Jumper eyeing new unit of air commandos.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Brief Article

The Air Force is so pleased by the performance of 20 airmen who parachuted with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade into Northern Iraq in 2005 that it is planning a specialized unit, based on the United Kingdom's RAF Regiment, to conduct such operations in the future.

"Those airmen were responsible for getting down there [on the ground] and making sure that airfield was readily to be used as soon as possible," said the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. John P. Jumper. "Within minutes, they were able to call on radio, and say what airfield lighting was needed, what navigation aids were needed, to get that airfield up quickly and into active use."

The Air Force has such units--called contingency response groups--since 1997, Jumper told an NDIA conference on expeditionary warfare in Panama City, Fla. "These are people who get specialized training for rapid opening of airfields.

"It's not like the Marines, who are going to build the airfield," he said. The Marines "do that well, and we don't want to get into that business. But we do want to be able to take...