U.S. Air Force Airmen help Afghans reach ‘wild blue yonder’

Published Feb. 3, 2009
By By Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson
AFCENT Combat News Team

KABUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Afghanistan -- The day starts off with the bustling of uniforms crowding into a cramped room - in what is referred to as "the barn" - as leadership of the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group gather in the workspace to receive the day's intelligence briefing.

The 438th AEAG's intelligence officer begins by covering recent threats in the area as officers and senior NCOs vigorously take notes to pass on to their section. Then, 10 minutes later, the group breaks off. The feeling of the oft-used "Groundhog Day" cliché sets the scene for the group, as they follow this routine day-in and day-out. However, every day, while seemingly identical to the one before it, brings fresh challenges and goals for the Airmen of the 438th AEAG whose job is to bring a fledgling air corps to life.

Kabul International Airport, or "Keeyah" in the local colloquialism, is home to the Afghan Army's National Air Corps, a group of 2,000 Afghan airmen striving to maintain the Corp's rotary and fixed wing aircraft. The unit currently has a fleet of Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters as well as several AN-32 and AN-24 cargo aircraft.

"The Afghan Air Corps must be able to support the soldier in the field as well as provide civil aviation for all of Afghanistan" said Col. Robert MacDonald, the 438th AEAG's outgoing commander. "This is a country the size of Texas. The infrastructure of the roads is very minimal, there are only 16 miles of rail systems and Afghanistan has many villages that are very hard to get to."

To help the Afghan Air Corps during this transition, the 438th AEAG provides several dozen professionals from a diverse group of specialties and backgrounds. The intelligence briefing underscores the challenges the team faces daily - though they are working to bring a competent air capability to the nation of Afghanistan, there are people out there who would like to do them harm and stop their mission. This only strengthens the will of the 438 AEAG Airmen to accomplish the mission.

The 438 AEAG team passes along knowledge and expertise through direct hands-on mentoring and advising of their Afghan counter-parts.

"These guys are in a very similar position to where the U.S. Air Force was in 1947," said Master Sgt. Jake Larsen, Superintendant for the Group's fixed-wing aircraft. "They are literally building from the ground up."

Similar to the creation of the U.S. Air Force, the Afghan aviators are not necessarily new to aviation with many having been trained under the former Soviet Union and continuing service during the rule of the Afghan warlords and later the Taliban following the Soviet withdrawal and now for the central Afghan government. Many of the pilots are older and possess a great deal of experience.

"The Afghan Air Corps is operationally functioning," said Colonel MacDonald, who recently finished a one-year tour as the group's commander. "They are supporting soldiers in the field and they primarily work on downfield mobility to provide medical evacuation."

With all the experience the Afghan Airmen have with their aircraft and procedures, there are important areas Airmen advisors consistently work on with their counter-parts according to Colonel MacDonald, who knows a thing about training as his previous job was the commander of the 737th Training Group, or Basic Military Training commander at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

"We work very hard with them to establish a culture of training. The whole premise of doing a mentor/advisor job is we know what functions need to be employed. We invest in training so they have the skills and can do the functions. If you give them new skill sets, they should be able to better serve the soldier in the field," he added.

A key element of training is repetition, according to Capt. Thomas Shearer, the 438th AEAG's fixed wing pilot deployed from the 375th Airlift Wing at Scott AFB, Ill.

"When I'm up with the Afghan pilots, I show them techniques and procedures that they need to do every time. Of course, when I'm not there, sometimes they might slip back into what they were doing before. That is why it is so important we keep working on the same things; it creates a sense of repetition, a lot like 'two steps forward, one step back,'" he said.

Master Sergeant Guy Ricker, a maintenance superintendant from Massachusetts who is deployed from Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom agreed.

"We could do the majority of the work that is needed to make this fleet sustainable," Sergeant Ricker said. "However, it's kind of like the fish parable, 'if I teach you how to fish, you can feed yourself forever.'"

According to Sergeant Ricker, some of the biggest challenges the team faces is the cultural differences between American servicemembers and the Afghan air corps members.

"One of the biggest differences we have is enforcing standards such as technical order instructions and teaching them that the easiest way might not always be the right way," he said. "Don't get me wrong - these guys are phenomenal mechanics and can make these planes get up. They've been doing it this way for over 20 years after learning from the Soviets. By learning how to implement and use the standardized processes every day, they can really become very proficient."