AF units show inter-command cooperation during BPC mission

Published Feb. 6, 2012
By Tech. Sgt. Lesley Waters
615th Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS -- Two Airmen from the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, 318th Training Squadron, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, joined forces with Airmen from the 571st Mobility Support Advisory Squadron, 615th Contingency Response Wing, Travis AFB, Calif., in support of a month-long Building Partner Capacity mission in Honduras. The MSAS mission supports Air Forces Southern continued engagements in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Inter-American Air Forces Academy provides Spanish-language technical and management training to military forces and governmental agencies of Latin America and the Caribbean. The school at Lackland AFB provides training in 70 different courses for both officer and enlisted personnel.

"MSAS is 'IAAFA on wheels,' while at IAAFA our partner nations come to us in the United States, said Staff Sgt. Heric Llerena, IAAFA instructor. "We both share the same mission, which is to help our partner nations perform their missions more efficiently and be better at what they do."

Llerena and his fellow IAAFA instructor Tech. Sgt. Ruben Sigala, are working closely with Senior Master Sgt. Jason Hood, 571st MSAS helicopter crew chief and air advisor, in exchanging of ideas with the Honduran Air Force during a two-week aircraft electrical and communication and navigation class.

During the initial proof of concept several months ago, the Honduran Air Force leadership asked the 571 MSAS to do an aircraft electrical class. Unfortunately the 571st MSAS did not have an aircraft electrical and environmental system specialist assigned to the squadron, so the squadron requested IAAFA's assistance. IAAFA provided Llerena with his aircraft electrical expertise and Sigala for his communication and navigation expertise.

The inter-command cooperation between IAAFA and MSAS is a perfect fit as both missions mirror each other by maintaining training and education excellence while building enduring relationships through academic and cultural engagement.

"IAAFA and MSAS go hand in hand," said Lt. Col. Joseph Sanchez, 571st MSAS commander. "It is important for us to learn how IAAFA does business, but at the same time it is important for IAAFA to come to our partner nation countries and see how they do business. In the future we would like to see a cross flow of personnel between our two units to capitalize on each other's strengths and expertise."

Even though Sigala and Llerena are available for three weeks, the changes they have seen within the FAH have been significant. Llerena said they were able to plant the seed with the FAH Airmen on the importance of safety in everything they do from keeping things clean around the shop to performing regular foreign object debris walks on the flightline.

"We were able to change their mindset of a safer FAH by showing them how to keep their areas clean and free of hazards," said Llerena. "The FOD walk we conducted during the week, helped them to understand the domino effect FOD has on personnel and assets."

To show how important conducting a FOD walk is, Hood, Sigala and Llerena coordinated a base-wide FOD walk and each of the classes, more than 100 MSAS and FAH Airmen, participated and collected more than 50 pounds of FOD from the flightline.

Changes, however small or large, are making the Honduran Air Force better and solidifying the relationship between both air forces and countries.

"This has been a great learning experience for both IAAFA and 571st MSAS," said Sigala. "Working together, we can help build relationships and provide better security throughout Latin America."

IAAFA's vision says it all - Airpower's gateway to the Americas... Training (exchanging ideas) for today... Building partnerships for tomorrow! This is what MSAS is doing in Latin America and the Caribbean, they are exchanging ideas with the help of inter-command support.

"In these constricted budgets it (the Building Partner Capacity missions) is extremely important," said Sanchez. "We have the opportunity to work with our partner nations on creating efficiencies in how we do business. This creates interoperability between our forces and lasting bonds between our Airmen."