Brig. Gen. Edward Ellis is
new U.S.
commander for Operation Northern WatchBy Terry Boyd, Turkey bureau
Senior Airman Neil Joiner /
Special to Stripes
Brig. Gen. Edward R. Ellis, right, became the fourth co-commander of Operation Northern
Watch during a change of command ceremony at Incirlik AB, Turkey, Wednesday. Gen. Carlton
Fulford, left, deputy commander in chief of U.S. European Command, officiated at the
ceremony. Chief MSgt. James Fowler stands by with the ONW guidon, which is traditionally
exchanged from the outgoing commander to the new commander. |
IZMIR,
Turkey — In his last job — helping to start a NATO Combined Air Operations
Center in Larissa, Greece — U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Edward "Buster" Ellis
said he was "the only American there for the first six months."
In his new
job, Ellis will have plenty of company, commanding 1,200 Americans and a handful of Brits
flying what is, for all practical purposes, the longest air campaign in history.
On
Thursday, Ellis took over as the U.S. commander for the Operation Northern Watch mission,
which began in 1991 as Operation Provide Comfort no-fly missions over northern Iraq.
Ellis is
the fourth U.S. co-commander since the U.N.-mandated mission was dubbed Operation Northern
Watch in 1997.
He replaces
Brig. Gen. Bob DuLaney, who becomes 354th Fighter Wing commander at Eielson Air Force Base
in Alaska.
Turkish air
force Gen. M. Veysi Agar is the other ONW co-commander.
In a
telephone interview before the change-of-command ceremonies Thursday, Ellis said that
he’d "been to enough of these … to know that people want to know how much I
care, more than they care how much I know."
The new
co-commander added that his basic role is to assure the safety and the quality of life for
coalition units rotating into Incirlik Air Base in south-central Turkey.
The
operation is supported by about 5,000 Americans with the 39th Wing of the Aviano-based
16th Air Force.
Ellis
inherits a no-fly mission that has run nearly flawlessly for a decade. To date, ONW has
not lost a plane in tens of thousands of sorties and hundreds of confrontations with Iraqi
anti-aircraft artillery and missiles.
Ellis comes
to the job three months into a new administration. After talks with Air Force leadership
in Europe, as well as with U.S. State Department officials, Ellis said he sees no
indication of the Bush administration changing the mission in Turkey.
ONW’s
job, he said, continues to be keeping Iraqi aircraft from flying north of the 36th
parallel, "to keep Saddam’s planes from over the heads" of Kurds and other
minorities on the ground.
"You
and I both know [change is] always an option," Ellis said. He added that if policy
changes, "and there’s no indication that it will," those changes will most
likely be "refinements" of the basic mission.
He said
that he plans no major changes in ONW’s day-to-day administration, calling his
predecessor "a great commander."
Ellis, like
DuLaney before him, declined to discuss operational information — the number of
sorties or even the number aircraft assigned to the mission. Earlier media reports stated
that the United States has about 40 aircraft under ONW, the British about five.
An Alabama
native, Ellis has been in the Air Force for 29 years, joining in July 1971 after being
commissioned in the University of Alabama Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
He has a
bachelor’s degree in business management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University, and a master’s degree in business statistics from the University of
Alabama, according to the official U.S. Air Force Web site.
Ellis was
promoted to brigadier general in 1998. Previous assignments include serving as commander,
Air Force Officer Accession and Training Schools, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in 1998;
and deputy commander, 5th Allied Tactical Air Force, Vicenza, Italy, in 1999.
Ellis’
wife, Sydney, will join him at Incirlik.
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