Hickam colonel represents AF at RSC-Capital

Published May 3, 2011
By Staff Sgt. Carolyn (Viss) Herrick
JBPHH Public Affairs

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- When Col. Bob Wicks left the beaches of Hawaii for a year in the mountains of Afghanistan, he knew he would be the only Air Force O-6 in a group of six otherwise Army commanders in Regional Support Command-Capital.

He didn't know exactly what challenges this deployment would entail, but he knew his 25 years of military experience were good preparation for the next 365 days.

"The Air Force is sending a lot more individual augmentees to Afghanistan. (We're) doing a lot more 'unconventional' things, things we never used to do," said the director of space forces for 13th Air Force, who deployed from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to Camp Phoenix eight months ago and returned for his mid-tour leave April 14. "That (includes) everything from personal security details out on the road to working as mentors to developing Afghan national police, and Afghan national army and air force."

The six RSCs in Afghanistan fall underneath the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, Colonel Wicks explained. NTM-A is underneath the International Security Assistance Forces, and the overall mission of NTM-A is to help develop Afghan security forces so that they can provide security for their own country. Doing so requires developing the Afghan army, air force, and police forces from scratch. These six regions each have their own commanders, one of whom is Colonel Wicks. They are in theater to help build infrastructure, recruit, train, provide literacy courses, and more.

It's what Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, the NTM-A commander, calls "command and control" -- building infrastructure and putting together logistical support contracts and overseeing training in the region.

"It's different than space operations, obviously, but command is command, and I have great people working for me," Colonel Wicks said. "My No. 1 priority is ensuring the safety of the people because we run 150 missions a month outside the wire. Everybody's outside the wire four or five days a week in one of the most dangerous areas."

In a terrain freckled with improvised explosive devices, and much unrest in the Kabul region with a lot of Taliban coming in as a result of the burning of the Koran incident, he said the job has its share of challenges. Just a couple weeks ago, there was a 30-minute firefight with rocket-propelled grenades and suicide bombers right at the front gate.

"I was about 100 yards away when the suicide bomber exploded. It was so loud," said Colonel Wicks, who had guys getting ready to go out the front gate on a mission that very morning. "It's kind of unnerving. I have to look at every mission and determine whether or not I'm going to let them go out that day, depending on the intel(ligence)."

Recently, some big projects included building four forward-operating bases for the Afghan army, at $5 million per base.

According to Colonel Wicks, one of the things General David H. Petraeus, Commander of International Security Assistance Force and Commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, said in a recent conference was that he's seen a lot of improvement in security in the capital region. That improvement is a direct reflection of the work Colonel Wicks' command has done there to protect the 4.5 million people in the Kabul region.

The job certainly has its challenges, he said.

"Personally, the challenge is that you're gone and isolated for a year," Colonel Wicks said. "You're living in a steel can, going to work at seven in the morning and wrapping up at nine, maybe 10 at night."

Professionally, the constant concern of safety is the greatest challenge, but working with the Afghans is also difficult at times due to low literacy rates and a large amount of corruption. Seeing the living conditions throughout the country is also shocking at times, he said.

But right alongside those challenges come the rewards of seeing the good that's come out of all their hard work and interacting with Afghans.

"The amount of growth we've seen in the last year is really amazing," Colonel Wicks said. "Literacy rates have increased, and the number of Afghan national security forces has increased dramatically since the surge. Those things don't get reported on much. Here, you can actually see the results of what you're doing."