SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- With 10 squadrons in 12 countries and three continents spanning a range of 5,000 miles, the Airmen assigned to the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing understand how to produce Rapid Global Mobility no matter the circumstances.
The Mobility Airmen from the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing in Europe and Southwest Asia demonstrated their contributions to the mobility mission during a visit with AMC leadership August 13-18.
“This mission is critically important to ensuring the Air Force is always there,” said Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II, AMC commander. “These Airmen take tremendous pride in making the mobility mission happen and their impact is felt globally.”
During the visit, Everhart and Chief Master Sgt. Shelina Frey, AMC command chief, expressed their appreciation to the Airmen for their worldwide contributions and spoke with them about their impact to the AMC mission.
“Our Airmen play an important role in enabling joint operations,” said Frey. “The innovative ideas of Airmen like those assigned to the AMOW advance our capabilities and provide rapid global mobility for our joint partners.”
The innovative ideas of the AMOW Airmen are not the only solutions for the challenging situations they face. The ability to build and maintain critical partnerships and ensure teamwork across geographic boundaries is key to mission success.
“The 521st AMOW is unique very simply because it is a partner unit on 10 diverse USAFE and AFCENT installations,” said Chief Master Sgt. David Satchell, 521st AMOW command chief. “We must establish and maintain critical partnerships to ensure the mission never fails. From caring and feeding of Airmen to repair of equipment and vehicles, the AMOW's host relationships are critical to velocity.”
Most recently, the Mobility Airmen stationed at Rota Air Base, Spain, responded to a C-5 Galaxy landing incident May 23 at Naval Station Rota, Spain, minimizing disruption of airfield’s operations. The Airmen worked side by side with joint and coalition partners in Spain to remove the large aircraft from the runway as quickly as possible after it was stuck on the runway.
“Our Airmen bring various education, training and experience with them every day to work along with an unrivaled tenacity to complete the job safely and on time,” said Col. Bradley Spears, 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing vice commander. “When incidents like the C-5M nose landing gear mishap occurred, we leverage that diversity along with our host installation and host nation relationships to mitigate the situation expeditiously and continue the mobility mission.”
At the end of the visit to six of 10 AMOW squadrons, the general reiterated how important the Airmen are to mission success.
“As we work toward modernizing the AMC fleet, we must also modernize the way we operate and sustain aircraft,” said Everhart. “That requires the innovation, hard work, and ingenuity the Airmen of the 521st AMOW demonstrate every day. Our AMOW Airmen are vitally important to ensuring we’re mission ready today and prepared for future operations. They are absolutely key to our mission success.”