Air Advisor Academy honors fallen comrades

Published Feb. 3, 2012
By Pascual Flores
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- An Afghan Air Force lieutenant colonel walked into the Afghan Air Command and Control Center at the Kabul Air Command Headquarters and without warning or provocation opened fire, killing nine American air advisors on the morning of April 27, 2011.

The killing of those eight Air Force servicemembers and a retired Army lieutenant colonel, marked a tragic moment for the Air Force Air Advisor community.

Col. J. Olaf Holm, Air Advisor Academy commandant, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. has taken on the task of building a memorial to pay tribute to air advisors who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

"I am putting forth an effort to build a memorial next to the Air Advisor Academy at JB MDL, to honor the air advisors and their families, their sacrifices and their legacy," said Holm.

Obtaining private donations of material, manpower, and monetary funding from public contributors is essential to build the air advisor memorial, said Holm.

Holm chose to put the memorial here because JB MDL became the home to the Air Advisory Course in 2008, graduating its first class of 59 Airmen on March 7 of the same year.

"An Air Advisor is an Airmen specially trained and educated to apply aviation expertise to assess, train, advise, assist and equip foreign personnel in the development and application of their aviation resources to meet their national needs in support of U.S. interests," said Holm.

In 2009, Gen. Norman Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff, signed the charter which stood up the Air Advisor Academy from its previous location at the U. S. Air Force Expeditionary Center on Dix to McGuire.

"We worked out of the EC since 2008 and after two and half years, in Nov. 2011 we moved into the old NCO academy building on McGuire," said Holm, a native of Portland, Ore. "The Air Advisor Academy is a member of Air Education Training Command, but without the incredible support from Air Mobility Command, JB MDL and in particular the wonderful folks at the EC, this academy could not have been possible."

Airmen undertaking the 25-day Air Advisor course are selected based on two criteria, their particular skill set and their experience levels. For example, pilots must be at a minimum an instructor pilot and Airmen must be a level seven within their Air Force Specialty Code.

"Our students are not brand new to the Air Force," said Holm. "They have years of experience in their particular fields and most already have several combat deployments under their belts."

The students come from a variety of backgrounds; from helicopter pilots to aviation mechanics, medical personnel to weathermen and everything in between.

"We go to the general populous of the Air Force looking for people with particular skill sets and experience levels to volunteer," said Holm.

The General Purpose Force Air Advisors course is broken down into three pillars: the first pillar is core knowledge covering air advisor roles and responsibilities, mission specific information, coalition air/ground operations and air advisor tactics, training and procedures. The second pillar is language, religion and culture education covering interpreter support, social and negotiations skills introduction to Islam and applicable regional knowledge. The third pillar is fieldcraft skills covering high threat driving, vehicle rollover training, convoy operations, advanced weapons tactics and combat life saver to name a few.

Tech. Sgt. Garrett Knight, 87th Security Forces Squadron and native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., attended the Air Advisor Academy in January 2010 before deploying to Afghanistan's Shindand Air Base for a year of training Afghanistan Air Force security forces.

"We learned a lot of good information at the academy on the role of being an advisor," said Knight. "The things that were most helpful were the 40-hours of language and negotiating skills we acquired."

For air advisors deployed overseas, the job is not to take charge of a situation but to guide and influence others to do the job.

"At Shindand, we put most of our focus on the Afghan NCOs and our goal was to train them so they were able to train their airmen," said Knight. "If I had not taken the air advisor course, my job in Afghanistan would have been a lot harder. It was a challenging job but once you got them to where they should be, the rewards were paid in ten-folds. I would absolutely do it again."

While the duties as an air advisor can be rewarding, it comes with some challenges.

"I personally found this mission as an air advisor to be a very rewarding job, having deployed as an air advisor for a year in Afghanistan flying helicopters with the Afghan Air Force," said Holm. "I was fortunate enough to learn about a different culture and make lasting relationships with my Afghan counterparts, but it was also a very dangerous job - involving combat, terrorist attacks and most recently internal threats."

Holm departed from Afghanistan a week prior to the shooting at Kabul International Airport.

"These were friends and colleagues of mine and if for only a short time, they were also members of Central New Jersey and the JB MDL Community," said Holm. "All of these fallen Airmen, as all of us air advisors, identify JB MDL as the home of the U.S. Air Force Air Advisor."

Visit www.airadvisormemorial.com/home/Home.html for more information on the Air Advisor Academy Memorial.

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