AFA Policy Forum

General Gregory S. Martin
Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe
Air Force Association National Convention
Washington, D.C.
September 16, 2002
Opening Ceremonies Keynote Address

Thank you, Tom, Mr. Secretary, other very distinguished guests here. Let me just add my thanks and gratitude to Tom and Trisha McKee for the tremendous service they have provided to our nation and to our Air Force and to the Air Force Association. We know you won't go far (from us). We know you'll stay engaged. God bless you and thank you. And to all of those who serve in our Air Force Association, thank you and God bless you.

Let me also say how inspiring it was to see our honor guard with all of our states and national flag and the band. To all of you who are here, thank you for being a part of our great Air Force Association, an Association that dedicates itself to not only this nation but to peace in the world.

I know I was not exactly the guy you thought that would be here today. But when I came in the Air Force in 1970, it turns out today I am not exactly the guy I thought I'd be, either. So we are both a bit surprised. But as my daughter said before she became a second lieutenant in the Air Force and could talk to me a little differently, I was whining about something, you know, like GIs tend to do. She was in the civilian sector as an accounting and finance person. And after hearing a certain amount of this whining, she said, "Dad, just build a bridge and get over it." Irrespective of who you got today, get over it. We will have a good time. [Laughter]

But when asked, as I was this morning, if I might make a few comments, I will tell you that I jumped at the chance to do that. I jumped at the opportunity to thank those people who make us the greatest Air Force in the world. Those industry partners who are here at this exhibition and this convention, that work on science and technology, that work on engineering, that develop the systems that we use day in and day out to accomplish our tasks, that manufacture them, that test them and then ultimately that continually improve them, that group of people represented here are a big part of a team that makes this the greatest Air Force in the world.

Then I also enjoy the opportunity to recognize those civilians and those officers and those enlisted people who serve our Armed Forces and particularly our United States Air Force who daily put service before self. And then last, an opportunity to once again thank you Air Force Association that really facilitates the joining and the partnership and the friendship that we enjoy between our industry partners, between our organizations, both in the military and in our civilian administrative organizations that help bring together this great team that we know as the U.S. Air Force.

And to the Air Force Association that I have had a strong and important relationship for years and years, let me just say what a pleasure it is for you to have asked me to share a few thoughts with this very important group of people.

This year we are celebrating the 55^th anniversary of the Air Force and every year, the convention and the exhibition occurs here, around the birthday period which we will celebrate. I think back to what our Air Force was when this organization was established and later when the U.S. Air Force was established shortly thereafter. We had just come out of World War II, where we had a force in the Army Air Forces of 2.3 million men and women. In 1947, when the Air Force was established, we had 305,000 people. Now, that is a drawdown.

We talk about the drawdown we sustained after Desert Storm and after the Cold War, going from around 600,000 to around 360,000, but from 2.3 million people in the Army Air Forces to 300,000. But we had help from our Congress and from our population. They took care of those people.

When we were established, we had 305,000 people. We had about 26,000 airplanes and a second lieutenant was paid $210 a month. Ten years later, a second lieutenant was paid a whopping $222 a month. Now if you do the math, and we talk about three to five percent pay raises each year, that is a point zero six percent pay raise over 10 years. Things were different when we were established in 1947.

Then as we went through the Berlin Airlift, we went through Korea, we went through Vietnam, we went through the Cold War, we grew back up to over 900,000 and maintained that structure for nearly 20 years. And then after the Vietnam War, we began to go down to around 600,000 or so and then after Desert Storm down to where we are today, about 360,000, about 6,000 aircraft and a second lieutenant gets about $2,100 a month.

Then they come in our Air Force and they are taught by our NCO corps. Today, as you know, we are engaged all around the world. At a rate about four times greater than where we were before we began that last draw down in the early 1990s. Depending on which numbers you look at, we are somewhere between one-third and one-half the size of where we were in the Cold War, depending again on which year and which force numbers you look at. Yet we are engaged about four times the rate. Our people are bringing greater levels of respect to this organization than at any time since World War II.

We know we can't sustain that level of activity. We hear it on the surveys. We see it in the people. They are good. And they are carrying the pack. But we know we can't sustain it and that is the reason that this Administration has worked so far at the term transformation and what it really means. I know when the Bush Administration came on board, the Quadrennial Defense Review was put on hold, if you all recall. About 22 studies were initiated to deal with the things that were of most concern to our civilian administration. Transformation was one, force structure, technology, frequency bandwidth, overseas presence, etc. A whole bunch of studies and that, as you all recall, was a very painful period of time because the results didn't come out and hit you between the eyes as being anything revolutionary or significant. Then, about the time we began to understand where those studies were taking us, we reinitiated the QDR and about the time we were bringing the QDR to closure, 9/11 occurred. So we really hadn't had good solid guidance on the street to everyone about where the Administration was going until 9/11 occurred.

Within a couple of weeks, the report on the QDR came out. There were very few comments about 9/11, but it was bigger than 9/11 because our country is bigger than 9/11. Our country has many more challenges than the challenges brought about by the results of 9/11 and we must never forget that. We are engaged in a global war on terrorism. It is our business. We have many other tasks that we go about performing every day with this magnificent force that we have.

