Policy Forum

General Michael E. Ryan, 
Air Force Chief of Staff
AFA Convention
Washington DC
September 12, 2000
AFA Chief's Luncheon 

I thank all of you for that warm welcome and my thanks to the Air Force Association for all you do, year-in and year-out to support the men and women of our great Air Force. It is truly an honor to be with those who, in the past and today, have helped build America’s Air Force. America’s Air Force is incredibly busy in the far reaches of this globe. Incredible men and women engaged in the full spectrum of missions in defense of America. They make it look easy, sort of like Tiger Woods makes golf look easy. He has done it in the U.S., British and the Canadian Open but our folks have to do it in the world open. It is not easy. Not by a long shot. But that is what professionals do and I would like to focus on Air Force people today.

In Southwest Asia, our professionals have been engaged in combat operations for the past decade. On almost a daily basis, our air crews are fired upon and respond to with force to police the no-fly zones in Northern and Southern Iraq. It is a perilous mission for peace and stability in the region. Many live in austere conditions. Many are back for the fourth and fifth rotations. But when I visit them, I can see the pride in their purpose and the sense of professionalism and their performance.

That professionalism is just as obvious in natural disasters and humanitarian-threatened areas. When flood waters so devastated the people of Mozambique in south Africa, our folks were there to respond. Air Force people and air craft provided disaster relief, supplies, aerial assessment and critical search and rescue. In a 21-day international effort, our airmen moved hundreds of displaced people and 2 million pounds of relief supplies. We didn’t do it by ourselves. We were part of a team of nations and organizations concerned for the welfare of those suffering.

And we are part of the peace keeping team, providing stability in the Balkans, over 2,000 of America’s airmen are supporting Balkan air operations. In the past two years, we’ve flown 31,000 sorties, providing top cover for NATO in peace efforts in this fragile region of the world. On this side of the Atlantic, in Central America, Air Force field experts and traffic controllers and security forces and weathermen are supporting JTF-Bravo in Soto Cano. They support counter drug operations and rescue and search and humanitarian efforts.

Air Force medical teams travel to Honduras every year as volunteers to perform life changing surgeries. Such work is a win-win. The medical teams get valuable training in field conditions. But more importantly, in the words of our airmen, one of the best benefits to the U.S. and the military, has to be the goodwill we create.

Back home, the missions are just as diverse and demanding. For instance, we conducted our eighteen hundredth launch from Vandenberg Air Force base in support of our space missions. We continue to train forces and military personnel from around the world to build international bonds in interoperability. And in the west, active duty, Guard and Reserve, people in aircraft, including our specialized C-130s, have contributed to fighting against the ravaging forest fires there. They have dispensed nearly 2 million gallons of fire retardant in treacherous terrain and flight conditions. And in the far east, our forces sit on constant alert, vigilant and prepared to respond to the threats to our alliances.

The people of the Air Force do these missions with truly remarkable professionalism. This year, despite these intense demands, we are on the verge of setting a new record low in the history of the Air Force for the number of air craft accidents. Further, we are on target for our best year ever in ground safety. These records are all the more impressive when you consider the conditions under which they are performed and the scope of our world wide operations.

Last year, we won a tremendous victory over aggression and inhumanity in the Balkans. In the coverage of the air war over Serbia you didn’t see the time our people spent loading pallets, building tent cities, coaxing cannibalized aircraft. You didn’t see the short falls endured back home to ensure the front line forces had everything they needed. You seldom saw the pain of separation from loved one or the sacrifices of the families. You didn’t hear any complaining. What you did hear was how hard they worked and how proud they were of who they did it with.

And they do it so professionally without fanfare that many could forget they are out there. Those people--our people--serving quietly and faithfully. They are the key to our success. They come first and no one comes close.

During AFA week, we recognize outstanding performance with awards like the

12 outstanding airmen and the awards you will see here today. We are proud of the winners because we know they also represent the unsung members of our Air Force who live every day by our core values. People first is not just a slogan. It is a priority of action. Over the past several years, we’ve worked hard to improve the quality of life of our people. Working with the administration, Congress and AFA has helped us to improve pay, adjust the pay table, assure just retirement compensation, ensure more equitable pay to military retirees who wish to continue to serve. This year we accelerated raises in the housing allowance as we pursued the goal of full compensation for housing within the next five years. With AFA’s involvement we can continue to examine the pharmacy benefit and we are working on Tricare improvements across the board, not just for active duty members and their families, but also for our retirees with whom we must keep the promise. There is much left to do.

Health and home go hand in hand. Our military family housing is so important to the security of our military families. It is a haven when the families are separated on deployments. And we must continue our priority effort to revitalize it through new construction and privatization, where that makes sense. Quality of life is indeed a part of our readiness equation. Readiness has many facets. The Secretary and I and the Air Force leadership and many of you here have worked hard over the past three years to stem the decline in readiness. With the help of the administration and Congress, we have put additional billions of dollars a year toward our readiness accounts. That is reflected in depot maintenance work and spare parts for our forces. That is having an effect as we see the empty bins refilling and cannibalization levels leveling off. But we have not turned the readiness corner. We have not turned readiness around. At best, we have leveled off. Those efforts are at the expense of stretched modernization programs and substantially under funding our infrastructure where our people work and live. Though near-term readiness is the flap du jure, the real issue for our Air Force for the future is how to recapitalize rapidly the aging force that we have to meet the new challenges of the 21^st century. We must invest in tomorrow’s readiness as well. Our people, our airmen, whom we ask to do these tough missions, deserve nothing less.

