From Georgia With Love

By Col. Ed Wexler
Human Resources Director

(Col Ed Wexler recently returned from Georgia accompanying members of JOPS and members of our Partnership for Peace operations. Col Wexler shares his perspective of this unique trip to this former Soviet satellite nation.)

When I entered the Air Force as a new Second Lieutenant in 1968, the Vietnam War was raging but our universal adversary was Russia and the Soviet Union.  All of our strategic effort and most of our training centered on containing and or/turning back the Soviets, most likely if they were bold enough to cross in what was then West Germany.

In those early days as a military officer, I occasionally imagined being part of that future great struggle.  Fortunately WW III never happened.  Likewise, never in my wildest imagination, did I envision a visit to a country belonging to the former Soviet Union for the purposes of helping develop a National Guard.  Needless to say times have changed since the demise of the Soviet Union and the retreat of the "Russian Bear". In 1990, I recall vividly watching the Berlin Wall come down and having a feeling of great accomplishment that the United States had finally won the 50 year "cold war".  

Last month I had the opportunity to visit the Georgian Republic with several members of our National Guard Joint Operations Directorate.  Georgia is a nation of five million people, and shares borders with Russia to the north and Turkey to the south.  Georgia has important port facilities on the Black Sea.  The Georgian National Guard was established in 1990 and in 1993 our National Guard Bureau established the State Partnership Program (SPP).  The goal of  our SPP is to promote and improve regional stability and civil and military relationships tailored to meet both U.S. and Georgian objectives. 

Our Georgia National Guard has had a strong and successful partnership with Georgia since 1995.  A well defined action plan has been developed which outlined the continuing purposes and objectives of our SPP.  Like our own Guard, the Georgian National Guard is tasked with three missions; response to: external threats (war); civil disturbances; and natural disasters. It is community based.  Unlike our reserve component, the Georgian National Guard does not receive pay for drills or training.  National pride and patriotism are the motivators for their National Guard service. Their goal is to have a 10,000 person Georgian National Guard.   Less than 50 Georgian National Guard members are paid, full time employees. 

On the first day of our visit, our group was met at our hotel, a very modern Marriott,  by our driver and an interpreter.  We drove to the National Guard Headquarters building.  I suspect it was a former Russian military facility, five stories high with a wall surrounding, very solid but not very well constructed.   We were soon escorted into the office of the commanding general, Brig Gen Samson Kutateladze. He likes to be called "General Soso".  He warmly welcomed us in English and listened intently as we explained our goals for the visit.  His office was furnished with many plaques and keepsakes from our Georgia National Guard. 

Of particular interest to me was a C-130 print from the 165^th Airlift Wing previously presented by none other than Col Rick Poppell.  I took the opportunity to give General Soso one of our new ANG Headquarters coins and he happily accepted it.  After our visit with the general,  we began discussions with his key staff again through the interpreter although I suspect several of the colonels we would work with had some knowledge of English.

Over the course of the next three days, we reviewed the progress of thirty previously established goals.  Some of these included developing a Strength Accountability Report, a Personnel Readiness Handbook, establishing an Employer Support program (remember they don't get paid by the military), developing a Recruiting and Retention plan, conducting periodic Medical Screenings and issuing Military I.D. Cards.  All of these objectives are very basic and are things we certainly take for granted but pose some unique challenges in a developing country. Other objectives are more complex like improving communications methods between the mobilization stations in each of the 70 counties in Georgia where Guardsmen would report when needed.

I was informed that the primary means of voice communications is the cell phone.  Data was passed primarily by fax machine but not all locations had reliable fax equipment.  Use of computers is in its infancy.  In the entire Georgia National Guard, only General Soso had internet connectivity, so they have a long way to go.

All of our suggestions were graciously accepted but clearly financial and material resources are limiting factors.  The Georgians had established a Ceremonial Drill Unit with what appeared to be soviet style dress uniforms.  One of our team members, Maj Steve Ballew, is an alumni and now ROTC instructor at North Georgia College.  As a cadet, Steve was a member of the North Georgia Drill team.  He patiently coached the Georgian team for hours on end.  By the time Steve was finished, they were doing rifle spins with bayonets.  The development of this team was of great interest to Gen Soso as he spent time every day observing their progress.  In fact the local television station was called in to interview Maj Belou.

I presented the Ceremonial Unit Commander with an Air Force Colonel's coin.  We became minor celebrities around our hotel after our 60 seconds of TV fame.  On our final day, we out briefed Gen Soso and discussed the next planned visit.  Our evenings were spent at various restaurants in the capitol city, Tbilisi.   I found the food great and reasonably priced and the people we met extremely friendly.  They truly love the United States.  All around town were billboards depicting President George Bush and Georgian President Saakashvili after a recent, highly acclaimed State visit in May 2005.  Shaakashvili was educated in the USA.

We made an afternoon trip to the orphanage which our National Guard has adopted.  Each of us  brought a large quantity of clothing, shoes, toys and toothbrushes, etc. from the states. The orphanage cares for over 125 kids.  Happily, they appeared well cared for and loved by the staff.  Our final night involved a banquet (Georgia word Supra) hosted out in the countryside by some Georgian government officials.  Our host spoke English very well, although again we had an interpreter with us just in case.   Ironically, our host's father was a KGB colonel and in fact our host had served in the Soviet military.  We had more food than we could possibly eat and Georgian wine and toasting were predominant.  If you have followed my rambling recount to this point, I started off talking about the Russians.

Well amazingly there are two Russian military bases still remaining in Georgia.  My understanding is that they will remain in place for another 3 years.  The purpose of these Russian bases is unknown to me but I suspect they are manned by the Russians as contingency bases. While I have been fortunate, courtesy of the Air Force, to live in the orient for three years and travel extensively in Europe, Africa, Central America and the Middle East, I will count this quick visit to Georgia as a most memorable experience.  The people are gracious and friendly.  They appear to love Americans and I came away with the satisfaction that we are making a difference as Georgia emerges from foreign domination along the path of democracy.  My advice......if you get a chance to go to Georgia, don't pass it up.

In October 2002, America’s first total force wing took flight as the 116th ACW and made history by combining active-duty Airmen and Soldiers from the 93rd ACW, along with Georgia Air National Guardsmen from the 116th Bomb Wing. The two wings formed one cohesive unit, flying the E-8C -- the world’s only Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.

The merger combined the talents of Airmen, Soldiers, guardsmen and civilians to train and deploy combat mission-ready aircrews to conduct ground surveillance, target detection, and battle tracking necessary for the plans and operations of joint force commanders around the world.