Family Ties
Trust each other. Trust that we are all worthy individuals, who deserve respect and deserve to serve with dignity. No matter what challenges we face, we can always overcome them if we are united. Please don’t let those who are set on dividing us win. Don’t let them drive us apart. Treat your teammates like the sisters and the brothers that we are, no matter how different we may seem. Remember that we are all Airmen serving in the World’s Greatest Air Force … and we will always, always be familyFormer CMSAF Kaleth O. Wright, letter to Airmen, Aug. 13
Few and Far Between
Whether it’s on the ground or in the air, we see each other all the time. … What you might call harassment, which is less than absolute professional conduct between the Russians and the U.S., occurs on rare occasions.
USAF Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman, deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, [July 22].
Teaching Moments
The 18-year-olds that show up here … we are fooling ourselves if we think that they’re going to walk up our ramp that has the core values on it … crest the top of the ramp, and that their values flip to ours. We have to develop those values. So, in addition to the instruction about what not to do, we have to teach them what to do.Outgoing U.S. Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria during an “Aerospace Nation” event hosted by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Aug. 17.
North Star Vision
We don’t want to do it the Chinese way. … We want to do it the United States way, and really using our market-based partnerships and our economic might, as well as our military tools, to make sure that, again, we can create this virtuous cycle that feeds off of itself in terms of space commercial activity.Col. Eric Felt, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate on ensuring American leadership in space [C4ISRnet.com, July 28].
ABCs
I think the litmus test for the MQ-Next is going to be what other letter can we assign to its name, because it’s doing a mission other than ISR and strike.Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Will Roper told reporters in a July 14 video conference.
Keep Calm …
“We need to be extremely cautious. Other than having full military preparedness, we need to also be very careful to avoid letting Taiwan become an excuse for China to declare war or engage militarily.”Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, on rising military threat of a clash between Taiwan and China [Washington Post, July 22].
To Don’t List
Anybody who tells me that they’ve got work, family, spiritual, and fitness and health all aligned, perfectly balanced, … I usually call those people liars. … We’re all pulling and tugging and stressed with what we’re trying to do. You’ve got to be deliberate about [downtime]. And you’ve got to communicate with the family that may be around you … we need you for the long-term.Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., AFMC commander, at virtual town hall with Airmen, July 29.
Gung Ho?
If I gave you an iPhone and a Platinum card with no limit, is there anything you couldn’t do? Really? If you have access to the Internet and you have resources, there’s virtually nothing you can’t do. … You could probably buy a house … [or] buy and sell stocks. If, on the other hand, you sat down in front of a very basic Air Force computer with an ID card, you have a very different set of capabilities in 30 minutes. We know that we’ve got to move into the 21st century.Gen. Craig D. Wills, commander, 19th Air Force, on the need to proactively embrace new technologies to accelerate USAF technical training, in a July 29 interview with Air Force Magazine.