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380AEW Article

380th Air Expeditionary Wing Commander bids farewell

  • Published
  • By Capt. Martin Gerst
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs Office
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Last year, the new commander of the 380th Air Expeditionary wing pledged to take care of our Airmen. Looking back one year later, as he prepares to relinquish command, that's exactly what he's done.

"From my perspective, I put more importance on taking care of our people, and then I trust that if they're taken care of, then they'll take care of the mission," said Brig. Gen. Lawrence Wells, 380th AEW Commander. "I've never been let down."

During his year in command, the general has overseen many improvements to the living and working conditions of the Wing's Airmen. The 380th Airmen now have wireless commercial internet access, have the ability to make DSN phone calls from their rooms using the Morale Minder system, have improved air conditioning in vehicles and facilities on the flightline, and are now able to take care of most of their out-processing from the base virtually as opposed to carrying their checklist to many locations on the installation.

Another vast improvement is that Airmen no longer work or live in tents.

"Once you get rid of the temporary nature of the facilities, people start embracing their location. We always talk about being an owner not a renter. When you have substandard facilities and you have tents, people don't take as good care of them as when you have something more enduring," the general said.

"By removing the irritants, people can concentrate on doing the job, and when they're not doing the job, they can concentrate on themselves," he said.

By making day-to-day tasks more bearable, Airmen can focus on the Wing's valuable mission to the Global War On Terror: Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, aerial refueling, and battlespace control.

"Our work here is undervalued and misunderstood, but it is what makes the rest of the GWOT successful," said General Wells. "By doing our mission, we enable the fighters and the bombers to do their mission," he said. "I think because we are quiet, because we don't employ kinetic weapons like bombs and bullets, there's not the glory associated with it."

But 380th Airmen know the value of their job here.

"When we don't fly, there's a dramatic impact on the battlespace; targets aren't found, IEDs aren't detected, lives are not saved or they're put at risk, so I think our importance is of the utmost here," said General Wells

The mission here has also gone through changes in the past year. The arrival and beddown of the E-3 Sentry brought a great capability to our Combined Forces Air Component Commander in the Area of Responsibility. Relocating the KC-135 Extender to elsewhere in the AOR changed the tanker mission here also.

The aircraft aren't specifically going to a tanker orbit outside of the battlespace, they're moving throughout it in both Iraq and Afghanistan to where the fighters need them.

The wing has also been supporting a surge in operations in the AOR.

"We have been in a surge since we've been here, ISR and Tanker have increased 25-30 percent, and we've done that with the same amount of people, the same amount of equipment, and the same number of aircraft," General Wells said.

The biggest challenge to the mission isn't the surge, but the constant turbulence and churn caused by the Air Expeditionary Force rotation. "Every time you get everything running smoothly, and everybody focused, it all swaps out and now you've got to start all over again," he said.

"You combat that with standards, both the Community Standards and the expectations that you'll be held accountable to those standards. So when people get here, we all have a common foundation or baseline to work from," said General Wells.

And working at a non-disclosed location in Southwest Asia presents its own challenges.

"Another obstacle is recognizing significant accomplishments, because we don't talk about where we are or where we fly from. So people work really hard, they deserve recognition, but you don't really associate it with a location or a place people can visualize.

"The host nation is great, the location is great, and people coming and going have no issues," said General Wells. "An important thing we do here is understand the culture, understand why we're in the region, and get close to those that we're protecting or those that we're trying to interact with. When we explain to them the mission and the imperative nature of what we do, they tend to support us a whole lot better," he said. "If they don't understand what we're doing or why we're doing it, the support occurs, but it's at a slower rate."

As he sums up his year in command, the commander is able to see the positive changes his Airmen have brought about in the wing.

"It seems to be standard for people to say thank you," said the general, "but I've been very impressed with all the rotational people, all the permanent party, and I think they really understand what they're doing here and how important it is what they're doing. I know their families have sacrificed for them to be here, but I think they're able to explain to them what they're doing and why they're here, and that they are making a difference."