Leading "Swiss Army Knife" Airmen

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. David 'Shawn' Farrow
  • 570th Global Mobility Squadron commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  In an era when technological advances are generating the need for new units like F-22 and unmanned aerial vehicle squadrons, good old-fashioned teamwork and versatility are driving the need for another type of unit--Air Mobility Command's two-year-old Contingency Response Groups. 

Eight months ago, I accepted command of a CRG squadron and became the first "version 2.0" commander in an AMC CRG.

During my 17 years in the Air Force, I've led Airmen in three different Air Force mediums--space, air and now ground--and I have never worked with a more industrious and versatile group than CRG warriors. Impressed by this same versatility, Gen. Duncan McNabb recently dubbed CRGs as "Swiss Army knife" organizations.

In addition to one's primary skill set, each CRG member is trained in a myriad of multi-disciplinary skills needed to open an airbase in both a permissive and a non-permissive environment. All CRG Airmen are trained to do their job and then help everybody else on the team accomplish their jobs as well. In a 113-member CRG, you will seldom hear the statement "that's not my job." There are no "one-trick-pony" members in a CRG. CRG warriors are trained to accomplish roles inside the wire, outside the wire, and they can even put up the wire.

Much like a fire department, AMC CRGs were created to be a "dial 911" unit ready to respond in the midst of a crisis or a contingency. Prior to the existence of CRGs, the Air Force would cobble together ad hoc specialists from the worldwide Air Force Rolodex, but this process took time. Additionally, this pick-up team proved deficient in the vital synergy that is best honed by cohesive teams that frequently train together -- like CRGs.

Worse yet, the members of this ad hoc group only knew their one specialty. The other multi-disciplinary skills mastered by CRGs were missing from such a loose conglomerate. To see the "pre-CRG" inefficiencies of previous pick-up teams one can look at the airbase openings of Mogadishu in 1992, Tuzla in 1995 and Bagram in 2001.

In Doctrine Watch Number 24, the Air Force Doctrine Center used these three airbase opening examples as times when "an ad hoc collection of personnel and capabilities" produced "uneven results."

As we speak, AMC CRGs are configuring the airbase-opening mission to prevent uneven results the next time a combatant commander needs an airbase opened. Building this wartime capability comes at a cost to all the different functionals struggling to pay manpower billets in today's constrained military.

In a command that prides itself on AMC aircraft taking off every 90 seconds, it is difficult to show comparable metrics like this from a "dial 911" unit. But while AMC aircraft are taking off every 90 seconds, CRGs are continually training for their airbase opening in places like Fort Bragg, Fort Dix and Fort Polk.

This "Swiss Army knife" training ensures that AMC aircraft will be able to take off every 90 seconds from a contingency airbase during the next crisis or war.