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NEWS | Aug. 16, 2007

Communicators recognized for contributions to American Air Forces

By 1st Lt. Alden Y. Gilroy and Staff Sgt. Harold Martinez 89th Communications Squadron

Three Andrews AFB Airmen were recognized for their outstanding communications support at the 47th "Conference of Chiefs of the American Air Forces" held July 20-26 in Bolivia. 

Master Sgt. Jose Perez and Senior Airmen Joseph Vazquez and Anna Hernandez were all recognized with awards. Sergeant Perez was awarded the Inter American Air Fraternity Legion of Merit in the Degree of Officer. Airmen Hernandez and Vasquez were awarded the Inter American Air Fraternity Legion of Merit in the Degree of Gentlemen.
The award is the highest decoration a military member can receive for contributions to the organization. These individuals were recognized for past and present efforts to support the organization and conference. 

The conference, "Conferencia de los Jefes de las Fuerzas Aereas Americanas" in Spanish, is a conference attended by 18 countries' Air Force Chief of Staff equivalents that belong to the organization of "System of Cooperation among the American Air Forces," or Sistema de Cooperación entre las Fuerzas Aéreas Americanas. The 18 countries are located across Central and South America, including Canada and the United States. 

The 89th Communications Squadron deployed a team of bilingual communicators to CONJEFAMER, held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, to perform a variety of duties to assist the conference. The bulk of their duties included being able to perform the mission while speaking in the organization's official language, Spanish, since 15 of the 18 member nations converse in this language. 

In preparation for the conference, the team spent several months completing a multitude of tasks, such as developing much of the multimedia products and set-up of the CONJEFAMER network and website. Additionally, the team tested, palletized, and shipped nearly 3 tons of language translation equipment and miscellaneous conference equipment. Once in place, the team provided communications set-up, audio visual support, commercial voice, Internet and fax services. 

The Airmen that perform this unique mission are assigned to the "Sistema de Información Tecnológica de las Fuerzas Aéreas de América," or "Information and Telecommunication systems among the American Air Forces" and are best known as SITFAA within the 89 CSS. 

Several of the improvements that SITFAA members contributed to the SICOFAA mission included implementing and maintaining a dedicated server to handle SICOFAA web communications and their public website developed in Spanish, as well as developing remote meeting applications to reduce the costs of delegation travel. 

The topics at this year's conference ranged from organizational structure, exercise opportunities and the entire spectrum of aerospace medicine, to logistics support and other topics of common interest to the member air forces. 

CONJEFAMER's origins stemmed from a 1961 multinational conference hosted at Randolph AFB, Texas, where the idea of creating an organization that would help fortify the inter-institutional relations and planning of effective professional cooperation of the American Air Forces was proposed. The organization officially formed in 1965 and each member country takes turns hosting CONJEFAMER, with the United States as a back-up host should the primary country be unable to support. 

The SITFAA teams also provides community support by providing 911 emergency translations for Prince George's and Montgomery counties, exercising their language skills in the service of nearly 50,000 Hispanics living in the National Capital Region.