Top USAF, USSF Couples Talk About Military Families’ Quality of Life

Sept. 22, 2022 | By Nick Adde

Like the other senior-most Air Force and Space Force officers, enlisted members, and spouses, Mollie Raymond has been through the gauntlet of moves and deployments that military families experience.

As the wife of Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, she is constantly reminded of the responsibility and commitment to the well-being of Airmen and Guardians they have borne as a military couple.

Mollie Raymond took part in a panel discussion Sept. 21 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference along with her husband; Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and his wife Sharene; Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass and her husband Rahn; and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman and his wife, Rachel Rush.

Each iterated a common theme: The well-being of Airmen, Guardians, and their families is tantamount.

“This summer, Jay and I had the privilege to attend BMT [basic military training] graduation, and it was the first graduating class of Guardians,” Mollie Raymond told the audience.

Afterward, the Raymonds stayed to have photos taken with the families and the new graduates, who only months before had just finished high school—including a young woman.

“We were standing and having pictures with her family. Her little brother, who was about 10, looked up at Jay and said, ‘Please take care of my sister,’” she recounted.

“Please think of your Guardians and Airmen as your sister,” Mollie Raymond told the audience. “You can think of Jay and I as your grandma and grandpa.”

military families — Senior-most officer and enlisted members of the Air and Space Forces appearing at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Sept. 21, 2022, from left: Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman and Rachel Rush; Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond and wife Mollie; Sharene brown and husband Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.; and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass and husband Rahn. Staff photo.

Responding to questions by moderator Lt. Gen. Caroline M. Miller, the deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, each panelist shared their perspective on quality-of-life issues that matter the most—with spouse employment, child care, and education at the top of the list.

While nobody could predict the COVID-19 pandemic, rise in inflation, and other worldly uncertainties that emerged over the past couple of years, Gen. Brown did address the efforts underway to ease the burdens Airmen and Guardians face. He also noted, however, that more needs to be done.

“We did make some adjustments to our housing allowance and basic allowance for subsistence, but that doesn’t do it all,” Gen. Brown said.

The Air Force is working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to examine local rental markets, Gen. Brown said, to determine how quickly they’re changing and to formulate a more adaptable system of addressing changes.

“Just this past week, there’s been some engagement within OSD to take a look at some of our families—particularly those at the lower end of the pay scale,” Gen. Brown said. There is, he added, “a potential for a one-time outlay of money to help support those families, to really get them back on track.”

Meanwhile, Sharene Brown told the audience that Airmen and Guardians should take advantage of the resources already in place, such as the base Military Family Resource centers and MilitaryOneSource on the web.

“We have key spouses out there,” Sharene Brown said. “You just don’t know what kind of programs they might have available. Contact them. Get in touch with them. They might be trying to reach out to you.”

Sharene Brown also expressed encouragement about the Kinder Spot app pilot program, which would address the child care backlog by giving military families an avenue to sublet their spaces to other military families when they are not in use. The pilot is now underway, she said, at Luke, Davis-Monthan, Anacostia-Bolling, Andrews, MacDill, Maxwell, Malmstrom, Peterson, and Shriever Air Force and joint bases. The hope is the trial will provide leaders with enough information to implement the program department-wide.

“Bear with us while we roll this program out,” Sharene Brown said. “We want it to be in the right direction and not have to go back and make changes so that it would be correct.”

She also mentioned a home child care pilot program now underway in Hawaii, the national capital region, Norfolk, Va., San Antonio, and San Diego.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass talked of the adjustments her husband Rahn, a retired Army first sergeant, had to make when he retired and transitioned into the role of military spouse.

“When I was deployed, you were raising our two girls, and they had ponytails on all sides of their heads,” the chief said, looking at her husband. “I also learned you guys ate at Pizza Hut a lot.”

Rahn Bass said he learned quickly to rely on female fellow spouses to take care of the girls’ hair. Jokes aside, he then stressed the importance of staying connected as a family.

“It just requires that honest conversation with your significant other and really knowing that individual. When that service member deploys and there are kids in the house, you are that relief,” he said. “Know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

As the husband of a psychiatric nurse, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman harbors no illusions that as important as his job is, it isn’t any more or less so than his wife Rachel Rush’s.

“It all begins with that understanding, and embracing that truth,” Towberman said. “We’re a team, and we do everything together. You find that equilibrium, that harmony, and I don’t know that they’ll ever be balanced. It’s crazy schedules [a nurse works], and we just get out of sync.”

