Representatives from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and eight partner nations came together for Third Army's fourth-annual International Aviation Symposium May 3-7 in Atlanta, Ga.
The International Aviation Symposium is part of Third Army's theater security cooperation program which is designed to foster relationships with the more than 20 countries in its area of responsibility. Third Army has held more than 200 TSC events like this over the past two years.
Lt. Col. Jason Morris, Third Army/U.S. Army Central G32 Deputy Chief of Staff, explained the history of the International Aviation Symposium.
"Events such as this are bringing mid-level officers from partner nations together," Morris said. "Hopefully they will go back to their countries with what they have learned here. We are trying to gain understanding across our partner nations. The best way to do that is a couple of people at a time through key events like this."
In 2009 participants from nine countries came to Atlanta, Ga. for the symposium. After attending briefings and a hands-on exercise, they traveled to Fort Rucker, Ala., to the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence where they watched the mission they had created during the group exercise unfold before them in a simulated battlefield on the computer.
Medal of Honor recipient Col. (Ret.) Bruce P. Crandall delivered the opening comments and gave a brief history of Army aviation.
"When I started flying, the U.S. Air Force trained Army pilots," Crandall said. "This was shortly after the U.S. Air Force became what it is today from being the U.S. Army Air Corps. Today the Army has its own program. I was in the first class at Camp Rucker, Alabama (now Ft. Rucker) back in 1954 and we started doing our own training. Then 27 years ago we became a branch in the army as aviation."
Crandall spoke to participants about his time flying and touched on his service in Vietnam for which he received the Medal of Honor and was depicted as the helicopter pilot in the movie "We Were Soldiers."
He also talked about the role symposiums such as this play in the international community.
"During my service, my job was to represent our country," Crandall said. "Sometimes I was in civilian clothes and sometimes I was in uniform but my job all the time was to represent the United States. One of the easiest ways to do that was to have people like you here, having been in our country; lead me down the way to be the best citizen in your country."
This year, Brig. Gen. William T. Wolf, Director of Army Safety Commanding General, U.S. Army Combat Readiness / Safety Center, spoke about lessons learned in Army Aviation.
In addition to reviewing case studies on Army aviation accidents, Wolf explained that Composite Risk Management is how the Army identifies hazards, reduces risk, and prevents both accidental and tactical loss. After answering questions, Wolf invited participants to look into attending the Army Aviation Safety training classes located at Ft. Rucker.
Representatives from the Pakistan military also talked about lessons learned in maintenance operations over the last 12 months and representatives from Jordan discussed the importance of balancing maintenance requirements against operational requirements.
For the hands-on portion of the symposium, the group traveled to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia where they toured the maintenance facilities and saw a Forward Aerial Refueling Point demonstration.
Col. Farhod Azizou, Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Air Defense for Tajikistan, explained that the symposium is important because it is increasing interoperability between countries in the region.
"We are exchanging information here during this week," Azizou said. "We are looking at the countries that might have problems with maintenance and we are looking at the opportunities to help each other and actually come to some form of understanding and compromise. "
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