And one issue that has concerned us the most over the past several years has been people. It is possible to have the best equipment in the world, but without world class people it is only machinery. On the recruiting front, we have put on a concerted effort. In a booming economy, in a society less knowledgeable of the military, in a population less prone to serve, recruiting efforts require precision focus. Last year, we missed our recruiting goal by seventeen hundred, even though we recruited more people than we did in previous years. We raised the bar higher without putting additional resources against the problem. This year we set the bar high again. This year, I am happy to report, we will make our overall recruiting goal.

And we are doing it while maintaining our high standards. We will not lower our standards. I have to tell you that great success is attribute to the efforts of our Under Secretary Carol DiBattise; our Vice--John Handy; Hal Hornburg, and all of those in the headquarters and AETC and Recruiting Service who have worked so hard on this issue this year.

An extension of our recruiting efforts are the commercials we have built and that were just aired here at the convention. What do you all think of them? Ok? How about the narrator? You know, that is our very own Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Jim Finch. And, as you can tell, these commercials are not only targeted at possible recruits, but also at people who influence recruits. America’s mothers and fathers, family members, teachers, advisors, coaches who have such a great impact on young people’s decisions to serve their country.

There is also a side benefit, showing that service to this nation is a noble calling, with rewards that go far beyond just monetary compensation. In a way, they also work our most pressing problem, retention of our great officers and NCOs. As you know, we

have begun to air these commercials in theaters and on prime-time television. One of our commanders told me that one of his airmen stepped up to thank him for airing them. The commander asked why. The airmen related that while he was at the movies, with his date, the Air Force people commercial came on and at its conclusion, the airman told his date, that is what he did. And she kissed him. I have been thinking that maybe we’ll have to modify the tag line – no one comes close.

As you know, we are a retention service. Because we need experienced personnel to not only be prepared to deploy with no notice to fight and win, but they must also deal with an increasingly aging force of aircraft that are tough to deploy and maintain. Shortfalls in retention are shortfalls in experience are shortfalls in readiness. For instance, we only have about three-quarters of the mid-level aircraft mechanics that we need who are qualified to work without supervision. That is one sample of the great burden our mid-level NCOs face. We need them to do their task, train the younger airmen to ask and we need their expertise win task for deployment. That is a triple whammy. If we don’t fix it, this work load will continue to stress our people, while the civilian opportunities pull at them. As another example, we still have a shortage of over one thousand pilots and it will take some years to recover. But we are on the road to recovery. Keeping experienced com, computer and technical engineers is also a challenge. The good news is, retention in some areas is improving markedly. We have increased our training to produce the needed specialties, but it will take time to replace that lost experience.

We’ve also initiated a program to return Air Force members to active duty. We have nearly 800 takers so far. Many of those who have returned, I might add, have indicated that salaries may have been the incentive to leave the service. But the camaraderie and sense of mission were missing so they came home to the Air Force family.

Another retention booster is our AEF schedule, which puts predictability into our people’s deployments and shares the burden across the Air Force. The virtues of AEF are many, but one of the greatest benefits is the positive effect is has on our people’s lives. Time away on deployments, away from families, from educational facilities, away from jobs in the case of our Guard and Reserve members, is tough, but necessary. It is part of our duty. Mission success has its own rewards but to make it predictable allows our people to plan their lives. We have done that with AEF and it is a success. We are now entering the rotation of our last AEFs on the first cycle. AEF’s nine and ten. When we began the cycle, except for the aviation packages, most of our expeditionary operations overseas were filled by individuals. In AEF’s nine and ten, almost 95 percent of the people are deployed in teams, teams trained to task and confident in their team mates. When I spoke to this convention last year, we were just weeks away from implementing our aerospace expeditionary force schedule. Forming the AEFs involved changes in doctrine and organization and process. Large organizations don’t turn on a dime, but the professionalism in America’s Air Force, our enlisted members, officers, civilians, active duty, Guard and Reserve have made this concept work in just one year. Those professionals were able to turn on a dime and give us nine cents in change. In one year look back, we see that the Air Force Reserve now contributes over 20 percent of the total AEF aviation packages and ten percent of our expeditionary combat support requirements. That is a huge contribution and much needed. We appreciate our brethren in the Guard and Reserve. They are great members of our total Air Force.

We’ve added twenty-six hundred billets to our wings and have 32 more designated for next year to ease the burden on our bases. AMC has been able to reduce the number of airlift sorties required to deploy the force by 22 percent. Above all, we’ve been able to put more predictability and stability into the lives of our people. We set a goal of notifying tasked units 120 days in advance. This was a struggle at the beginning but we met that goal this summer. More and more, the missions we conduct range from the equivalent of a major theater war, such as in Serbia, to peace keeping to relatively small scale responses to flooding and earthquakes to mil-to-mil contact teams. That is the full spectrum of operations and our people have delivered it. There is more to do to set the conditions for their success. We will iron out the wrinkles and round out the size and capability of our air expeditionary forces. But if there is one thing I know for certain, it is that our Air Force people will make it work and will stand proud of their accomplishments and from the outside, make it look easy.

Earlier this year, we published our vision for America’s Air Force, global vigilance, reach and power. We declared up front that our people are the foundation of our force. It also made, at its conclusion the commitment, "we will never forget the trust the American people place in us. They count on us to protect their ideals, their security and their prosperity and they give us their finest young men and women to sustain that effort. We will keep the faith with those young men and women, America’s airmen and they will keep faith with the nation. Together, we are America’s Air Force." And I’ll add, no one comes close.

In closing, I’d like to thank the Air Force Association, Doyle Larson, Tom McKee, John Shaud and all those in this audience who have done so much through all the years for our Air Force people, our one force, our one family, our great Air Force. Thank you.