It comes down to finding what Towberman called “perfect moments,” and “amplifying them.”

“We navigate this pretty well because, ultimately, we’re very candid and honest with each other,” Rush said. “We tell each other what works for us and what doesn’t. I think a lot of times people forget that each person has a unique mind, and that is a product of DNA and a lifetime of experiences good and bad.”

Finding someone to share peace and happiness in life, Rush said, is essential.

As the first top officer in the nation’s youngest service, Gen. Raymond told the audience the sheer newness alone creates a layer of stress on military families.

“We’re building new career paths, going to bases they may have never gone to before,” Gen. Raymond said.

Both he and his wife are working to mitigate the force’s overall anxieties by communicating. Both write monthly newsletters.

“Mollie’s get rave reviews. Mine is like, ‘delete.’ So if you want to read anything, read hers,” the general quipped.

Moving past the humor, Gen. Raymond noted that many of his military and civilian operators are on 24/7 shifts. Daycare becomes a significant problem, then. Capacity and the inability to hire workers is a nationwide problem, he said, adding that the situation at Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases in Colorado is particularly challenging. And like the other services, finding and sustaining spouse employment weighs heavily. He hopes job fairs for both child care workers and spouses could help alleviate both issues.

Full context of these quality-of-life issues hit Gen. Raymond squarely, he said, when he pinned on his first star. He told the audience he wishes he had kept his family needs in mind earlier in his career.

“We moved five one-year moves in a row. We probably didn’t have to do that,” Gen. Raymond said. “There are ways we can help take care of your family and you still can have a spectacular career.

“I would just tell you,” the general said: “You’re allowed to take care of your family.”

Air National Guard Embraces ACE Amid Tensions in Europe, Pacific

Sept. 22, 2022 | By James C. Kitfield

When asked about the real-world demands driving the Air Force’s new agile combat employment doctrine, Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, director of the Air National Guard, recalled Guard C-17 aircrew involved in 2021’s non-combat evacuation from Afghanistan, the largest such airlift in U.S. history. Once on the ground at a chaotic Kabul airport that was taking incoming fire, the C-17 initially taxied to the wrong side of the airfield. The need to complete the mission and relaunch was urgent, and the aircrew had no time to ask for permission from higher command.

“So the loadmaster took risks, calculated risks, and in just 55 minutes, he unloaded cargo that would normally take four hours to offload,” said Loh, speaking to reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “When I asked him how he did it, the loadmaster told me, ‘Sir, you don’t want to know what I had to do to get that job done.’ But I wanted to hear, because I can’t afford to have someone in the chain of command above him who would stifle that kind of ingenuity. The Afghan evacuation was kind of the ‘Wild West,’ but that is the culture we need to harness in the future.”

With the Russian army pummeling Ukraine in Europe, and China increasingly threatening its neighbor Taiwan militarily in the Indo-Pacific, the Air National Guard has embraced the culture of can-do innovation at the core of ACE.

“Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. has said we have to ‘accelerate change or lose,’ and that has led to a whole new mindset in the Air Guard,” Loh said. “We are getting after new ways of doing things that will make us more survivable in a contested environment.”

Members of the 119th Wing, North Dakota Air National Guard, calibrate the propeller of an MQ-9 for a pre-flight check at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, during Exercise Valiant Shield, May 27, 2022. Air National Guard photo by Airman First Class Christa Anderson.

Earlier this year, Vermont’s 158th Fighter Wing completed the National Guard’s first overseas deployment of the F-35A Lightning II, for instance. Just a week after arriving in Germany, it had fighters in the skies over the Baltics to reassure NATO allies nervous about Russia’s aggression next door in Ukraine.

In the Indo-Pacific, the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 199th Fighter Squadron has experimented with deploying its F-22A Raptors supported by just one pallet of parts and equipment that can be moved by a C-130 transport or even a Chinook helicopter. In June, two Air National Guard C-130s flew to Guam, picked up a Marine Corps High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System [HIMARS] rocket launcher, and transported it to another base for a simulated firing exercise before loading it back up and returning to Guam.

“We have multiple units doing really good work taking small teams of multi-capable airmen and moving them forward quickly,” said Loh. “I spoke with an aircraft maintainer, for instance, who had qualified herself on four specialties involved in maintaining the F-35 aircraft. So when you consider the high experience level of Air Guard personnel to begin with, and then add in the experience from their civilian jobs, we have a unique ability to put together teams of really multi-capable airmen for mission success.”

