AMC vice commander addresses mobility in 21st century Published Sept. 14, 2004 By Staff Sgt. Melanie Streeter Air Force Print News WASHINGTON -- Lessons learned during the war on terror are reshaping the way Air Mobility Command wages war, said Lt. Gen. John R. Baker, AMC vice commander, during the Air Force Association’s 2004 Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition here Sept. 13.“(We need) the ability to go into an austere place, set up operations quickly and be able to execute (the mission) in a rapid fashion,” the general said.To accomplish that goal, AMC officials created contingency response groups that the general described as “a tanker-airlift control element on multivitamins.” These groups quickly establish expeditionary operations so an air base can be handed off seamlessly to an incoming commander.But AMC is changing more than just the way it organizes. The culture of the command is also changing.“We’re reinventing the way we look at ourselves,” General Baker said. “We’re no longer a strategic airlift command -- we’re a tactical airlift command.”The command recently held its first mobility air forces tactics conference. The result was a new tactics manual and a training reorientation to address this new way of thinking.Another issue facing the command is equipment and not just in the form of airframes.“Up until a few years ago, there were still people who thought flying with night-vision goggles was just too dangerous,” General Baker said. Now, besides flying missions with the goggles, support people are using them too. But supply has not kept up with demand.“We just found out (Sept. 10) that we’ve been authorized to procure more NVGs,” the general said. “Our goal is to have every person out there trained and equipped to do (his or her) job with NVGs.”After addressing the audience, General Baker took questions from Airmen. One concerned the high deployment rate still seen by AMC Airmen on certain airframes, despite the air and space expeditionary force construct.“Right now we’re focusing on tankers and C-130 (Hercules), airframes that have the highest (deployment) rates of crews living in (deployed environments),” the general said. “The last two cycles there have been last-minute changes based on requirements in the theater. While we can anticipate there will always be last-minute changes, we can do a much better job of anticipating what’s expected.”Another question related to future procurements and whether or not the airframes of the future will be what AMC needs to fulfill its mission.“We need the C-5 (Galaxy), no doubt, as long as there is a need to move (oversized) cargo,” General Baker said. But the “A” model of the C-5 needs to be outfitted with defensive systems before it can be effectively used in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.“We think we need as many C-17s (Globemaster III) as the Air Force can afford to buy for us,” the general continued. “They have done marvelous things all over the world in the last 10 years.”Command officials are also looking at options for maintaining the capabilities of its aging C-130 fleet.