Airmen are taking new and challenging billets in Iraq, and the job of the 732nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group’s Personnel Support for Contingency Operation team is to keep track of them all. While most of the “in lieu of forces” airmen are separate from the EMSG at Balad Air Base, the have to be in-processed. Supporting 30 forward locations and over 1,000 airmen in the wing who work outside Balad, the team’s office is manned 18 hours a day and another is on standby 24 hours a day. In addition to personnel assistance, the team liaison’s work, database support and emergency support assistance.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.