New chapter for AMC as AMLO squadron activates

Published June 30, 2015
By 1st Lt. Jake Bailey
621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing wrote another page in Air Force history as they activated and assigned command for the 621st Mobility Support Operations Squadron during a ceremony here June 26.

Lt. Col. Robert O'Keefe took command of the newly formed 621st MSOS during an activation ceremony for the first-ever squadron dedicated to Air Mobility Liaison Officers.

Air Mobility Command's AMLOs train, advise, and educate Army and Marine forces on the Air Mobility enterprise, coordinate air mobility command and control aspects of an exercise or operation, and conduct drop zone and landing zone operations.

"AMLOs, by all accounts you are doing AMC's, the Air Force's, and the nation's work and doing it with excellence," O'Keefe said as he addressed members of the new squadron. "I have nothing but the utmost respect for you, your service, and your sacrifices as well as the service and sacrifices of your families as you execute the mission you've been tasked."

With the recent reorganization of the 621st CRW, the time was right to create the AMLO squadron, said Col. Robert Levin, 621st Air Mobility Advisory Group commander.

"Lt. Col. O'Keefe is the right leader at the right time to take this new organization forward," Levin said.

Though AMLOs from the newly-formed 621 MSOS are assigned worldwide alongside joint and coalition counterparts, they provide a centralized command to develop, equip and assist with AMC AMLO requirements and taskings across the globe.

Levin also heralded the activation as an important developmental opportunity that affords mobility officers the opportunity to expand upon their experience and become leaders in the joint operational world.

"Make no mistake, there will be no change in how the AMLOs support our joint partners," Levin said. "AMLOs have had direct impact on how our sister services deploy into combat and humanitarian scenarios, and how the Air Force brings them home. They have changed how the Army, Marines and Air Force will employ in future endeavors, and have been recognized for these accomplishments by the Air Force's highest military and civilian leaders."

Entirely dispersed across 20 different locations and 18 time zones, AMLOs of the 621 MSOS are embedded to support exercises, deployments, or contingencies tasked to their Army and Marine Corps hosts. AMLOs enable joint and combined interoperability demonstrated by their recent support to retrograde operations in Afghanistan, assistance to partners in Africa during the Ebola crisis, and ongoing support to counter-ISIS operations.