JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va., –
U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Joseph Montgomery, U.S. Air Forces Central Command command chief, visited Airmen of the 497th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Jan. 16, 2017.
During his visit, Montgomery experienced first-hand the processing, exploitation and dissemination capabilities the 497th ISRG, Distributed Ground Station-1, service members provide to the mission across the AFCENT area of responsibility.
“I came here to gain a deeper understanding of how the Airmen support the fight down range,” said Montgomery. “I know they provide a substantial amount of support to what we’re doing, and quite frankly, I was amazed to see all of the things that the Airmen here do for us.”
In addition to learning about what they do, he wanted to personally meet the Airmen who keep deployed U.S. service members safe.
“I was able to recognize an Airman who works in a classified area, and what she’s doing is absolutely vital to keeping our partners on the ground safe,” said Montgomery. “Getting to meet an Airman who is actually looking at that every day, building those products and actually helping us develop the targets to keep this fight going every day is amazing.”
This visit allowed AFCENT leadership to better understand the role the 497th ISRG has in the mission, by get feedback from the Airmen who support the downrange fight and strengthen their partnership.
“[Visiting here] just further reaffirms to me that what these Airmen are doing is absolutely crucial in making the fight happen down range,” said Montgomery. “Without them, whether it be areas such as target development or helping us find and destroy the enemy is absolutely crucial to making this fight happen every day.”