Rodeo Interview with AMC Commander (February 2007) Published Feb. 27, 2007 By Staff Sergeant Tiffany Orr 62 Airlift Wing McChord AFB, Washington -- An interview by the 62d Airlift Wing Office of Public Affairs with General Duncan J. McNabb, Commander, Air Mobility Command on Feb. 20, 2007. Q. As AMC/CC are you looking forward to hosting Rodeo? A. This is a special time for the mobility forces as we try to figure out new and better ways of carrying out our global mission. By bringing teams in for Rodeo both Total Force - active duty, Guard and Reserve - and international you really get to see not only some great camaraderie, you also get to see who does it better and it takes the bar up for everybody and it does an awful lot for the mobility air forces in not only raising that bar but also (creating) tremendous camaraderie and international goodwill. It also enhances interoperability, so we end up getting to see how other folks do that, take the best of the best and again it takes the whole force forward. Q. How does Rodeo demonstrate the air mobility capabilities available to the warfighter? A. If you think about what we are being tasked in this global war on terrorism and you think about getting convoys off the road and you think about how we are constantly trying (to) make our mobility chain faster and better. Basically we talk an awful lot about velocity, making everything go quicker, and precision, making everything precise and this allows us to go test different concepts. See our very best Airmen figure out, "Hey, here's the next step; here's how I can do this even better than I've done it before." And then we get to kind of watch that and go "wow" and watch and learn. When I think of the responsibilities of the air mobility forces to do the air bridge and tanker bridge, this is the kind of competition that allows us to take us to a whole different level. And in the end, we use this same thing to give greater capability for the dollar or look for ways to save even more lives-- in essence, create warfighting effect. Q. What benefits do you see by including our international partners in this spirited competition? A. We have some very good examples. The Pakistanis sent an observer team to come and watch us in the last Rodeo. They also spent some additional time after Rodeo to stay at McChord to learn about airdrop. And then they actually put all that to good use when they used their own 130's to drop earthquake relief in the Pakistan earthquake. So they came and they took what they already knew how to do. They watched other nations and how they went about that and then kind of took advantage of what they could from others. The Danes have also done the same thing. They sent an observer team on the 130-J, and as they get their own 130-Js it allows them to go look at how we employ the 130-J and it allows them to look around and say, "Okay, other countries that have had this longer; how are they taking advantage of this new weapon system?" There are lots of examples of that where we have allies and friends around the world who are trying to figure out different ways to employ their mobility aircraft. Whether that's for special operations or maybe doing some more vertical resupply like airdrop that maybe traditionally they had not done but now they're realizing that they really need that capability. It allows them to come and kind of say, "How would I go about this?" The goodwill that it engenders is immeasurable. There's an awful lot of our allies and friends who I have talked to and said, "Hey we would love for you to come and if you just want to send an observer team great, if you want to send a full up team, we welcome that as well." But what we want to do is get us all together so that together we take mobility air forces into the future."