Wave Of Change - operation Kuter at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii

Pacific Air Forces headquarters swept up by Operation Kuter

Palm trees and lush green grass surround the Pacific Air Forces headquarters building at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. The buliding is a multifloor, multiwinged monster that gobbles up more than eight blocks of real estate on this picturesque base carved out of paradise on the southwest side of Honolulu.

The tropical trappings, along with the beautiful weather, lull the casual observer into thinking everything in the command is business as usual. But, peer beneath the palm fronds and meticulously clipped grass, and you'll notice a wave of change. The ripples reach from America's west coast to Africa's east coast.

The architect of the wave and catalyst for change is Gen. Patrick K. Gamble, the command's outgoing commander. In his two and a half years in the Pacific, he has started a change known to those on his staff as "Operation Kuter."

The name may sound strange, even funny. But here in paradise, technology, restructuring and a complete culture shift are coming together with typhoon force to reshape one of the Air Force's oldest major commands.

The operation, named for the first PACAF commander, Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, attacks several major needs Gamble noticed at the headquarters after taking charge in 1998.

"Our peacetime purpose used to be just to organize, train and equip," Gamble said. "We were an administrative peacetime headquarters. That's what we did in years past. But, I saw we were constantly getting more involved in supporting operational activities. Now we don't have test and evaluation, and we don't have a lot of requirements generations -- the kinds of things that go on at the lead commands like Air Combat Command. But our regional mission execution now routinely involves operational support up through the major command staff to get the job done. We execute!"

And the command executes in a massive area of operations, about 100 million square miles, encompassing 44 countries with more than 2 billion people. Oh, yeah, it operates in a traditionally Navy-dominated theater. That's how it works when more than two-thirds of the theater is covered by water.

About six months into his stint as PACAF boss, Gamble realized his headquarters was very good at organizing, training and equipping. But it wasn't so good at tracking operational taskings.

"In that area, I didn't think we were filling the bill," he said. "It wasn't anybody's fault. We just hadn't modified how we operate in light of transformation efforts to an aerospace expeditionary force."

Change was needed. Enter Kuter. Launched more than a year ago, it's improving command, control and communications, and is putting "operational" into the headquarters mix, according to Gamble.

The change has three parts: a Pacific operations support center, a contingency response squadron and an air operations group.

The most visible impact so far is the operations center. It's a large, state-of-the-art command center located in the heart of the headquarters building. Enter the center and you feel Kuter's high-tech aspect. Touchscreen monitors connected to multidisplay projection systems, a touch of cool mood lighting, and the center looks and feels like a command module on a space-age movie set. All that's missing is the voice-activated doors and a couple of Klingons.

The gadgets are neat. The effect alluring. But the center's wizardry serves a vital role. Compare Operation Kuter to the human body, and this ops center becomes PACAF's brain and central nervous system. Nothing happens in Pacific airspace without it knowing. It's the information mover for decision-makers.

Believe it or not, less than a year ago, Gamble didn't have a one-stop shopping entity in place to turn to for on demand information. It was all hodge and not much podge.

The high-tech operations center solved that problem. Kuter also brought about another entity called the contingency response squadron. It's a new unit stationed at Guam -- PACAF's 911 force.

"The CRS was born from lessons learned in the Balkans," Gamble said. "In Kosovo they found when they had to go into an airfield, a small field never seen before, they didn't know what they're were getting into until they looked at it. The lesson is we've got to get eyes on the target."

The squadron is the command's eyes. It's job is to fly into contingency operations first and evaluate the situation, surroundings and terrain. Gamble's only direction to the planners was that the team had to fit in one C-130.

"Build me one C-130's worth of capability," Gamble said. "Tell me what you need, what the team ought to look like, and what kind of communications and assessment equipment it'll need. You'll get it."

The squadron began operations in April.

The last, and largest piece of Kuter, is the air operations group. The command is building the 502nd Air Operations Group at Hickam. The 502nd is a result again from lessons learned in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans. In Europe, the combined air operations center during Kosovo had 1,500 people assigned, and it orchestrated the air war -- from intelligence gathering to target selection and mission planning.

The group is the command's answer to everything in PACAF non-Korea related, Gamble said.

The challenge for the group hinges on the fact the Pacific is a Navy-dominated operation. When Pacific Command, the owner of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, goes to war, its command center will be a ship -- most likely the USS Coronado. The Coronado is a high-speed, high-tech, command and control warship. The problem is it's a ship. By their nature, ships limit the number of people on a battle staff.

"We had 1,500 people in the Europe combined air operations center. We might be able to squeeze 300 airmen aboard the Coronado to work 24-hour operations," Gamble said. "We have really defined the need for 'reach-back,' as a result of the way we have to fight jointly here in the Pacific. That 1,500-man air operations center obviously won't fit on that ship, so it'll reach back here to get that support."

That's where the 502nd comes into play. It provides the team that goes forward to work operations on the command ship while also providing the reach-back capability at Hickam.

"Most of the changes are transparent to those folks outside the headquarters," said Col. Ed Groeninger, group commander. "What we're doing isn't going to make the guys at Kadena [Air Base, Japan] fly better or make the airplanes operate better. But, in the joint fight, we will enable that Air Force commander -- the joint forces air component commander -- to do his job and win."

"When complete, we will deliver an Air Force capability to Pacific Command it's never had before," Gamble insisted.

Between now and December the command will test the elements of Kuter.

"We crawl, walk and then run with this operation. But the final test should come in December, if everything stays on schedule," Groeninger said.

That timetable, and the fact PACAF is close to fielding this new "operational" capability, has folks in this little slice of paradise excited.

"I've been here since the beginning," said Ma]. Michael McCullough, who was hired two years ago as PACAF's crisis action team director and is now the operations support center director. "I've seen these changes take shape and move forward. I am excited about seeing what happens over the next year."

Gamble, the architect of the change, won't be there to see it to fruition. He retires this month. But that's OK with this 33-year Air Force veteran.

"Maybe I'll get to come back and see it as a civilian," he said with a smile.

In either case, Kuter's impact will wash across the Pacific for years to come.

COPYRIGHT 2001 U.S. Air Force, Air Force News Agency
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group