Shortly you will find that the national security strategy document and the national military strategy document will be signed, but in the end, there have been some pretty good documents that have given us guidance and direction on what is important and what we should pay attention to.

As I mentioned, the QDR came out and then the Defense Planning Guidance came out and we have gone through several drafts of the security strategy and military security strategy that will come out shortly.

But if you are looking for how to define what we are all about, I would say that the President, in speaking about eight months ago, captured it pretty well. I tend to look at things from big to small, black and white and then deal with the grey matter and deal with the different scenarios that we find. If you get caught up in the grey area and you get caught up in the scenario without much thought about what the big picture is, you can often times track off exactly in the wrong direction from where your nation and your world needs you to go. I think President Bush defined it pretty well when he said we want ready forces that can defend the homeland and can ensure a viable peace and that those forces must be transformed so that they can define the battle space in our terms, in order to win that viable peace. Ready forces that are transformed. Ready forces that are transformed. Those are the key most important guiding principles that I think have been laid before us.

So, as we now begin to build our roadmaps, our weapon systems and some of the action plans that it takes to carry out our president's guidance, let's always keep in mind, ready forces defending the homeland, ensuring a viable peace and transformed forces that can now define the battle space on their own terms using asymmetry wherever possible to achieve that viable peace. Then the objectives we have are to assure our allies that we will be there, not only for our interests but for their interests.

I think as we all know, as we've seen with 9/11, our friends and allies, relationships change somewhat. It is not new. That is the evolution of history. There are different partners. There are different relationships. And it is part of our responsibility to assure those friends and allies that we will be there and that we are consistent in our approach to the problem. We will also dissuade those would-be adversaries from taking actions that would be contrary to our friends and allies view and prevent them from pursuing capabilities that are inappropriate, weapons of mass destruction being among them. Then we will deter our adversaries and, whenever possible, by projection of force, in support of our friends and allies, to keep a conflict from growing or from happening. And last, in the absence of deterrence or the inability to achieve deterrence, we will decisively defeat any enemy anywhere on the face of this earth.

Now if you take a look at that, now you are beginning to get a pretty good idea of what we are all about. And if you take a look at the Bush Administration, they have been steadfast and purposeful. They have not wavered from that a bit.

But this team that we have here, this aerospace air force team, it is the most powerful enabling tool that we have in our government. We must use it wisely. But it has also been the force of transformation in the characteristics of battle space since we became a service. And we must never forget that. We must remain agile. We must understand the importance of imagination/innovation. And if we take a look at what the secretary of Defense has laid out, as our transformational capabilities, they are very simple really.

We must be able to defend our homeland and our forces that may be deployed. We must be able to project and sustain those forces in times of need. We must be able to deny the enemy its sanctuary. We must be able to protect our information operations networks and deny the enemy the use of his. We must be able to link our joint forces and our coalition forces in a way that they can operate at greater levels of achievement and capability than ever before. And we must be able to protect our space assets and our space systems.

When you take a look at that whole list that I've just given you, you'll find that is the kind of thing that should guide our industry partners, should guide our requirements developers, should guide our war fighters. In there, if we achieve those kind of capabilities, we will be able to define the battle space on our terms and in many cases with such overwhelming capability that it will deter any one from acting. There will be those that we will have to deal with. We must be decisive, purposeful and resolute. We are in that stage today and we will see where that debate takes us. But we will be ready.

We will be ready hand in hand with the partners that are in this room and the corporations that you represent and with our government team. We will be ready. It will never be easy. It will never be easy. But following those principles, our people are up to the task and our AFA convention and the exhibition hall is all about inspiring those imaginative, innovative juices and developing friendships and partnerships between technology, industry and the war fighter for the purpose of finding a new and better way to do things and for the AFA, I thank you for continually putting on these events that bring together our forces, our leaders and our most capable industry partners to determine the battle space of the future.

In a few minutes, we'll recognize some of the people who have achieved great things for our Air Force and our nation over the past year. These are great professionals but those events that we recognize are events that are history. It is time for this forum, this group, to think about who we will recognize next year and for what reason and the years after because we must start today building the ground for the people that we will recognize in the future.

As we go forward then together, as this team that I am proud to address today, let me use a phrase that I used at the command and control ISR ­ or Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Summit ­ that we had in Boston several months ago. I was watching a presentation where I saw the heart and soul of our Air Force­the force on the line. Some of them were munitions maintainers, some of them were crew chiefs. Some of them were pilots, some of them were space and missile launch control. Some of them were communicators and some of them were our force protection people. As I saw those people, the heart and soul of our Air Force.

Look around at the people next to you and ask them are you? And then collectively, are we? Am I? Are you? Are we responsible? Are we ready? Are we worth the charge we have been given to lead these magnificent people and to provision them with the world's finest hardware and equipment? Am I? Are you? Are we worthy to lead and provision the world's finest Air Force?

[Applause]