Photo By Master Sgt. Jim Greenhill | Members of the Colorado National Guard join Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the...... read more read more
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AL-BATRA, Jordan — Sitting in a Royal Jordanian Air Force helicopter near a 2,000-year-old city once believed to hide treasure, two of America's adjutants general called the National Guard's State Partnership Program a treasure for their states.
Maj. Gen. Howard Michael "Mike" Edwards, the adjutant general of the Colorado National Guard, and Maj. Gen. Stanhope S. Spears, the adjutant general of the South Carolina National Guard, were accompanying Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, and other National Guard leaders for a multiday visit to this country of six million at the heart of the Middle East, bordered by Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the West Bank.
Jordan is Colorado's SPP partner — a young, but blossoming pairing.
"A superb relationship has built since 2004," Edwards said. "When you look at the two, the state of Colorado and the country of Jordan, we really match up very closely."
The two share common military-to-military ground, such as both flying F-16 Flying Falcon fighter jets. They also share civilian issues, such as water scarcity and similar arid climates.
The State Partnership Program started in 1993, following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. State partnerships foster military-to-military, military-to-civilian and civilian-to-civilian cooperation. There are currently 62 SPP partners.
"I'm an idealist," Edwards said, "and so coming to Jordan and realizing what they strive for and the things that they've been through as they try to be the peacemaker in this region, that gives me ... so much respect for what they try to do, the courage of the king and the courage of the Jordanian people as they strive to be peacemakers."
Colorado has assisted Jordan with issues and training related to the F-16 and also rotary-wing aircraft, Edwards said. Colorado's high-altitude flying challenges are similar to Jordan's desert challenges; Colorado's heat-related power management issues too are echoed in Jordan.
The state and the nation-state also have shared knowledge about emergency medical response, border security and responding to natural and manmade domestic disasters, the Guard's bread and butter.
The young partnership has flourished because of the tone set by Jordan's Prince Feisal Ibn Al-Hussein and Jordanian officers, Edwards said. "It's very easy to become really close friends — like family — so that has allowed this relationship to just flourish," Edwards said.
Spears leads a state, South Carolina, assisting another state's program and seeking an SPP partnership of its own.
"We think it's just wonderful for the U.S. military to become involved with other countries," Spears said, "and to just prove that the United States is interested in supporting the rest of the world. ... The partnership that Colorado has with Jordan is just absolutely fantastic."
In the latest SPP-related event, the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard represented the United States at the 17-day Falcon Air Meet, an annual, bilateral exercise between America, Belgium, the Royal Jordanian Air Force and other regional countries that fly the F-16, while the 140th Wing from the Colorado Air Guard provided judges.
The potential benefits of a partnership to South Carolina are many, Spears said.
"It gets our people out of the state into another foreign country to see how they live, how they work, how they manage their families," he said. "We can take our expertise from South Carolina ... to another country, and they in turn can come visit with us and get to know our people."
Spears said watching his state's Guardmembers represent the United States in competition with other countries at the Falcon Air Meet at Mwaffaq Salti Air Base, near the small town of Azraq, about 62 miles east of Amman, was a proud moment.
"It sharpens the tactics and the ability of our pilots to be able to handle any ... situation," he said. "I was just thoroughly impressed by everything that I saw. I was just proud and impressed with the way the South Carolinians acted and performed."
Said Edwards, "It's an opportunity to help improve the other countries that we are in competition with and, as Prince Feisal says, it's a camaraderie. ... The competition promotes the opportunity to observe and to improve your own technique, whether it be Jordan, whether it be the U.S. or ... any other nation that's involved. Winning isn't everything — it's the sharing of techniques and procedures that is so important."
Edwards said exchanges between Colorado and Jordan enrich his state and its Guardmembers. He cited the experience of officers and their families stationed in Jordan who have immersed themselves in the culture and learned the language.
"They bring that enthusiasm back home," Edwards said. That, in turn, percolates through the Guard, increasing the sophistication of Citizen-Soldiers' and -Airmen's understanding of diverse cultures and global geopolitics.
"A country looks to the United States for assistance and help," Edwards said, "but yet one of the things I see here in Jordan is that we learn from them."
How Jordan handles water scarcity and pressure on its water supply from bordering nation-states carries lessons for Colorado, faced with scarcity of its own and competition from other states for its water supply, Edwards said. "When I say 'partnership,' it's a partnership," he said. "We're learning from each other. It makes us all better."
Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Lawrence, the most senior enlisted Soldier in the Colorado National Guard, said SPP enriches Guard members at all levels, from privates to the most senior officers. Lawrence cited Colorado's second and older partnership with Slovenia.
"We've had hundreds of traditional Guard members deploy for their annual training to Slovenia," he said. "Those Soldiers ... come back even more proud to be a Guardmember. They come back and they tell their employers, they tell the people in their lives, their families, 'As a Guardmember, I'm able to do this.' It builds up the Guard overall for professional development. Our Soldiers are ... the model. Their actions are watched. They're teaching an entire other nation what they do, what their profession is about."
SPP does simply this for Colorado, Lawrence said: Build a stronger, more culturally aware force. "We know that it's making them a better Soldier and a better citizen," he said.
Lawrence said he's looking forward to increased NCO support in the Jordan partnership. "We're not going to tell them how to do it," he said. "We're going to show them a way."
Jordan is a good partner, Lawrence said. "It's a beautiful country. The people are very friendly. You're in the cradle of civilization. It's awe-inspiring."
Partner nations are interested in the NCO corps, which many Army leaders call the envy of the world.
"The NCO corps sets the United States Army and all of its components — the Reserve and the National Guard — apart from every other military in the world," Lawrence said. "Our sister countries look to us to show them the example of the NCO corps. When they come to Colorado, they want to see how an NCO enables a unit — its Soldiers — to accomplish the mission."
McKinley's visit is in part a learning mission to determine how the National Guard Bureau can help the nation's 54 adjutants general make the SPP even better, he said.
"Advocacy is the best thing that they can do," Edwards said. "NGB can help resource [SPP]. Working with the [combatant] commands, the advocacy of the importance of the program is probably the biggest thing that they can do, because it's the combatant commands that do the financing and the resourcing."
| Date Taken: | 10.30.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 10.30.2009 20:44 |
| Story ID: | 40877 |
| Location: | AL-BATRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 705 |
| Downloads: | 409 |
This work, Adjutants general: State Partnership Program enriches National Guard, by MSG Jim Greenhill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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