Airmen build Iraqi air operations center capability

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tim Beckham
  • U.S. Air Forces Central, Baghdad Media Outreach Team
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq (AFNS) --  Ten Iraqi airmen at the Iraqi air operations center recently completed a seven-day air operations planning course taught by American Airmen air advisers in April here. 

This training enables the Iraqi air force to build their operational planning capability, which is a critical component to increasing the effectiveness of the growing Iraqi air force. 

The exposure to Western-style planning doctrine will also build the foundation for future partnering between the Iraqi air force, other Iraqi security forces and coalition forces.

"We are teaching the course to the Iraqis so they can establish their first operational level air operations plan," said Lt. Col. Greg Sarakatsannis, a Coalition Air Force Transition Team AOC air adviser. "These Iraqi air force officers are the first Iraqi airmen to receive this training and will now form the core of their Air Force's operational planning capability."

The course, which is a derivative of the two-week course taught at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., incorporates everything from intelligence and operations to logistics, communications and maintenance, according to Colonel Sarakatsannis, who is deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy and is a native of Fort Thomas, Ky.

"We provided practice scenarios that took the Iraqis through each step of the planning process. Exposure to our planning processes will permit them to improve their air operations planning and effectiveness," he said.

Lt. Col. Dusty Ashton, the CAFTT A7 training adviser to the Iraqi air staff, teaches this course to U.S. military members back at his home station at Maxwell-Gunter AFB. He said the concepts and subjects taught to the Iraqis will help them develop their own air operations plan.

"Some of the main subjects we talk about are Joint Air Operations planning, U.S. Air Force doctrine and great detail on each of the six steps of the air operations planning process," said the native of Clyde, Ohio.

Colonels Sarakatsannis and Ashton said the course has gone very well, with both Iraqis and Americans learning a great deal from each other. They hope to teach more courses in the future as the Iraqi AOC and Air Force continue to grow.

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