Challenges no match for joint task force

  • Published
  • By Maj. Dave Honchul
  • Joint Task Force-Nomad Fire Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) --  Ice storms in Kentucky. Dust storms in the Middle East. Thunderstorms across Europe. A typhoon in the Indian Ocean.

They sound like individual, unrelated weather events. Now add having to organize, plan and execute a military operation across the entire width of Africa and do it all within a three-week time span. Throw it all together and it might seem to be an insurmountable task. But those were just some of the challenges the joint task force assigned with supporting the president's five-nation visit to Africa overcame to ensure the mission went smoothly.

"Most people can't truly comprehend the magnitude of an operation like this," said Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, whose regular assignment is serving as the 3rd Air Force commander here. The general was tapped by U.S. European Command officials to stand up Joint Task Force-Nomad Fire and serve as its leader.

"The area the president visited, from the coast of Tanzania in the east to the coast of Liberia in the west, was over 3,500 miles wide," the general said. "It's roughly the equivalent of traveling across the United States and half way back. So, when you're talking about bringing the president to six different locations on a continent that size where there's very little infrastructure, it's a big effort."

To make it happen, 3rd AF officials needed help from their sister components in Europe. Brig. Gen. Steve Lanza from the Army's V Corps at Heidelberg, Germany, was tapped to be the JTF's deputy commander. Planning experts from each component as well as from U.S. Transportation Command were brought together here to work through the challenges to ensure everything required to support the president was accomplished.

"I applaud EUCOM for having the vision of standing up a JTF for this mission," General Bishop said. "As we continued to receive the requirements of what was needed to support the president, it was readily apparent no single component would have been able to make it happen. It made sense for 3rd AF to be tapped to lead the JTF with the heavy air mobility piece of the operation, but having the joint team here was indispensable."

The JTF was tasked to support several "lines of operations," the general said. These lines included the obvious: supporting Air Force One and all that comes with that, as well as other vital areas like aeromedical support, command and control support and helicopter support in Liberia.

"The airport there is over an hour's drive away from downtown," General Bishop said. "So, we had to deploy some helicopters from the States in a short time, which is not easy. Our friends from the 101st (Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky.) broke them down, got them loaded on C-5 (Galaxies), and put back together in Liberia very quickly."

However, the largest piece, and the one every service played a role in, was communication.

"The comm infrastructure just blows me away," General Bishop said. "When you're talking about the president and six different locations spread out over 3,500 miles, that's a tremendous challenge. The comm guys from all the services did a super job."

And the JTF headquarters remaining at Ramstein added to the communications challenge. However, the general said the operation validated the Air Force's air operations center concept.

"I think this operation proved the efforts in developing a theater-wide command and control structure in our AOCs. We took our AOC and turned it into a joint operating center.  When I was asked about where I was going to place my headquarters, I said where we would have the best communications setup and where we would be best tied together was right here. And by doing that, we saved a whole lot of airlift that would have been required in moving a headquarters into the theater of operations."

Although EUCOM officials identified five phases to the operation -- planning, deployment, execution, redeployment and lessons learned -- General Bishop keyed in on one as being the most critical to success.

"Our decisive phase was phase two, the deployment -- making sure everyone and everything got there safely. I knew if we nailed that phase, the great Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines on the ground would execute the mission. That was the challenge I gave to the planning staff... to make sure phase two was a success."

To do so, the joint planning team not only had to deal with the weather elements, but had to battle several other challenges. One of those was coordinating on short notice overflight clearances for several countries in Africa. Normally, that can take as long as 21 days, especially when items declared as hazardous cargo, including lithium batteries, are involved.

Other challenges that had to be considered and, in some cases, worked around included an air traffic controller strike in Greece, earthquakes in central Africa and erupting volcanoes. But the most critical issue facing the JTF was airlift.

"With blizzards in Afghanistan, airlift operations in other commands, plus the day-to-day warfight, it didn't exactly rain airplanes for us to use," General Bishop said. "It forced our joint team to work hard to prioritize missions, figure out where the president was going next and make sure what needed to get there got there on time. 

"There were times we were operating in three phases at once," he said.  "(We were) still deploying people and equipment on the west coast, executing the mission in the east and already working on redeploying forces from places the president had already visited."

What made it all possible were the joint planning team's efforts, the general said. And working through this operation has been eye opening.

"The joint learning that went on in this headquarters was tremendous," General Bishop said. "To me, that's the biggest thing I'm taking away." 

And those in the other services agreed.

"The biggest thing the Army has gained out of this is we have really gone to school on mobility," General Lanza said. "We have learned immensely from the Air Force on what it takes to get us to the fight. From that context, the core competencies of the Air Force in terms of what they bring have been instrumental in allowing the Army and Marines just to see the level of planning it takes to get us to the fight."

While the president has departed Africa, the mission goes on for the JTF until every Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine has returned home safely, General Bishop stressed. But, he's confident the joint planning team is up to the task.

"It's been a great, great joint effort," he said.  "Everyone pulled together to make this a complete success."

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