sgt. Chris Holzman, 438th AEW aerial porter mentor, learned phrases like "buckle your seat belt." So now, when he goes onto a plane loaded with passengers, he can give basic directions in Dari, which has earned his trainees' respect and gets a laugh from the passengers.

The evolution of the Afghan air corps is no laughing matter to Sergeant Holzman. He embraces every success the Afghan airmen make.

"If you are winning most of your battles here, you are winning," he said. "It is really rewarding when you can see progress, so when you make any, you should hold onto it. When they come up to me and say 'we did it,' it really makes you proud."

Like his comrade, Sergeant Roberts has also found the deployment rewarding.

"I think is it rewarding just being here," said the sergeant deployed from Kadena Air Base, Japan. "When we look back in 20 to 30 years, we are going to be able to say, 'We helped build the ANAAC.'"