Right Effects, Right Place, Right Time - America's Air Mobility Arm
Written by Lieutenant General Vern M. Findley, Vice Commander, Air Mobility Command, United States Air Force
This versatile capability fits well into the current evolving national strategy. Recently, the new administration began strongly advocating that the age of “smart power” is upon us. This entails the ability to rapidly project hard (kinetic) as well as soft (non-kinetic) power throughout the globe in order to meet the interests of the nation and decisions of its leadership.
The Air Force has been delivering this multifaceted capability through its mobility forces for a long time. History provides the example of the Berlin Airlift, an operation conducted 60 years ago to deliver life-saving supplies to the city’s besieged population. This unique capability provided U.S. national leadership sovereign options without ever firing a shot. Similarly, just this past summer, air mobility airmen and their aircraft delivered initial humanitarian aid, equipment and life-sustaining supplies to the people of Tbilisi, Georgia, during a time of need. This effort was coupled with a simultaneous effort at home to evacuate Americans in harm’s way from the threat of hurricanes approaching the Gulf Coast. These high-profile efforts were conducted while complementary AMC forces provided unprecedented standards of support to aeromedical evacuation operations, critical air refueling support to strike aircraft assisting U.S. ground forces in combat, and Herculean resupply efforts to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. With this convergence of events, I think you begin to grasp the full spectrum capability that air mobility provides and also understand why the AMC’s mission statement is “Providing Global Mobility … Right Effects, Right Time, Right Place.”
An example from earlier in this struggle against extremism might help to amplify and further highlight this capability. The 437th Airlift Wing in Charleston, S.C., was called upon early and often after the tragic attacks on U.S. homeland of September 11, 2001. On the first night of the war in Afghanistan—October 7, 2001—they were called upon to deliver the outstretched hand of hope in the form of airdropped humanitarian rations to the people of Afghanistan. While U.S. kinetic forces were attacking terrorist strongholds of the Taliban, the great young men and women of the 437 AW courageously delivered a sliver of hope to the general population of Afghanistan, demonstrating to them the United States’ desire for better days for the beleaguered citizens of their great country. The United States’ clinched-fist efforts focused only on the terrorist elements that had for so long troubled the people of Afghanistan and also spawned attacks on the U.S. homeland. Even while C-17 assets were asked to deliver this precedent-setting demonstration of hope in and among the kinetic events on the first night of the war, it wasn’t long before the men and women of the 437th were involved in delivery of the clenched fist that complements this capability. Within two months, the unit was called upon to deliver the bulk of the first non-special operations unit onto the Afghan battlefield. Again, young men and women rose to this never-before-accomplished challenge, and successfully delivered a unit of brave Marines to a dirt airstrip south of Kandahar. This established a critical foothold U.S. forces could operate from as the United States began the work to help root out the terrorist elements that plagued Afghanistan.
This is just one specific example of the broad value U.S. mobility forces offer the nation. As the use of smart power evolves in a world where terrorists will continue to spread their messages of ill, this example highlights how airpower in the form of U.S. mobility forces can deliver hope or the clenched fist, depending on the needs or wants of U.S. national leadership.
Since the Berlin Airlift in the late 1940s, the kinetic elements of airpower have risen center stage with distinction in conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Kosovo, today’s ongoing struggle against extremism and beyond. The threats of tomorrow certainly dictate that America’s Air Force maintain its edge in the kinetic realm of airpower; but, today’s world also mandates using the distinctive element of airpower provided by air mobility airlift and tanker platforms to deliver smart power when required. This versatile part of the nation’s airpower arsenal is living up to its vision of “Unrivaled Global Reach for America … Always!” Ultimately, this contributes to the Air Force’s pledge to the nation, ensuring that a promise made is a promise kept. ♦