Photo By Brandon Hubbard | TRANSCOM commander Gen. Paul Selva (center) listens while briefed at a lounge area for...... read more read more
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MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, Romania — The U.S. commander for military transportation by land, sea and air praised the rapidly growing mission to redeploy troops home from Afghanistan through Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania, during an operational tour here July 11.
Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, U.S. Transportation Command commander, touched down mid-morning for a “whirlwind” forward operating site visit to MK Air Base, located near the western Black Sea coast, where more than 74,000 U.S. service members have transited to and from military operations since February — largely on C-17 aircraft under the command of the Air Force’s 780th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron and U.S. Army Europe’s 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s ground support elements.
The Romanian transit hub is quickly becoming the international crossroad for U.S. military operations in Europe, Asia and Africa, since the lease to operate the Transportation Center at Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan ends this month. With only a few months notice, military leaders were required to develop the eastern European base to handle the new mission.
“I will tell you that I think we are the only organization on the planet — when I say ‘we’ I mean all of us together — who can take imagination and turn it into reality,” Selva said told the Airmen, Marines and Soldiers who run the base.
Selva cited “professionalism” in leadership as the source for the success.
The base has become a symbol of the relationship between Romania and the U.S., which dates back more than a decade at MK Air Base when it was used as a staging point for the Iraq War invasion.
“With the help of our Romanian friends, you all were able to really pull this together very quickly,” Selva said. “To have a team of leaders, who come together to pull together the mission and have Airmen, Soldiers and Marines come together to get that work done is absolutely phenomenal.”
The commander took the opportunity to meet with the enlisted military working to keep flights on track, including airmen on the flight line and Army military police working in customs.
It was a lasting memory for Airman 1st Class Jordan Holik, a member of the Air Force Security Forces at MK Air Base and a native of Branson, Missouri, who was only working on flight lines a couple of weeks before deploying to Romania.
“This is the first time I’ve actually seen a four-star general,” Holik said.
President Barack Obama appointed the general to his new post in May, as the redeployment of troops home from Afghanistan will be among the largest transportation missions.
Seeing how those warfighters get back to the U.S. was important to the new TRANSCOM commander during his first overseas trip, he said, while his trip through the flight line, terminal and customs areas at MK closely followed how thousands of troops travel back to America.
“In a perfect world, I would have gotten on a C-17 in Afghanistan. I would have let you process me like you process anyone else [through customs] and had you send me on home,” Selva said.
| Date Taken: | 07.11.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.16.2014 05:38 |
| Story ID: | 136240 |
| Location: | MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU, RO |
| Hometown: | BRANSON, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 233 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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