Expeditionary mindset provides stability, predictability for Airmen

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • Airman Magazine
SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  Nothing much stands out at the Air and Space Expeditionary Force Center at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

The rooms upon rooms of cubicles are standard for a work center. A snack room provides lunch for those too busy to leave, and a larger parking lot would make people happier.

Everything appears normal, except for the inordinate amount of white boards. The boards are standard in meeting rooms, but in every other cubicle?

Ideas, as everyone knows, are fleeting. Here, ideas are jotted down quickly before they evaporate. One can actually read the writing on the wall. Nearly every white board has an expeditionary process spelled out with arrows, acronyms, sources, potential advantages and disadvantages, all just steps away from becoming future Air Force policy.

The cross flow of information, the multiple layers and complications of each AEF cycle and the 10- to 12-hour work days that seem to fly by are all part of the center’s operation.

“Our mission is to take the Air Force’s most valuable resource, its people, and provide lethal combat power,” said Brig. Gen. Anthony F. Przybyslawski, the center’s commander. “We’re not dealing with inanimate objects here like on a factory assembly line. We’re dealing with people’s lives and providing combat capable forces to the warfighter. When we (began supporting the war on terror), we went from deploying 8,000 people to 100,000 people in a couple months. It was truly amazing.”

The operations in Iraq and Afghanistan put the Air Force into full afterburner, forcing a 1,250-percent increase in deployments. The conflicts also battle-tested the AEF concept of operations. In the beginning, AEF goals were straightforward: Provide combatant commanders with the right force at the right time, reduce the deployment tempo and take full advantage of the Guard, Reserve and civil-service capabilities.

It is a work in progress, designed to be flexible. It will continue to react to mission requirements, service needs and the national military strategy while executing the Air Force battle rhythm to deliver versatile and responsive air and space power to meet the warfighter’s global security requirements.

For every action the center is a part of, there is a reaction -- be it caused by wars, manpower shortages or readiness issues. The center’s charter is to keep everything on an even keel. Once its concept solidified, Airmen were organized into 10 AEF “pairs” that deployed, ideally, for three months on 15-month cycles. This system became a way of life for most Airmen and allowed for unit training, adequate reconstitution, and personal as well as professional development while providing stability and predictability in Airmen’s lives. On Sept. 11, 2001, that changed.

“It was like turning on a fire hose,” said Master Sgt. Roger Heath of the center’s operations division, who arrived there two weeks before the attack on the United States. And it was not just Sept. 11. Whenever he watched television news, he witnessed the fruits of his labor. “Haiti, Africa, the winter Olympics, homeland security, even the fires in California -- whenever I’d see our people landing there, we did that.”

In the past, General Pryzbyslawski said the cost of engagement was too high. Instead of sending a six-person team to repair a runway, a whole squadron was sent. It was like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

“The warfighter now asks for a specific capability, and we provide the weapon system,” the general said. “An Army commander once said he was tired of using $100 bills to pay bills without receiving change. He wanted a lot of $5 bills. The Air Force, because we have more than 90,000 specific capabilities and skills, carries around 90,000 nickels to pay bills efficiently.”

There are 220 people from 48 different Air Force specialties in the center who provide combat commanders the aircraft and manpower needed to complete a mission. Capt. Jennifer Allen -- who recently returned from a stint at a deployed location -- is typical of a center staff member. A majority of them are battle-tested.

“It’s hard for a personnel officer to get selected to go to a war zone,” the captain said. “I wanted to get a wartime tasking. Since I was never (against a tasking), I signed up for a remote short tour. Some people think that we in the AEF Center don’t know what’s going on, but we do.”

General Przybyslawski instills the human aspect in the center.

“These are real people we’re talking about, not line numbers. We need to take care of people,” he said.

That personal care can be extended to the 20,000 people deployed on any given AEF rotation, or even focused on a single person -- that is, if that person is being extended. By his own rule, the general must review every extension.

“I found religion when General [John P.] Jumper [Air Force chief of staff] asked me who authorized extensions -- who ultimately made the decision. I said (functional area managers) do. Ever since, I review every extension out there and investigate every action possible so we minimize extensions.”

But he does not like to extend people, especially if they are in a remote environment.

“Extensions are like rocks in our shoes; it’s not a perfect world. If we have to extend people, we try to tell them before they deploy. Extensions are our last option,” he said. “We take extensions seriously, so much so that the chief of staff will approve all extensions when the new Air Force Instruction on AEF presence policy is soon released.”

To prevent extensions and allow greater continuity for expeditionary commanders in the field, while still providing stability and predictability, General Jumper announced a change in deployment lengths.

Beginning with AEF Cycle 5 in September, AEF deployment lengths will be four months on 20-month rotational cycles.

“This evolution of the AEF is not a temporary adjustment,” General Jumper wrote in his Sight Picture on June 4. “More appropriately, it is recognition of new demands around the world for air and space power.

“Simply put, the demands on our deployable forces have not diminished and are not expected to decline for some time,” the general wrote.

The 20-month cycle will continue to provide commanders and Airmen the ability to plan ahead, allowing predictability while providing greater continuity for the in-theater commander.

As part of that predictability, and before Airmen are notified of a deployment, General Przybyslawski said people should put themselves in an AEF mindset and be ready to deploy anywhere in the world when requested.

General Jumper agrees.

“The culture of the ... air and space expeditionary force is ... everyone in the Air Force must understand that the day-to-day operation of the Air Force is absolutely set to the rhythm of the deploying AEF force packages,” General Jumper said.

“We need people to get upset when they don’t go,” General Przybyslawski said. “The proper mindset is you’re either training to go, going or already gone. You’re ‘sitting alert’ until called.”