MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Four former Air University students from abroad returned to Maxwell Air Force Base on Wednesday, but this time with much more elaborately adorned uniforms.

The four were among 18 inducted into Air University’s International Honor Roll, and all have achieved a high rank in their countries’ air forces.

Gen. Liborio Flores Enriquez, commander of the Bolivian Air Force, said he made many friendships with officers from the U.S. and other nations and that the connections have been vital.

“We integrate our values (and) principles to defend our respective countries,” Enriquez said of his relationships with other Air University graduates.

The honorees signed their names into a book containing the names of the 431 international graduates who are in the Honor Roll.

Also at Wednesday’s ceremony were Maj. Gen. Placid Diratagae Segokgo, deputy commander of the Botswana Defense Force; Brig. Gen. Jean Calvin Momha, chief of staff of the Cameroon Air Force; and Brig. Gen. Mansour Aljobour, assistant of operations and air defense in the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

Lt. Gen. David Fadok, president and commander of Air University, congratulated the honorees and also offered each of them a sculpture commemorating the Wright Brothers’ first flight school, which was in Montgomery at the current site of Maxwell.

The former students in turn presented gifts from their own countries to the university.

Aljobour said there were “countless” ways that attending Air War College at Air University in 2003 helped him.

“My thinking changed from an operational level to a strategic level, which (provided) me a great help in my current position,” Aljobour said.

Maj. Gen. Charles Nkusi, Burundi military aviation commander, had planned to attend but only got as far as Belgium before learning that he couldn’t fly into Washington because of Hurricane Sandy.
 

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