The Chamber was excited to host more than 50 Senior Military Officials from 19 partner nations for a reception kicking off their arrival in San Antonio for their participation in the Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA). Chairman of the Board Shaun Kennedy and Chair-Elect Paula Gold-Williams welcomed the guests and were followed by remarks from Chef Johnny Hernandez, who highlighted the city’s Creative City of Gastronomy designation by UNESCO.
The mission of the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, located at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, is strengthening international partnerships through education and training and the IAAFA commandant, Col. Isaac Davidson, who wants to make sure everyone knows this about his academy. Davidson, born in Panama where Spanish is his first language and English is his second, has spent the last 34 years of his Air Force career building international relationships.
“The building of relationships, the tackling of major challenges with friends, with teams – sitting down at a table and having either breakfast, lunch or dinner and discussing how to go about taking on major challenges or smaller challenges, and then working together to accomplish those,” said Davidson.
IAAFA is a select group of members that are here, said Davidson. They are especially selected for these assignments based on their records and their skill sets, to include their Spanish language abilities. IAAFA is currently 21 nation-partner strong. IAAFA offers students a city they are instantly comfortable in.
“San Antonio is one of the perfect locations for the Inter-American Air Forces Academy,” Davidson explains. “Most nations speak Spanish and the culture is mostly blended into some of the customs.” The English language also plays an important role in the overall success of an IAAFA graduate. Many of the students learn the language after duty hours. “English is an international language,” Davidson explains. “In the aviation world, it’s the language (that is) used. We definitely understand that.”
Part of the curriculum for IAAFA students includes visits to local governments, local historic locations like the Alamo, as well as traveling to the nation’s Capitol and the Defense College at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. At the end of the training, it all comes back to forming those positive professional relationships. Davidson says we’re part of a diverse neighborhood. “If something takes place in Mexico, takes place in Costa Rica, or takes place somewhere — it is actually in our best interest and the interest of our partner nations to have what we call inter-operability, in order to smoothly execute missions together as called by our governments,” said Davidson.
Graduation ceremonies are held in April, August and December. Each graduate receives an IAAFA wing; gold for officers and silver for enlisted. Davidson says the pride of the wings is evident because many of the graduates wear the IAAFA wings on their country’s uniform.
Again, the Chamber continues to value our network of Service Men and Women throughout San Antonio and who span internationally, as well.
