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Show Country Airmen Defending our Nation at Home and Abroad... Liberty or Death! Thursday, February 24, 2005 Twice Monthly 388th Fighter Wing supplement to the Hilltop Times Joint war fighting Filing a fix Cooperation with sister services required to win today's battlespace By Mr. Louis Arana-Barradas Air Force Print News "' • Photo by Airman Slelanie Torres Airman 1st Class Christopher Hansen, a 388th Equipment Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance apprentice, files a circle skid repair patch to fix an aircraft. -&i*^m*:W*Mu&$*? Adjustments take time Safety office seeks writers to win The wing safety office is sponsoring a writing contest for all wing Airmen. The winners will receive a $50 gift certificate from a local merchant to be used for safety gear. Articles must be entered in either two categories: Snowboarding/skiing or ATV/dirt -bike mishaps. Snowboarding/skiing articles are due to the safety office by Friday; articles in the ATV/dirt bike category are due by March 4. "Our trends this year show that we tend to have more snowboarding/skiing and ATV/dirt bike mishaps," said Tech. Sgt. Rebecca Taylor, NCO in charge of ground safety. "We will pick a winner from each category based on safety relevance. There are no guidelines on the way it is written. It could be funny, factual, serious, etc." Winning articles will be published in upcoming editions of the Fighter Country. The 388th Fighter Wing retains editorial rights to published articles. For more information, call the 388th FW safety office at 777-3402. Articles can be submitted via e-mail to Rebecca.taylor@hill.af.mil or Michael. Williamsl@hill.af. mil. Families face deployment-return challenges and just By 1st Lt. Vernon Thompson because I need you.'" He said that made him miss his family even more. other." 388th Fighter Wing Capt. Todd Public Affairs : basically listen to each "Sergeant Knight, 421st ===== —=*= A to Z," as he is known in FS pilot, said The 388th Fighter Wing is con"My little baby girl didn't his squadron, that during his tributing full throttle to the global has four chilAEF I deploywant me to hold her; she war on terrorism. Within the Air and dren, ages 8, 5 ment it was Space Expeditionary Force (AEF) was scared of me." and 3 years hard "knowing construct, about 300 Airmen Staff Sgt. old, and one my wife and returned in late January from a fivewho is now 8 two daughters Eduardo Andiarenaramirez montb deployment to Balad Air 421 st FS Life Support journeyman months old. were back at Base, Iraq, and another 300 Airmen One way home living from the 388th FW are there now. = he stayed contheir daily More Airmen are deploying than nected to his ever before, and for longer periods of lives, with all family was by personalizing e-mails. of its ups and downs, without me." time. As Airmen find themselves "I would send pictures of my oldest Staff Sgt. Eduardo fighting a war on foreign soil, both son's favorite basketball player and Andiarenaramirez, 421st FS Life they and their families are learning to ask him to e-mail me back," he said. Support journeyman, said he especope with -long separations during When he finally returned home, cially missed the one night a week deployments. his family dedicates to being togeth- settling back into family life took Lt. Col. Chris Weggeman, 42lst some easing into, since she had er. "It's become a tradition in our Fighter Squadron commander, led developed a new system without family. We turn off the TV and play the "Black Widows" as they providgames or do some other fun activity ed close air support for coalition See CHALLENGES page C ground forces as well as surveillance and reconnaissance of Iraqi infrastructure as part of AEF I. He called the courage and sacrifice he saw "truly humbling." He also said the hardest part of being deployed was "not being able to console the anxious minds of my children." Tech. Sgt. Jude Harper, 421st Aircraft Maintenance Unit aircraft electrical and If your loved one is deployed, TDY or on a remote tour, Hearts Apart can proenvironmental specialist, vide the additional support you may need during this-time of separation. said that although the misServices include: sion is paramount, "family Q morale calls comes first." Q video teleconferencing Also deployed in AEF Q e-mail access 1, Sergeant Harper said the Q "Give parents a break" provides four hours of free daycare on the separation from his family second Saturday of each month was difficult. During • monthly events are advertised in monthly newsletter sent by mail morale phone calls, "My 4For more information, contact Ms. Carol Miller, 75th Air Base Wing Hearts year-old daughter would Apart Program manager, at 775-4874, or Tech. Sgt. Willie Little, 75th ABW say, 'tell your boss you Family Support Center Readiness NCO, at 775-4681. have to come home Hearts Apart helps families stay connected ORLANDO, Fla. - The Air Force must balance its capabilities and capacities to reach the joint interdependence with its sister services it needs to win in today's battlespace. That is the message Lt. Gen. Ronald Keys, Air Force deputy chief of staff for air and space operations, delivered Feb. 18 to about 1,000 attendees of the Air Force Association's annual Air Warfare Symposium. The association promotes Air Force interests. The general said balance has driven the Air Force to go beyond "just fighting joint" to "fighting together" with the other U.S. armed forces. Today's Air Force fights a more refined "together," not just because it works in an interoperability sense, but because the services need each other. "We simply can't fight apart, nor can we afford to fight apart," he said. The other services. General Keys said, are talking more about interdependence. But the Air Force is no stranger to the concept. It has provided the other services capabilities like airlift, close-air support, aerial refueling, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for a long time. "The Air Force has long been the joint coalition-culture service," he said. But transitioning to a truly interdependent force requires extensive cooperation because forging such a force requires close collaboration in planning, interoperable communications and intelligence training, the general said. Today, however, interdependence goes both ways. "Before, the Air Force was more or less 'free goods' to the joint force, because our bases were safe in the rear areas, in friendly territory," General Keys said. "But now there may not be a rear area. The base could be in enemy territory." A prime example is Balad Air Base, Iraq, which endures 30 to 50 rocket and mortar attacks a month. There, Airmen depend on Soldiers for base defense, while Airmen generate air power, he said. But a joint team of Airmen and Soldiers combine intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data to help thwart attacks. At the same time, C-130 Hercules aircraft are flying more than 164 daily sorties for U.S. Central Command. This means 13 Army convoys do not have to face the gauntlet of roadside bombs through Iraq's Sunni Triangle, the general said. "So here's the emerging difference," General Keys said. "Interoperability is all about what capabilities I have that can make your operations better. Interdependence is all about what you need done that you can't live without, (and) my capability is the only capability you have." To reach the needed level of interdependence, the U.S. military must first solve a host of problems. Some of the issues that need fixing include finding ways to have compatible systems, training, collaborative and predictive tools and Web-based networks. But there are many examples of how interdependence is already working in all corners of the globe. For example, Nevada Guardsmen process photographs taken by a Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle flying over Iraq that end up supporting Soldiers on the ground searching,for suspected terrorists. After an aerial refueling over Guam, B-52 Stratofortress bombers roll in on a range on the Korean peninsula to practice close-air support of ground forces. While over the Caribbean Sea, a C-130 flies a resupply mission to the U.S. embassy in Colombia. These illustrations of global vision, reach and power are prime examples of the global joint interdependent force the U.S. military is forging. General Keys said. |