PEASE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.H. - Cabo Verde military leaders visited New Hampshire National Guard Airmen at the 157th Air Refueling Wing for a three-day State Partnership Program exchange May 7-10.
“These visits continue a line effort to better our partnership and to continue forming touch points where we can share our expertise,” said Capt. Kirsten Arends, bilateral affairs officer for the New Hampshire National Guard-Cabo Verde State Partnership Program. “As their aviation mission expands, we are able to genuinely collaborate and support their growth.”
Led by Col. Domingo Correia, director of national defense for the Cabo Verde Armed Forces, the leadership team included a pilot and maintenance engineer. They toured maintenance hangars, the air traffic control tower, the flight simulator, the logistics readiness warehouse and small air terminal at Pease. They flew on a KC-46 Pegasus and spent a day at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Concord.
“The hope is to build off this week’s visit and be able to provide meaningful support to our Cabo Verde partners as they explore a new mission,” said Capt. Stern, commander of the 260th Air Traffic Control Squadron. “This exchange allowed our partners to understand our military training program and how our military controllers seamlessly integrate into the larger national airspace system.”
Members of the Cabo Verde delegation familiarized themselves with the ins and outs of operational missions and support functions.
“It gives us a great perspective of how New Hampshire operates,” Correia said. “We appreciate the warm welcome and we look forward to building these relationships.”
This is the third time Cabo Verde leaders have visited Pease since the partnership began in 2022. They discussed and planned future efforts under the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau program.
“The State Partnership Program is an invaluable,” Arends said. “The interactions between all our members from logistics, legal, medical, operations and our leadership are authentic connections and genuine opportunities to build and learn from one another. They truly can’t be replicated in any other way.”