Col. Ryan Herman, the head of an Air Force operations group in Spain was relieved of command after only four months in the job, the Air Force announced Friday.

“The 521st Air Mobility Operations Group commander, Col. Ryan Herman, was relieved of command on November 7, 2025, by the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing commander, Col. Jordan Norman, due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing said in a statement.

The Air Force did not provide any additional information on what prompted Herman’s removal. The Air Force, like the rest of the military, uses the term “loss of confidence” to cover a wide variety of reasons for firings or removals from command, ranging from severe misconduct to personal reasons. The Air Force has used the phrase to explain the firings of everything from a training squadron commander to the top enlisted leader of Air Force Special Operations Command.

Herman took over command of the group on July 10. The unit, which falls under the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, “conducts en route operational support and aircraft maintenance, air mobility command and control, and aerial port operations” to “deploy and sustain the joint force in Africa, Asia, and Europe in support of national objectives,” according to the Air Force. The group comprises four squadrons.

Lt Col James Johnson, who previously served as the the 521st Air Mobility Operations Group’s Director of Operations, was named the acting commander of the unit, the Air Force said. 

Herman had been stationed at Naval Station Rota in previous roles. In 2019, he took over as the commander of the 725th Air Mobility Squadron, one of the four squadrons in the 521st Air Mobility Operations Group. He left that role in 2021, according to a LinkedIn account matching his name and image. The base, located just northwest of the Strait of Gibraltar on the coast of Spain, is a major U.S. military base for naval elements exiting or entering the Mediterranean Sea.

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