U.S. Army General Darryl A. Williams has now assumed command of NATO Allied Land Command from U.S. Army Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier Jr. during a Change of Command Ceremony at NATO General Vechi Akin Garrison.
With military leaders from across the NATO Alliance, diplomats, LANDCOM staff and distinguished members of the local community in attendance, Gen. Williams spoke about his return to Izmir and how excited he is to serve again as the LANDCOM Commander.
“I am privileged to once again join this outstanding team, and to reconnect with this beautiful country of Türkiye,” Gen. Williams said.
“As the Commander of LANDCOM and U.S. Army Europe and Africa, my main effort is readiness. To provide readiness to the alliance. Our forces number one job is to be ready – to be able to defend our freedoms and interests wherever and whenever necessary. This will always be my focus as your Commander.”
NATO say here that the Change of Command Ceremony is a critical cornerstone for a headquarters as it represents the responsibility, authority and accountability of the command, and ensures the unit and its soldiers are never without official leadership.
“Today’s ceremony was presided over by Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli. During his address, Gen. Cavoli thanked Gen. Cloutier for his relentless pursuit of excellence, his distinguished service and lasting impact on the men and women that served for and along side him.”
Gen. Cavoli also reiterated to those present on the strength and resolve of NATO.
“This Alliance is the greatest alliance in human history. We deter and we defend the entire European land area. And right now our task has become ever more important in response to the illegal and unprovoked Russian invasion to Ukraine. LANDCOM leading the way has been central to adopting NATO’s posture to ensure we remain ready to deter and defend.”
General Williams is the sixth commander to take the leadership reigns at LANDCOM, and the first four-star to do so. He currently commands U.S. Army Europe and Africa in Wiesbaden, Germany, and was previously the first African American Superintendent of the United States Military Academy.
Nice selection of stories this morning, @George.
Do you have anything on the Sky scoop wrt the RAF allegedly freezing recruitment of white men in order to prioritise diversity targets?
In the press it’s going to be framed as part of a partisan political argument in a descending spiral, and I’d welcome a (partial?) confirmation or debunking from the less partisan coverage here.
here.https://news.sky.com/story/raf-pauses-job-offers-for-white-men-to-meet-impossible-diversity-targets-12674409
I’m cynical enough to think it’s exactly what could happen, or could equally well be leaked as a distraction.
At a time when apparently we have ~7 F35B to go between two aircraft carriers, only 60 airworthy Typhoons out of the 175 bought – and those do not have the latest radars – and the Herc fleet being run down, the issue really is how many pilots are we training? The general public is not allowed to know (can’t possibly rock the boat old boy) but you can bet your bottom dollar that the Russians certainly do.
The last thing the RAF needs now is wokery from the senior ranks
Well said that man!
I hope you both have your tin hats ready… how very dare you question this sort of thing…
There is a Gramscian neo-Marxist Revolution going on upper classes of society Every one in top management has to be woke. This is not only only RAF.
Why do you think they got there?
From the top Radakin…
It’s quite funny if you consider the class of our latterday Revolutionaries.
Not a few of them are aristocrats or top tier wealthies who don’t seem to have any problem at all with their own status.
My favourite was the family of one of Corbyn’s sidekicks who previously sold off a Picasso and made £50m.
It is the so called “Luxury Beliefs” one of ways for the elite to distinguish from the crowd.
It is clear in human psych that after getting rich(bourgeoise) people want to justify their existence by establishing a ruling class (aristocracy/religion). Politics is the last religion.
Maybe white working class are not interested to join the RAF or the pay isn’t good enough in this post pandemic inflation world? The RAF if it has no budget to increase pay will resort to engage ethnic minorities who are willing to take up the job, if it does not, it will be accused of failure. Maybe he saw a better recruitment response from the ethnic minorities that are British ? I see nothing wrong with this at all! Ethnic minorities already serve in the navy and army and they are British citizens many died for Britain
Nobody anywhere is saying they shouldn’t…No- one anywhere is requesting any discrimination or ‘positive bias’ (which is the same thing) …unless , of course , this is true in which case the RAF are . If you see nothing wrong in that – then ask yourself this…Would you feel the same way if they decided not to employ BAME candidates using the same criteria. Its a sad indictment of the indoctrination into all walks of life of this subvervise and divisive so called ‘diversity’ mantra.
Bravo. Nail on head. If it was no BAME there would be riots in the streets and a melt down in Labour,the Guardian, the SWP, BLM,and all the rest.
As it is, in a nation 84% or something white, and that is discriminated against excluding the very people who make up the majority of your force and the people it recruits from??
This nations gone wrong, badly.
Let’s choose the right people, not exclude based on any colour.
“If it was no BAME there would be riots in the streets and a melt down in Labour,the Guardian, the SWP, BLM,and all the rest.”
Are you proposing that we get rid of all the minorities?
