Photo By Tech. Sgt. Noah Tancer | U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. William Moore, an air traffic controller with the 378th...... read more read more
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Imagine a choke point on a 120 kph or 75 mph highway, a scary thought especially factoring in semis and other industrial vehicles. Now swap the cars and trucks with jets and cargo aircraft. Under these conditions, there are no small fender benders and an airbag sure won’t save a life.
The lives of all Royal Saudi Air Force and U.S. Air Force aircrews over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia depend on the air traffic controllers on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base to keep them safe and free of in-air or runway collision risks.
Factor in a bit of a language barrier and slightly different agency operation styles raising the accident risk. That's where the partner nation integration of RSAF and USAF air traffic controllers comes in.
“Us working with RSAF consists of coordinating with them, dealing with any issues that may arise and making sure the two agencies come together to ensure all things air traffic are handled,” said Tech. Sgt. Shaunita Moore, an air traffic controller with the 378th Expeditionary Operation Support Squadron. “It’s an important partnership that ensures flight plans are imputed correctly and air traffic is done expeditiously.”
These highly trained professionals must trust each other to make quick decisions while providing cross-force guidance in monitoring the many variables to keep PSAB, its airspace and its servicemembers, host and foreign, safe.
“It’s actually a really entertaining and fun job,” said Moore. “The RSAF air traffic controllers are very kind and they’re very curious about what Americans are like and it's honestly the same way with us, we’re curious about our cultural differences too. So it's nice to have time together to sit and learn about each other's cultures while getting the job done.”
Building bridges of intercultural trust, friendship, and communication with our host nation partners are integral to USCENTCOM’s accomplishment of its missions in AFCENT’s area of responsibility and Saudi Arabia’s air traffic controllers are a key piece in safely projecting the USAF’s and the RSAF’s collective Airpower to regional aggressors.
| Date Taken: | 05.26.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.02.2022 14:56 |
| Story ID: | 428789 |
| Location: | PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, SA |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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