Their current state of operations is also related to the current wars. Since the Taliban is not likely to engage fighter jets in Top Gun-style dogfights, the roles of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in Iraq and Afghanistan has helped define a new kind of war.
“The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight, and win—not just in the air, but in space, and cyberspace,” said Brig. Gen. Richard Devereaux.
Devereaux is the commander of the USAF Expeditionary Center that is located at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The center conducts advanced training and pre-deployment training for airmen preparing to go overseas.
It works as one of the USAF’s two main advanced-training facilities, the other being the USAF Warfare Center in Nevada, which focuses primarily on airspace and cyber power.
With troops facing a new kind of enemy, the center regularly updates its courses to meet the needs of ground troops and those whom the troops protect. Devereaux said he believes that the center is unrivaled in training airmen to do just that.
The center provides training on advanced skills, ranging from how to identify an improvised explosive device (IED), to loading aircrafts, to providing first aid while under fire. They hold to the saying “from the flight line to the front line.”
“In order for them to do their jobs in this uncertain environment where there are threats nearby, they’ve got to have combat skills training,” Devereaux said.
The roles of many of the airmen who serve with the USAF are often overlooked. They are the troops behind the supply drops, the eyes behind video reconnaissance, and the operators behind the unmanned aircraft.
There is a common misperception that airmen only operate in the air, says Devereaux, “But we have many ground support airmen who are supporting missions into the airspace and cyberspace, and they are operating in nontraditional roles today.”
In today’s wars, airmen also provide security for convoys, work on explosive ordinance disposal, and deploy directly with other branches of the armed services on the front lines.
Missions in which the airman leave the airbase perimeter and go into hostile zones are called “outside the wire,” and many airmen participate in those efforts.
“The United States Air Force is definitely all in and fully engaged in this war,” Devereaux said, referring to Afghanistan.
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