I received this from a friend who is on FaceBook (I’m not).
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167th Airlift Wing - West Virginia Air National Guard o
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Last week, nearly 150 men and women from the 167th Airlift Wing embarked on a multi-month deployment overseas as part of a Mission Generation Force Element (MG FE). The Airmen will fly and maintain C-17 Globemaster aircraft, providing mobility capability as needed throughout the summer. It has been more than 20 vears since 167th AW Airmen have mass-deploved together on unit aircraft. After more than two decades of contingency operations that saw Airmen deploy individually or in small groups, under the new deployment model, Air Force Force Generation (AFFORGEN), Airmen who have trained together at home station deploy together as a unit.
AFFORGEN is an adaptation to the strategic environment that aims to standardize deployment cycles and preserve and build high-end readiness.
We are so proud of our deplovers and their commitment to the mission. And we want to express our deepest gratitude to the families for their unwavering support and sacrifice.
This may seem like a great idea (to deploy as a unit) however (from experience) it's terrible.
One of the advantages of going out in onesees and twosees, is that you leave any preconceived ideas about an individuals performance at home station. It becomes a chance to shine (or not), a persons reputation at home station doesn't count. Bad performers at home station sometimes shine on deployment and vs-versa.
Also, in a unit, a lot of people hide their mental and emotional problems, and it isn't really possible to do so when deploying and you cant hide your issues by going home.
Also, if everyone is training to the same standard, mixing and matching people from different units isn't a problem. I wondered a lot with the most recent conflicts, why people needed a LOT of pre-deployment training, weren't they already trained to the appropriate standard and only local familiarization needed? Like when a fully trained pilot changes bases, a little local familiarization and they're done...
Best of luck to them, but don't be surprised if some have to return home early for various reasons.
One little piece of advice, if anyone is in a position to forward it, is to not allow people that work together, live together.
I know this is a little off topic, but it's important.
Thanks
Joel
www.flightaware.com
