le 09 Février 2010
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 | | RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS) -- In a first-time exchange between the Algerian air force and Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe, a conference was held here Wednesday and Thursday to discuss topics such as security forces, operations, logistics, legal matters, and intelligence.
Col. Bruce L. Curry, chief of forces, programs and bases for HQ USAFE’s directorate of plans and programs, called the conference the "first big and significant step we’ve taken together."
Algeria, a country in northern Africa, supplies NATO and eastern U.S. cities like Boston with oil and natural gas.
The conference opened with a presentation of the USAFE mission briefing. Maj. Timothy Anderson, a member of the HQ USAFE commander’s action group, detailed the history of USAFE to the nine Algerians -- dating from World War II to its present-day "extremely large" area of responsibility (13 million square miles covering 91 countries) despite more than a 50 percent reduction in personnel since the early 1990s.
The Algerian group listened closely to USAFE’s vision for the future -- Air Force warriors providing the world’s most successful alliance with rapid expeditionary power, and its goals.
After the presentation, conference members broke into groups to receive familiarization with USAFE’s security forces, operations, logistics, legal, and intelligence directorates. Both air forces learned more about these areas from the other country’s perspective.
U.S. Air Force Col. Theodore Kissel, defense attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Algeria, said the Algerians hope to structure their force after the United States. "The Algerian air force military structure and decision mechanism is different than ours but they hope to change that to be more reflective of our system."
This is the first Algerian air force group to work with the HQ USAFE staff. Kissel said it was "the key to building relationships so our air forces feel comfortable working together."
"This is a big event for them. Very big event," he added.
Col Mohamed Allel, the delegation lead for the Algerian air force, agreed and said he was "looking forward to learning about USAFE."
The conference ended by addressing future plans and engagement options. At the outbriefing, Curry talked of the progress the two air forces made and the delegation’s "willingness to share with us their insights into Algeria and the Algerian air force."
Allel said he had learned more about the process of cooperation between the air forces.
"We already had a vision of better cooperation between USAFE and the Algerian air force, and this is the first step."
He added he wished the conference could have been longer and that it had been both an "informative" and "enjoyable" experience.
Both air forces exchanged mementos to remember the historic event, which laid the foundation to building stronger relations.
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05 octobre 2003
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