80th Operations Group commander to return home

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Valerie Hosea
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The 80th Operations Group commander will return home to Germany after serving at Sheppard for four of his 37-year German air force career.

Col. Axel Pohlmann will become the senior international representative and chief of plans for the Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, Germany.

Colonel Pohlmann contributed to many accomplishments for his group and the 80th Flying Training Wing during his tenure at Sheppard. Some of his accomplishments include passing the Unit Compliance Inspection and rebuilding several education programs to be the best in the world.

"Passing the UCI with an 'Excellent' was amazing and was a major part of my time here," he said. "One of the most interesting things we've done was completely renewing our fighter training program. This was difficult because we had to do it and keep the training going at the same time. Now we have the world's 'top of the line' fighter training."

Aside from helping his people succeed, Colonel Pohlmann said he will miss Sheppard's excellent training and relationship with the Air Education and Training Command.

"Sheppard is a great place to train the European pilots because there are no flying restrictions and mostly good flying weather here," he said. "Also, the help from U.S. Air Force and AETC was amazing when I was renewing the training programs."

Colonel Pohlmann said he will continue to admire the international environment at Sheppard.

"The work and training environment is very nice because the different countries work so well together," he said. "We train the way we fight. I will miss the way of life here and the beauty of this country.

Once in Germany, the colonel said he will still have the same international relationships with the NATO partners because of the overall operations he'll do. He said he will still be working very closely with the U.S. Air Force.

Colonel Pohlmann said while he's moving on to another assignment, he wants the 80th OG to continue its practices.

"I want them to continue to evolve training programs to meet the needs of future challenges in the air combat environment," he said. "I also want the group to keep taking care of our fighter pilots and training students because they're the best I've seen so far. That is what makes it so hard to hand over command."