KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Getting to know each other is the main point of the first-ever African Partnership Flight-Djibouti, say key Air Force organizers from Europe.
The goal of the event, which starts Saturday with an opening ceremony at Djibouti Air Base, is to facilitate discussion and promote cooperation among the U.S. and the African airmen attending, said Maj. Dirk Casson, the event’s mission commander and U.S. Air Forces in Europe–Air Forces Africa chief of African operations in international affairs.
“I always like to see how the week evolves, how the walls are broken down,” said Casson, a veteran of two partnership flights.
This is the fifth African Partnership Flight of which USAFE has been a part since the inaugural one in Ghana in March 2012 — and the first one involving nations from East Africa.
Besides Djibouti and the United States, whose air forces are co-hosting the event, participants are Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Air Force funds the cost for personnel to attend, while Djibouti’s air force provides the facilities, USAFE officials said.
Over five days, Casson said, the group of about 60 African airmen and 25 U.S. airmen are expected to discuss aircraft maintenance; crash and fire-rescue procedures; flight-line security; and preparing and loading cargo onto aircraft.
The topics are tailored to host country and U.S. interests, he said, developed from discussions between USAFE, Djibouti and the U.S. Embassy.
The embassy, for example, suggested load planning, Casson said. “They would like to see Djibouti be more capable and more active in helping move cargo,” he said, with discussion to focus on best practices to secure cargo and to ensure aircraft safety.
With Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. military base, located in Djibouti, “security in the region is always an issue,” Casson said, hence flight line security was chosen as another topic.
The participating African partners offer a range of air force capability, knowledge and equipment. “They are all capable air forces,” Casson said. “Some of them are in their infancy learning how to get better at what they do. A lot of them come with experiences in Africa that we use to better our approach to Africa.”
The U.S. airmen come from USAFE and the 818th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron from McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. Helping bridge the language gap will be three airmen based at Ramstein who are members of the Air Force’s Language Enabled Airmen Program and speak French.
The six-member USAFE rock band, Touch n’ Go, is accompanying the U.S. contingent. It will perform outreach concerts in the local community and play to the troops at Camp Lemonnier, USAFE officials said.
Senior Master Sgt. Travis Robbins, the USAFE team sergeant for the partnership flight, did some advance research on the cultures of the participating African nations, gleaning tidbits that may help break the ice when the event kicks off, he said.
One factoid Robbins learned: The small nation of Djibouti has the lowest elevation in Africa.
“I find anywhere I go, I’m always in awe of how much they (other countries) know about us and America,” he said. “I think we do not always do the best job to learn about them.”