Airmen lay groundwork for Bush visit to Africa

[unhappycamper]

Airmen lay groundwork for Bush visit to Africa
By Patrick Winn - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 20, 2008 5:23:06 EST

President George Bush’s five-nation tour through Africa, in the wake of debuting the Defense Department’s new Africa Command, is propped up by a slew of airmen setting up medical evacuation routes, satellite feeds and more.

Bush, arriving in Rwanda on Tuesday to honor victims in the East African nation’s 1990s genocide, has already visited Benin and Tanzania. Bush and his wife, Laura, will also stop in Ghana and Liberia— both on Africa’s west coast — before returning home Thursday.

A team of airmen — as well as sailors, Marines and soldiers — are traveling a few steps ahead of the president to lay down communications networks, security plans and emergency medical contingency plans for Bush or his three plane-loads of staff.

Lack of power converters and crowded work spaces have challenged the set-up teams, but they “adapt and overcome,” said Air Force Maj. Leo Gage, an advance echelon team chief. “We plan and prepare for the unexpected. That's part of the job. We can't go to a foreign destination and expect everything to be like it is at home." Airmen from South Carolina’s Shaw Air Force Base, Italy’s Aviano Air Force Base and Germany’s Ramstein Air Force Base are taking part.

Any conversations with African leaders about Africa Command — a Germany-headquartered command praised by Bush and set up in October, have not been public. Expecting Bush to arrive in Ghana Tuesday night, its leader John Kufuor has said he won’t discuss Africa Command with Bush, only aid and security concerns.


Rest of Africom article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/02/airforce_africa_bush_080219/