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Old 04-12-2023, 11:39 AM
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Exclamation Air Force eyes moving teams from Europe to the Western Pacific in a hurry

Air Force eyes moving teams from Europe to the Western Pacific in a hurry
By: JENNIFER H. SVAN - STARS AND STRIPES • April 12, 2023
Re: https://www.stripes.com/branches/air...a-9779600.html

Photo link: https://www.stripes.com/incoming/6wh...ITYphoto03.JPG
Air Force Capt. Christopher Allen co-pilots a C-17 Globemaster to be refueled by a KC-46 Pegasus over the eastern seaboard March 9, 2023, during Exercise White Stag. The training was preparation for Mobility Guardian 2023, Air Mobility Command’s largest exercise. ( Joseph Morales/U.S. Air Force)

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — The Air Force is moving a small expeditionary team from Europe to a vast logistics exercise this summer in the Western Pacific region, in a demonstration of flexibility that comes months after the service’s general in charge of mobility warned of potential conflict with China in the near future.

This is the first time that Mobility Guardian, which will include thousands of U.S. service members and others from partner nations, will be held outside the United States since the biennial exercise’s inception in 2017.

The 1,800 airmen will practice moving personnel and gear in conflict scenarios, as well as airlifts, air refueling and medical evacuations.

In a conflict or humanitarian disaster, small teams of aerial porters, aircraft maintainers and others would join contingency response forces, airmen who are first on the ground to open airfields.

Mobility Guardian is part of a larger effort to transform air mobility operations from a network of stationary hubs to small, agile units that can “lift and shift” at a moment’s notice, Maj. Gen. John Klein, commander of the Air Force Expeditionary Center, said during a recent interview.

2nd photo link: https://www.stripes.com/incoming/a9e...ITYphoto01.JPG
Maj. Gen. John Klein, commander of the Air Force Expeditionary Center, center left background, visits with members of the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Feb. 23, 2023. Klein met with air mobility personnel in Europe and the Pacific theater in February and March to see what challenges they are facing. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)

“We want to speed that whole thing up” to allow contingency forces to “then go forward to another location and open” up another airfield, Klein said.

The Air Force’s mobility wings have trained together in the past. But this is the first time a team “will swing to the other side of the world to support mobility operations,” said Col. Dan Cooley, commander of the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing at Ramstein.

It shows that the command “is not restricted by lines on a map,” he said, adding that the task is not as simple as “getting on and off a plane.”

“We cannot expect the permissive environment we operate in today to be as permissive in a future conflict,” Cooley said.

The 521st has nine squadrons that support U.S. and coalition forces from 19 locations around Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its main hub is at Ramstein.

In the past two years, it has played a big role in evacuating Afghan refugees and providing logistical support for NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The operations were “a little bit more ad hoc in that we would just send folks to respond to a request,” said Chief Master Sgt. Jeremiah Grisham, the command chief of the wing.

He cited the recent supply of aid to Turkey after earthquakes in the south-central part of the country killed tens of thousands of people.

About 25 mobility airmen from Ramstein and Spangdahlem air bases jumped on a C-130 to help airmen in Turkey with the initial influx in the days after the first major quake Feb. 6, Grisham said.

But while the Europe-based logistics airmen have kept busy on the Continent, the Middle East and in Africa, the Indo-Pacific region remains the Pentagon’s long-term overseas priority.

China this week sent dozens of military aircraft, an aircraft carrier and other ships close to Taiwan’s east coast in a show of force that followed Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the United States.

China claims the democratic, self-governing island as its own, and has used military might to reinforce islands throughout the region that also are claimed by some U.S. partners and allies.

In January, a memo to airmen from the head of Air Mobility Command, Gen. Mike Minihan, predicted fighting with China in 2025.

“I hope I am wrong,” Minihan said in the memo, which received plaudits from some on Capitol Hill who urged taking China’s military moves more seriously.

However, the Pentagon said the memo did not represent its view, while other lawmakers cautioned against framing conflict with China as inevitable.

About this writer: Jennifer reports on the U.S. military from Kaiserslautern, Germany, where she writes about the Air Force, Army and DODEA schools. She’s had previous assignments for Stars and Stripes in Japan, reporting from Yokota and Misawa air bases. Before Stripes, she worked for daily newspapers in Wyoming and Colorado. She’s a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
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Personal note: Ever get the feeling that things are heating up just a little more
than expected?
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There seems to be a sense of readiness to re-position locations and materials.
I suspect these issues are lacking any resolve in the near future. In fact it
could pop suddenly without notice and hopefully countered to lessen the
expected incoming.
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I recall the tension's building up during NAM. We got more than we expected
which seems to be norm nowadays. Let's hope it doesn't go that far but
better to ready than caught off guard. What Pentagon papers were lifted
is unknown so far - but how they got into our most secure data files looks
like an inside job - or they have one hell of a system for busting into secure
systems & papers of late!?
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__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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