DCFACC talks airpower, Airmen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Trevor Tiernan
  • U.S. Central Command Air Forces Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  The mobility machine came to the forefront again just as recently as Airmen assigned to Air and Space Expeditionary Forces 7 and 8 rotated out of the theater and AEFs 9 and 10 came in. According to Maj. Gen. Maury Forsyth, deputy combined forces air component commander, the transition was seamless.

"I believe we have once again validated the AEF concept for the United States Air Force, in that there was no degradation at all in our capabilities here," he said. "In fact, it's kind of a rejuvenation, in that the Airmen who have just shown up are all enthusiastic, they're well trained from back in the United States and many of them have been here before so they know what to expect. There's not that time to spin them up that is required sometimes."

As DCFACC, General Forsyth also wears the hats of deputy commander, Air Force Forces and vice commander, 9th Air Expeditionary Task Force, Air Combat Command, Southwest Asia. The number two at the Combined Air and Space Operations Center, he has eyes on all the work U.S. and coalition air component Airmen bring to the fight across the entire area of responsibility. As such, he sees all the contributions Airmen make every day.

"Most people think the Air Force's contribution is just the number of [air strikes we conduct]," he said. "But the Air Force contribution happens a lot in the background--from space where we get all our weather, where we get all our communications, from early warning in space, to all the airlift we do. We move thousands of people a day, just around the AOR and to the AOR."

During the month of September, airlift assets transported more than 115,000 passengers and more than 20,000 short tons of cargo around the U.S. Central Command Air Forces area of responsibility. Also during the month, Air Force C-17 Globemaster IIIs carried more than 52,000 passengers, while the C-130 Hercules aircraft moved almost 62,000.

Airlift and air mobility allow the Air Force to get into places that are normally inaccessible General Forsyth said. When operations began in Afghanistan, the Air Force airlifted people and supplies into the country, and continues to do so.

"We do a lot of airlift and air-drop into Afghanistan particularly, because of the terrain that's there," he said. "We can go places that we couldn't go before because of our ability to get there."

In one recent case, the CAOC staff responded to a call for an emergency re-supply. Troops on the ground were rapidly running out of ammunition. A C-130 was dispatched and delivered them the ammunition they needed.

"Routine delivery of supplies becomes routine when you're talking about food and water, and you know what the consumption rates are," he said. "When you don't know what the consumption rates are, it becomes very important that you're agile and able, from the CAOC, to react and support the troops in the field. That's what we did in this one particular instance."

Helping keep all of these aircraft in the air, and people and cargo moving, is the tanker fleet. While aging--the KC-135 Stratotanker came into service in 1956 with KC-10 Extender following in 1981--the General said the tankers are performing extraordinarily. A fact he attributes to the men and women taking care of the aircraft.

"[They're] kind of another unsung hero of the Air Force," he said. "The Airmen out there ... that do all the maintenance work on all these airplanes, absolutely make the Air Force as powerful and as great as it is. It's the people.

"We talk about the systems all the time, how precise the weapons are, the airplanes that we fly, but it's all people that make that happen. The way that we're able to keep 40 and 50 year old airplanes flying is the great people that we've got that put the dedicated time in to those airplanes and make it work."

Along with air mobility and air-refueling, General Forsyth said there are many more non-kinetic Air Force missions that take place every day, out of the spotlight and off the front pages of the daily newspapers. Missions such as aeromedical evacuation, space, psychological operations and electronic warfare.

"Because of its classification we don't talk much about it [electronic warfare], but there's a whole group of people out there flying airplanes that are helping us in the electromagnetic spectrum," he said. "It might be to protect folks or it might be to detect movements or things the enemy is doing.

"They're unsung heroes as well. Mostly because of the classification, but nevertheless, there's a non-kinetic piece to that."

According to the General it's often difficult to measure success when dealing with scenarios that aren't always black and white. However, there are ways leaders can use to measure whether they meeting given objectives, he said.

"The best way to measure any success is to take the objectives of the joint force commander, and see if you're contributing to and how well we're doing on those objectives," said General Forsyth. "We take his objectives and say 'are we achieving those objectives and if so are we contributing in the best way that we can, the most efficient way and the smartest with the assets our country has given us to achieve those effects?'

"I think we are ... [and] I can tell from my perspective in my time in this AOR that we are moving the ball down the field and we are succeeding."

One perceptible measure he highlighted was the recent strike on three high ranking Al Qaeda in Iraq operatives. The mission was a synchronized effort between air and ground forces including space systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, joint terminal attack controllers and F-16s.

"An event like that is visual depiction of success, when many times success is difficult to see," he said. "The forces either on the ground or in the airplanes can see some of the results instantaneously, but many times it's hard for either the people back in the United States, or the people back here, to see the results in a tangible way. This is one way that it manifests itself in a visual depiction--that we know that we were successful in what we did."

Air Force Airmen are in the fight at every level. For General Forsyth, seeing the dedication and self sacrifice displayed by Airmen across the AOR gives him a sense of pride.

"They clearly think of the mission before themselves," he said. "In many cases we left family at home to be here, but you don't hear any complaining. All you hear is 'what does it take to do the mission?' They're doing a great job at doing that mission and I couldn't be more proud." 

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