USAFEC commander hosts all call

  • Published
  • By U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Public Affairs

The United States Air Force Expeditionary Center commander, Maj. Gen. John Klein, and the USAFEC command chief, Chief Master Sgt. Courtney Freeman, held an all call today to discuss the current state of the USAFEC, and the progress the team has made in support of the USAFEC strategy which was published Sept. 23, 2022. 

In the strategy, Klein provided a roadmap for the enterprise to effectively organize, train and equip Airmen for expeditionary warfare. He presented several initiatives including the command and control of the global air mobility support system, additional exercise opportunities leveraging the Green Flag Little Rock structure, and one of his key items necessary to become more effective: the evolution of the Air Mobility Operations Wings. This evolution has been dubbed the Next Generation AMOW, or NextGen AMOW. 

“As we develop the NextGen AMOW, we’re standardizing and aligning nomenclature to match the rest of the force,” Klein said. “We currently have small, deployable teams of Airmen in the contingency response world known as Contingency Response Teams or Contingency Response Elements. My intent is to make small, deployable teams of Airmen within the AMOW structure known as Air Mobility Teams or Air Mobility Elements. 

Klein explained that these teams will be able to work alongside the CRTs and CREs to provide aerial port functions and maintenance capabilities at non-fixed nodes during expeditionary warfare. The need to execute these initiatives, and quickly execute this overarching strategy revolves around something Freeman referred to as an inflection point. 

“We have had key moments in our history that have caused us to change the way we do things,” Freeman explained. “I call these inflection points. For example, the force we had on Sept. 10, 2001, was not the force we needed on Sept. 11, 2001. I can’t point to a day on the calendar to identify our next inflection point, but I’m excited to be able to help lift, shift and maneuver what we need to arm the Airmen at the tip of the spear to help make them more effective.”  

The commander concluded the event with encouraging words regarding the progress the team has made since his strategy for the enterprise was published in September. 

“We’ve got the tiger by the tail,” Klein exclaimed. “Now we have to follow through. I’m putting all my energy behind the momentum we have to drive through any bureaucracy that may stand in our way.”