Puerto Rico Air National Guard meeting with higher headquarters sets stage for future ops

Photo By Maj. Matt Murphy | Members of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard and Maj. Gen. Jose Reyes, the adjutant general for Puerto Rico, gather in the hall of flags after briefings for the State of the State to Air National Guard Readiness Center leadership at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. David Fenner)  

GUAYNABO, PUERTO RICO

10.30.2019

Story by Ricardo Castrodad 

156th Wing

The Adjutant General of Puerto Rico along with Puerto Rico Air National Guard (PRANG) leaders, officers and enlisted per-sonnel delivered the state of the island’s Air National Guard to the Air National Guard Readiness Center (ANGRC) at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday, in Maryland.

“Today is an important day for our Puerto Rico Air National Guard” said Maj. Gen. Jose Juan Reyes, Adjutant General of Puerto Rico. “We met with our higher Air National Guard lead-ership and presented our strategic road map and support re-quests to accomplish major infrastructure projects to redevelop PRANG facilities and move forward in the conversion process to our new Combat Communications and Contingency Re-sponse missions. These missions, when fully operational, will make us a ready, relevant and deployable force in support of our National Defense Strategy, with the necessary emergency response capabilities to support the island and the region in the event of a natural disaster.

During the visit to ANGRC, approximately 40 officers and non-commissioned officers of the PRANG networked and met with their functional area managers to identify re-quirements and communicate support requests in their re-spective areas.

“This visit was extremely valuable for our workforce,” said Brig. Gen. Travis Acheson, Puerto Rico National Guard Assistant Adjutant General for Air. “Reporting to and syn-chronizing with higher headquarters is essential for con-verting to our new missions and meeting our organization’s long term planning needs to protect our nation and support the people of Puerto Rico. This face to face interaction with our stateside counterparts allow us to effectively coordinate and convey emergent needs in the event of another natural disaster.”

With these new missions, the PRANG will establish a Prime Base Engineering Emergency Force to augment Civil Engineer-ing forces, and will also support the U.S. Southern Command’s Host Nation Rider Program with bilingual Airmen conducting counterdrug and counternarcounterterrorism efforts throughout South, Central America and the Caribbean.

• Date Taken: 10.30.2019
• Date Posted: 10.31.2019 14:47
• Story ID: 350070
• Location: GUAYNABO, PR