Air Mobility Command sent its 615th Contingency Response Element from Travis AFB, Calif., to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan to provide direct support for the US marines flowing into the area as part of the ongoing troop surge. “Our job was to boost the velocity and throughput of cargo and personnel into this location,” said Maj. Sang Kim, 615th CRE commander. With just two days’ notice, the 49-member team deployed in February, according to the March 31 AMC report, and has since increased airlift flow through the camp by 30 percent. The CRE’s civil engineers also put down an aluminum helicopter landing pad to help reduce dust and debris during aeromedical evacuations. And, the CRE’s additional security forces and intelligence officers helped address and identify potential threats. (AMC report by Roger Drinnon)
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
