Incoming commander Col. Richard F. McElhaney, center, receives the 374th Airlift Wing guidon from Lt. Gen. Ricky N. Rupp, commander, U.S. Forces Japan, as outgoing commander Col. Andrew Roddan looks on at Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 9, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The top American general in Japan blasted Chinese, Russian and North Korean aggression during a change of command Tuesday at this airlift hub in western Tokyo.
The 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota “plays a vital role in the defense of Japan and ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific in the face of aggressive regional actors,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, said while presiding over the command change.
Col. Richard McElhaney, the new wing commander, took over from Col. Andrew Roddan during the ceremony.
McElhaney, a former commander of Yokota’s 374th Operations Support Squadron, recently departed Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, where he commanded the 36th Contingency Response Group, according to his official biography.
“I feel at home here, I feel happy here, my friends are here, and there’s no place I’d rather be,” he said in his first address as wing commander.
An Air Force color guard arrives at the 374th Air Wing change-of-command ceremony at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on June 9, 2034. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
The only tactical airlift wing in the Pacific, the 374th includes a military community of 11,500 airmen and civilians and operates 14 C-130J Super Hercules to support U.S. forces across the Indo-Pacific.
“The regional actors seek to change the status quo and violate the principles of freedom of navigation and the rule of law,” Rupp told U.S. and Japanese airmen, local officials, family members and civilian workers at the ceremony inside a base hangar.
China conducts “aggressive and dangerous” intercepts of U.S. and allied aircraft and makes incursions into sovereign territory, he said.
In May, for example, an Australian pilot was forced to take evasive action after a Chinese military jet fired flares close to a Navy helicopter near South Korea.
Tensions surged last month when Chinese coast guard ships rammed and boarded Philippine navy vessels attempting to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre, a rusted warship beached on a shallow reef known as the Second Thomas Shoal. The confrontation left a sailor severely injured and sparked calls for a response from the United States, which has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines.
Lt. Gen. Ricky N. Rupp, commander of U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force, speaks during a change-of-command ceremony at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on July 9, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
Russia, while engaged in a war with Ukraine, is conducting naval and bomber patrols with China in the Pacific, Rupp said. And North Korea routinely tests ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons, he said.
“Despite these regional challenges the U.S.-Japan alliance is at its strongest in history,” Rupp said.
He noted Japan’s increased defense spending, investment in counterstrike capability and efforts to build a joint operations center.
After Rupp’s speech, an airman removed tape to display McElhaney’s name on a Super Hercules parked beside a UH-1 Huey helicopter in front of the hangar.
Roddan goes next to become deputy commander of the Air Force District of Washington at Joint Base Andrews, Md.
In his final address as commander, Roddan recalled coming to Yokota just over two years previously from the United States as it emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My guidance even before I got here was clear: Bring the wing out of COVID, rebuild the partnerships from the challenges of COVID separation. Our partnerships are what make us strong. America is a mighty nation, but we don’t work alone,” he said. “Nowhere is that more critical right now than in the Indo-Pacific.”
Roddan managed the aftermath of a crash Nov. 29 of an Air Force special operations CV-22 Osprey in southern Japan that killed eight airmen, including the recovery of seven crewmembers’ bodies to Yokota and their return to the United States. For that and other efforts, Roddan on Tuesday received the Legion of Merit.
“At the end of the day, Yokota is a special place, but it’s here for a reason. It’s here to execute mission. We live in the first island chain; we operate in the first island chain; and we stand ready every day in the first island chain. Our readiness isn’t a choice, it’s a requirement,” he said.
“The simple geography of the mission here is immense.”
