The Change Brokers - Air Force

Airman, May, 2001 by Louis A. Arana-Barradas

A group of Americans help to boost U.S.-Chilean military ties

As he switched the cell phone from one ear to the other, Lt. Col. Dana Willis kicked back in his chair. He loosened his tie a bit and ran his hand through his sandy-blond hair. He talked in accented, but good Spanish, and jotted notes on a pad.

Promising his caller he'd get back with an answer soon, he bid "adios." He hung up and scribbled more notes. A moment later, his desk phone rang. Minutes later, he told the caller he'd have an answer to him by that afternoon. More notes went on the pad.

Being a slave to his phone is something Willis has learned to live with. He's on the phone dozens of times a day. But that's OK with him.

"You gotta know what's going on," he said. "It's the only way to stay ahead of the game."

The "game" Willis plays is a key one. As Air Force section chief for the U.S. Military Group in Santiago, he's the United States' direct link to the Chilean air force. He brokers nearly all dealings between the two air forces. And that means adapting to change.

That's not always easy, said Willis, a tanker navigator. But he said this desk job in Chile's capital has been the most challenging of his 20-year career.

"You juggle two bureaucracies, languages and cultures," he said. "On the surface, many things are alike. But scratch down a bit, and there's a world of difference."

The group tries to make the differences go away. Based at the American embassy, it has an Air Force commander. There are Army and Navy section chiefs, a foreign area officer and a noncommissioned officer in charge of operations.

The task at hand

Most countries have U.S. military groups or like agencies. They work for U.S. theater commanders and act as their envoys to the U.S. ambassador. Chile's reports to U.S. Southern Command in Miami.

It manages security assistance programs and special activities with Chile's military. These include programs to sell, finance and donate military items. The Chilean air force, for example, is buying American F-16 Fighting Falcons and night-vision goggles.

Other help includes counterdrug and humanitarian aid. But most contacts involve exchanges, exercises and deployments. There are a host of programs to do that. Some are simple one-on-one exchanges. Others are more involved.

Willis said people-to-people contacts are the group's bread and butter (See "A Bit of Give and Take," April '01). The two countries send service members to each other's technical schools, professional military education courses, war colleges and service academies. They swap troops for duty in each other's armed forces.

The aim is to beef up military ties. It's a way for the nations to build confidence in each other's military. And a way to swap information that's key to security in the region. Chile's group deals with military sales, training and military-to-military events.

"We have simple goals," said Col. Alex Trujillo, group commander. "Get the Chileans to understand how our military works, and our people to learn how they work."

Groups have worked in Latin America for decades. They want to make them strong U.S. allies. And more aware of U.S. foreign policy and human rights concerns, Trujillo said.

In Chile's case, the group wants to prepare troops for a more active role in U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts. And Chile wants to be more involved.

"In all we do with the Chileans, we want to show them the professionalism of our military and how it depends on civilian leadership," he said.

That's a new -- and sometimes hard to accept -- concept for many Latin American countries which have emerged from long rule by military dictatorships. Chile is one of them.

Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile during a bloody military coup Sept. 11, 1973. He ordered air force jets to bomb the presidential palace in the center of Santiago. The United States cut off military ties with Chile. The contact void lasted some 13 years.

Military relations got back on track when democratic rule returned to Chile in 1990. But getting some of the "old guard" to forget the lost decade isn't easy, Trujillo said. The subject comes up regularly at meetings. It has hampered some projects.

But things are changing. The group is working with a new generation of officers and noncommissioned officers. Trujillo said most know what happened some 30 years ago "was a political thing that has nothing to do" with them or what Chile's military wants today.

"Most say it's time to move forward, become interoperable, and learn from each other," he said. "And that's what we're for."

Second Lt. Manuel Alvear is with the "new guard." A physical therapist, he's worked with the U.S. Air Force. Seeing how his American counterparts work was invaluable.

"We're not much different in our work ethic," Alvear said. "I know we have the potential to reach just as high a level of competency in our work as the Americans." To make that happen, he said Chile must continue working with the U.S. military. "That's easy to see."

Col. Ariel Alvarez agrees. A career airman, he heads the Chilean air force's search and rescue service. He's part of the old guard, but not stuck in the past. He welcomes change.