Generals pay a visit to 701 COS in Korea

  • Published
  • By Capt. Young Kim
  • 701 COS
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  "Without the 701st [Combat Operations Squadron], we simply cannot execute our wartime mission," Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Remington, commander, Seventh Air Force, at Osan Air Base, frankly and routinely reports.

"The 701st flies in ready to go and provides the continuity and depth of knowledge otherwise lacking in this theater due to the regular Air Force's PCS cycles. I count on this unit as a critical node in my training and sustainment protocols across the entire [Air and Space Operation Center]," added Brig. Gen. Michael Keltz, commander, 607th Air and Space Operation Center.

The 701st Combat Operations Squadron is a Reserve Air and Space Operations Center (AOC) unit and located at March Air Reserve Base with a detachment at Hickam Air Force Base. It was created in 1996, specifically to provide an experienced cadre to support full spectrum (armistice through war) contingency operations to the Korean AOC. The 701st has been specifically recognized as the template for Air Reserve component support to the regular Air Force's five "Falconer" AOCs during nearly every CORONA Conference since the unit's inception.

Being dedicated primarily to a single theater, the unit typically travels en masse, but upon arriving in Korea, disperses across a broad spectrum of mission and duty sets encompassing each of the five AOC divisions as well as logistics, personnel and air component coordination element teams supporting the joint peninsula war fighters.

Specifically, key 701st members serve as the Commander of Air Force Forces; AOC Director; Chief of Combat Operations; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division Chief; Chief of Combat Plans; Chief of Strategy; and Chief of Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems. Others work is positions ranging from superintendent to duty officers to assistant division chiefs in targeting, intelligence, strategy, communications, logistics and space operations--virtually every section of the component Numbered Air Force structure under the Seventh Air Force.

From the end of Feb. to the middle of March, 84 airmen from the 701st at March Air Reserve Base deployed to Osan Air Base in support of KEY RESOLVE 2010.

Maj. Gen. Martin Mazick, Air Force Reserve Command Vice Commander, Maj. Gen. Frank Padilla, Tenth Air Force Commander and Col. Jeffrey Mineo, 940th Wing (the parent wing of the 701st at Beale AFB) made the trip to gain an in-depth understanding of the overall Air Force mission in the Korean AOR as well as to meet with key Combined Forces Command leadership to determine how the Reserve Com¬mand can continue to improve its integration with the regular Air Force.

They visited Command Post Tango where Gen. Walter Sharp, United States Forces Korea Commander and Commander, United Nations Command, oversees and directs all Services on the Korean Peninsula during contingency operations or times of crisis.

The capstone of the distinguished guests' visit was a trip to the demilitarized zone on the border between North and South Korea and a helicopter tour of the area. The tour "brought home the importance and relevance of the mission and the Air Force Reserve Command's involvement in the Korean Area of Operations," said General Mazick.

"Clearly, the 701st is key to carrying out that mission and that fact has been reinforced by senior leaders across every service we've met with on this Peninsula," echoed General Padilla.

For Colonel Mineo, who previously served as the Chief of Combat Operations in the AOC when he was the director of operations at the 701st, said the trip reinforced what he already understood about the unit's Korean mission, but more importantly, served to update him on the changes in five years since he left the 701st to stand up their sister unit, the 710 COS at Langley AFB.

Colonel Mineo explained that he was "highly encouraged to see what was started in 1996 is still a valid, robust relationship that has continually adapted to meet total force requirements and highlights what the Reserve brings to this critical fight."