Langley Air Force Base, Va. –
More than 30 leaders from around the Hampton, Va. area joined leaders from the 480th Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing on Friday for a half-day look at the people and mission of this highly specialized operation.
"We truly appreciate you all taking the time to come out this morning to learn about our mission here at the 480th," said Col Paul Nelson, Commander of the 480th ISR wing.
Nelson greeted the community leaders upon their arrival from City Hall and provided them with a brief but comprehensive overview of the make up, mission, and most importantly ... the people who make ISR happen at Langley.
During the briefing, Nelson talked about the different groups all over the world who fall under the 480th's purview for support and oversight. He also let the civic leaders know that the ISR field is one of only several Air Force career-field specialties that is increasing in numbers and importance as we continue to carry out our nation's wars.
"We have been tasked to field more assets. We got 1,700 new billets and we expect to continue growing," Nelson said.
Following a briefing and a short question and answer session, the group was escorted to the wing operations center by Nelson, Col. Cristina Stone, 480th Vice Commander, and Col. Ted Doederlein, the individual mobilization augmentee to the commander.
While at the operations center, the group got a chance to see examples of just how much information the Airmen assigned to the 480th must review and process in order to better help the service members on the ground. Part of the examples they witnessed were images taken while supporting ISR requirements over Haiti following the earthquake that devastated that country.
The group also had a chance to see how complex and far-reaching ISR missions could be when they toured the 497th ISR Group...also on Langley.. Here, they got to learn about how hardware systems and highly skilled personnel work together as part of the Distributed Common Ground System or DCGS.
Upon seeing how complex the ISR mission was and realizing how young Airmen are asked to carry out a highly stressful mission, several of the civic leaders asked questions on how these Airmen deal with stress...even though they are seemingly only sitting behind a computer.
To address that, one of the briefers put it like this, "Once these Airmen walk through those doors, they are no longer at Langley ... they are in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever else their services are required." The people assigned here experience many of the same stresses as those on the front lines. "... but, unlike being in a deployed situation, at the end of the work day, our people have to go back to their families and deal with everyday life issues ... and then turn around again the next day to get back to the mission overseas."
It's not an easy thing to do but, our folks are specifically selected and highly trained to deal with the realities of this job. Of course we and the rest of the leadership here make sure we do everything we can to provide multiple stress-relief opportunities for our Airmen ... to include things like after hours cookouts, bowling, exercise programs."
The leadership also encourage the Airmen to take part in other stress-reduction programs supported by the wing, base and Air Force. These include talking to the base Chaplain or behavioral health services that are available to all Airmen.
The civic leaders appreciated the honesty on the mental health of the ISR Airmen and asked how could they help. They were told, "the big thing you could do is to simply say THANK YOU to the Airmen you see. They are being asked to do a lot and of course, the majority of the time, no one knows just how much they are being asked to do. Another recommendation was to offer marriage retreats and services designed to keep families and marriages together."
The civic leaders seemed to take that to heart and again thanked the briefers for their honesty.
The official tour ended after the briefing at the 497th. The community leaders were all driven back to City Hall and each and every one of them thanked the overall event coordinator Ms. Marge McGlinn for making it possible for them to see a part of the Air Force mission that they had never seen before ... the world of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as only the 480th could show.