Nigerian air force visits contingency response group, shares ideas

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  • By Airmen 1st Class Holly Cook and Trevor Rhynes
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Colleagues from the Nigerian air force Quick Response Force visited members of the 435th Contingency Response Group here Dec. 4 through 6.

Five members of the QRF came to the CRG to gain a better understanding of their construct, capabilities, and employment.

"Our goal is to address their needs and concerns to improve their own airfield assessment, security forces, and emergency medical support," said Staff Sgt. Luis Devotto, 435th CRG air advisor and NCOIC of special vehicle maintenance. "We are also building a plan for future familiarization activities."

Assisting with training and building partnership capacity with air forces from other nations is one of the missions of the 435th CRG. With these partnerships, the U.S. is able to teach and learn new mission techniques from counterparts from other nations.

"I am very excited to be here and to learn," said Air Commodore Benard U. Chiobi, QRF commander. "I'm grateful for the opportunity to come and see how our partners carry out their mission."

Using their experience in combat support training, construction, airlift support, quick response times, and airbase security, the 435th CRG shared more efficient methods to complete the Nigerian Air Force mission.

"We need to speak with people who have that experience so we can tap into that knowledge," said Air Commodore Anthony John Alechenu Adagboyi, QRF regiment director.

Using the knowledge of the Airmen who make up the 42 different career fields of the 435th CRG, the Nigerian counterparts received a better understanding of how to complete their day-to-day operations.

"My team and I are trying to build the air force unit of the future, my main focus is to get our guys trained and ready," said Chiobi. "There are many techniques that have been demonstrated for us over the last few days that I think will help."

My team learned how to evaluate needs for personnel and equipment; we saw the strengths of the Contingency Response Group and were not disappointed with what we saw," Chiobi said. "I had my personal expectations set very high and I'm happy to say they were met. I'm looking forward to continuing the relationship between our two nations."