No! 🙄 I’m saying look at the headlines if the RAF introduced a no BAME policy for recruitment.
There would be outrage, rightly.
Why is anyone surprised when it’s the other way round people are angry.
Cheers DM, Personally I’m always uncomfortable with any situation where a certain group is excluded but context is always important. It’s undeniably that well qualified minorities have always been passed over for certain positions whether in the military or the larger society. Policies intended to make a more fair and equitable system is not necessarily discrimination against a particular group, unless the goal is to cynically say… too bad if you’re not a white male. It’s also quite telling that the whenever we see a minority getting one of these positions, the almost reflexive response of many on this board… Read more »
Of course. 👍
“Would you feel the same way if they decided not to employ BAME candidates using the same criteria”
Hasn’t that always been the case historically, or are we pretending things have always been equal for minorities?
One hundred per cent agreement from me David but points not always well received.😉
Would love to see an article on Russian threats to take down an RAF Rivet Joint planned flight.
Shhh – somebody probaby decided on the “provocative” flightpath specifically to goad the Russians into lighting up the skies with radars etc – we get the locations, power curves and characteristics of their systems – The Russians do it all the time to us with their Bear flights near Scotlands’ airspace
I note Gen. Williams is focused on readiness. On the face of it this a good thing, but I wonder what that means for those NATO forces not included as part of the high readiness NATO Response Force (NRF). Expanding the NRF from its initial 40,000 to a planned 300,000 is a good move but I worry that nations will rob Peter to pay Paul i.e. they will focus their spending on their contribution to the NRF at the expense of the rest of their forces. Such a trend will rob nations and NATO of depth. Never a good thing… Read more »
Readiness is of course important for all NATO assigned (or potentially assigned forces) not just those held at high readiness.
Very good point you make that the definition of readiness has to be a good one and which cannot be fudged.
I remember the days of the NATO Operational Readiness Test (ORT) in Germany – that was a much feared and quite effective way to assess readiness.
Hi Graham, I think there are lessons to be learnt from Ukraine already and one of them is the need for depth of forces held at deliberately different readiness levels. At one extreme there are the high readiness formations, but what about the follow on units – including those that do not yet exist. I raise this because I think the big lesson from the Ukraine War is that countries, nations, just do not stop fighting because the ammo runs out. That was the working assumption for NATO governments it seems. I know many said that had NATO and the… Read more »
Hi CR, I left the army in Sep 2009 so may be a bit out of date but there was a system of formations and units (or Force Elements) being ascribed a required Readiness number from R1 to R15 which was all about a Readiness To Deploy (RTD), as I recall, that indicated how quickly a unit could ‘get out of the door’. I would be surprised if this (or similar) no longer exists. So, not just high readiness forces had a set RTD ‘target’ but all units in the Field Force. Not sure what you mean about units that… Read more »
Hi Graham, Thanks for the reply, appreciated and interesting. I suppose my concern is that any future peer on peer conflict between NATO and a.n.other could last years a la WW1 or WW2. The conflict in Ukraine and the Ukrainian response is highlighting that modern high intensity wars between technically advanced nations is still possible. Whilst I was working in Operational Analysis for the MoD I heard more than a few talk about the ‘2 week’ war. I never believed it. From my experience I believe that these are planning assumptions built into the government planning and I don’t think… Read more »
Hi CR, I always like reading your posts. I think we agree. Gen Sanders talked of our ‘1937 moment’ – I reflect that a Rearmament committee (Defence Requirments Committee) met in Nov 1934 to look at preparedness to wage a war against 2 major powers (Germany and Japan) and rearmament was well under way in 1935. By late 1937 we were halfway there and the Hurricane was in squadron service and the Spitfire had been demonstrated to the public and full scale production was weeks away. We went on to win the Battel of Britain with these 2 aircraft and… Read more »
Hi Graham, Just to clarify the point about the two week war. I got into OA post Cold War. The idea that the WP / NATO conflict would last two weeks was “historical” by that time and based on Cold War ammunition stockpiles and anticipated usage rates. Most agreed that both the WP and NATO would “throwing crumpets” (see the film Sink the Bismark for quote 🙂) at each other… or it would go nuclear. That seemed to have carried over into the post Cold War planning assumptions and these are set by the grown ups, not the OA specialists.… Read more »
Yep CR. I agree with all of that! Makes me wonder if ‘war games’ are ever run with key politicians in attendance, to learn about these points. I am quite sure this used to happen occasionally. I have also said many times to others that once an equipment is declared obsolete (very different to obsolescent) then that equipment is disposed of ASAP irrespective as to whether a replacement has been fully fielded. It is not held back for a rainy day after some sort of refurbishment ie we don’t have 900 Chieftains at Ashchurch or 420 Chally 1s or 235… Read more »
They already seem to have managed to lose the Head of Recruitment and a female Group Captain over this bit of over ambitious self-flagellation.
Ooops.