Qatari air force officers visit Shaw

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Daniel Phelps
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AFNS) --  Six Qatar Emiri air force officers visited here March 28 to tour the base and witness how the installation performs its various missions.

The Qatar air force is undergoing a transition from operating out of an airport to operating at another base in their country that will host several different missions, said Maj. Andy Holmberg, of U.S. Air Forces Central.

Shaw Air Force Base is similar in the way that there are several different missions on this base, he said.

"We wanted to give them the opportunity to see how we do it," the major said.

The Qataris also learned how the 20th Fighter Wing is organized to train and equip Airmen, and to provide support to the base's tenant units, said Col. Don Godier, the 20th FW vice commander.

"Shaw is the Air Force's premier counter-air wing," he said. "The visit allowed our Airmen to demonstrate how the 20th provides exceptional combat airpower and combat-ready Airmen to support combatant commands globally."

The allied commanders saw several different areas on their tour due to the diversity of their specialties so they could see how base officials operate in those areas, the major said.

The officers toured weapons standardizations, the propulsion flight, the 79th Fighter Squadron, security forces and the air traffic control tower.

"A professional noncommissioned officer corps is essential to our mission along with an officer corps with vision," Godier said. "Even on the operations side, we are highly dependent on our NCOs."

"We also discussed with them the interactions and synergies between comprehensive group and squadron operations in a U.S. Air Force fighter wing," Godier said.

"It's an honor to bring them back to the U.S. to show them how we operate, so they can take it back with them," said Col. Paul Tibbets, the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing vice commander.