USAF command seeking airmen for brief deployments to Africa

[unhappycamper]

http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.114735.1281866715!/image/952619302.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/952619302.JPG

Capt. Kevin Graham gives a tour of the C-130 Hercules flight deck to members of the Ugandan defense force last year at Entebbe Air Base. U.S. Air Forces Africa is looking for volunteer airmen to participate in such events.


USAF command seeking airmen for brief deployments to Africa
By Jennifer H. Svan
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 15, 2010

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — U.S. Air Forces Africa is looking for a few good airmen.

The command recently launched an initiative seeking volunteers for short deployments to Africa in an effort to build a cadre of experienced airmen, while also addressing some staffing shortages.

Creating a volunteer pool might help AFAFRICA avoid postponing or canceling future events, said Col. Catherine Chin, AFAFRICA director of manpower, personnel and services. At the start of fiscal 2010, the command had about 100 events planned for the African theater. But because of logistical challenges including the lack of staffing, the number of missions was scaled back to 60.

Without any assigned wings, the command has to request troops through the Air Force, a process that can take up to four months. And on occasion, the command doesn’t get the airmen they request, or in time, which forces them to cancel or postpone missions.

Plus, the command never gets the same airmen twice, which can slow relationship-building on the continent, officials said.

[enlightenment]

1. Interesting.

In the early 1950s, my dad was assigned, as part of a small contingent, to the US Army Mission in Paraguay (their particular job was to teach the Paraguayan AF pilots how to fly - the US supplied the aircraft). The 'mission' was essentially a relationship building exercise and support for Stroessner. The AF guys came from a variety of wings . . . it may even have been a 'voluntary' assignment (as much as anything was voluntary in SAC during that period).

Does the military not have 'missions' like that anymore?

[IndianaGreen]

2. Today the US is using the military to prop up the equivalent of 75 Stroessners

U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role

By Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 4, 2010

Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials.

Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html

[enlightenment]

3. Yes, but that's not exactly what I was talking about.

The article you cite talks about something very nasty, indeed.

I guess the old concept of the military 'mission' has changed.