Your AEF needs you

  • Published
  • By Maj. Gen. Bob DuLaney
  • U.S. Air Forces in Europe director of air and space operations
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) --  For the past six years, our Air Force has used the Air Expeditionary Force construct to meet the air and space power needs of our nation, tweaking the AEF as necessary to improve it and adapt it to meet emerging challenges. One of those adjustments has been to expand the pool of AEF-eligible Airmen.

The Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. John Jumper, said it best.

“Let me be perfectly clear. In our Air Force, every Airman is expeditionary, every Airman will know his or her place in the AEF system, and every Airman will be prepared to support the combatant commander, whether deployed, in CONUS via reachback, or employed at home station. If you are wearing the uniform of the United States Air Force, you are part of the AEF.”

That seems pretty clear to me. Note the lack of any escape clauses such as, “unless you’re really important,” or “unless you’re an O-6.” Our nation is at war and our combatant commanders need you, regardless of rank or position, and they need you to be ready to fight when you reach their theater.

The AEF process was designed with predictability in mind. By placing you in an AEF bucket, you can enjoy some measure of stability by knowing when you can expect to deploy. This affords you, your family, your co-workers and your supervisor an opportunity to plan for your absence. Use this valuable lead time to get your personal life in order, including finances, wills and childcare plans.

It is also imperative to get your professional life in order. Update or create your continuity books so those left behind can cover your duties and ensure continued mission success for your unit. Take a look at your professional military education and promotion timelines and make appropriate plans. Do you need to take care of any performance reports or feedback sessions?

Institutionally, we are getting pretty good at making sure our Airmen are getting their personal lives in order, but we also need to make sure we are taking care of the unit when our men and women proceed down range.

Supervisors and leaders, your involvement is critical to our success. You also need to plan for your troops’ rotations. Find a replacement or plan on redistributing duties to other members of your team. Will there be some degradation and turmoil? Probably, but what everyone needs to understand is we are all in this together -- we are at war. As an Air Force, we must support our combatant commanders.

Don’t try to “protect” your key players from the AEF. If they are really that good, then our combatant commanders need them more than you do! Almost all of us train during peacetime to perform a wartime mission; you owe it to the American taxpayers to put their warriors into the fight. As an added bonus, a key player’s absence provides opportunities for those left behind as they step up to fill in or learn a new duty. It truly can be a win-win for our Air Force.

We will continue to prosecute the global war on terrorism for the foreseeable future. Our AEF concept has proven very effective over the last several years at putting air and space power where we need it, when we need it. Your role is to be ready, personally and professionally, to take the fight to our nation’s enemies. If you are in a leadership position, make sure your team is ready to fight or carry on the home station mission when individuals from your team deploy. No matter who you are, if you are wearing Air Force blue, your AEF needs you.