Increasingly the Air Guard has embraced the ACE operational doctrine, he noted, that focuses on small teams and a mindset that mission accomplishment takes priority over all else. “Because with small teams, if someone gets sick or even killed, you still have to work together to solve problems and accomplish the mission,” said Loh. “What we can’t do is let this model turn into an exercise of just asking our airmen to do more with less. Some of them are concerned about that, and we need to make clear that is not the model.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3:48 p.m. Sept. 23, 2022, with the date of the con-combat evacuation.

‘Space Superiority’ and ‘Democratization of Air Power’ are the Future, Leaders Say

Sept. 21, 2022 | By Chris Gordon

In the closing session of AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, top generals in charge of planning for the Air Force and Space Force laid out their perspectives of the fundamental shifts occurring in their domain.

Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno, the director of staff of the Space Force, outlined a vision of “space superiority,” offering some of the first public comments for the service to operate in an offensive capacity.

In response to Russia’s and China’s growing footprint in space and their increasing ability to threaten U.S. satellites, America must be on the front foot to counter its adversaries, she said.

“What that really means is the ability to take a punch, and to continue to fight,” Armagno said. “The ability to take a hit in any one of our mission areas, absorb that hit and fight back, from the ultimate high ground.”

So far, the Space Force has publicly defined its role as the key enabler for the U.S. joint force, and noted that the systems it operates, like GPS, allow the modern world to function as we know it. But increasingly bellicose adversaries will require deterrence.

“This isn’t just about space for space’s sake. This is about the space integrated in the all-domain fight: air, land, sea, undersea forces, plus space, plus cyber. That is the capability that the United States brings to the fight,” Armagno said. “If we lay the foundation, as we’re doing with these very capabilities that we’re putting together today, and we lay this foundation, we will be unstoppable. We will achieve space superiority. And as a nation, we’ll be able to deter attack, defend our country, when, where anytime, anyplace, against any threat that might come our way.”

Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, Air Force deputy chief of staff, strategy, integration, and requirements, offered a vision of a revolution occurring in the air. Lower barriers for entry and autonomous systems will fundamentally change military aviation.

“These are incredibly important things,” Hinote said. “It is not something that is military-only. We are going to see the economy of the United States grow due to the democratization of air power. Autonomous flight is going to change a lot of things. I hope that we as a country can reap the full benefit of autonomous flight.”

With the right partnership between new entities and the traditional military-industrial base, Hinote said he sees a future where the Air Force can quickly adapt to new technology while still leveraging its power to innovate.

“I think we have to be ambidextrous,” Hinote said. “I think we have to be able to accept that commercial technology can really help us in a lot of areas. We need to be good at adapting that and being fast followers into those technologies. But at the same time, we are still going to need to be able to lead the way in certain technologies.”

US Has Lost Conventional Overmatch, Needs Investment to Maintain Deterrence

Sept. 21, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

China has advanced so far and so fast in its air and space power that the Air Force’s ability to deter through conventional forces is at risk, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark Kelley said Sept. 21. He said the combat air forces are short 12 squadrons of multirole aircraft.

“By any measure, we have departed the era of conventional overmatch,” Kelly said in a speech at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“When you have conventional overmatch, strategic risk is low. But that’s not where we’ve arrived in terms of conventional deterrence.”

The combat air forces are less than half the size they were when the U.S. prevailed quickly and with relatively few casualties in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the size of the combat air forces is well below where various unclassified studies have said they need to be, Kelly said. The exact numbers are highly classified, he said.

Kelly said the Air Force needs 60 fighter squadrons to meet all the responsibilities it’s carrying with regard to homeland defense, overseas contingencies, overseas presence, and crisis response, but only has 48 squadrons of what he termed “multirole” fighters. He has an additional nine squadrons of A-10s, which he called “attack” aircraft, but they lack the multirole capability that allows them to be plugged into the global force management scheme. Combatant commanders want multirole aircraft to be able to fulfill a variety of missions, which the A-10 cannot do. He lauded the A-10 community as brave and willing to go wherever they’re sent, but lacking in the capabilities needed to meet COCOM needs and prevail in air-to-air combat.

The shortages are felt mostly in Pacific Air Forces, which needs 13 squadrons but fields only 11, and in crisis response forces, which are five squadrons short of requirements, Kelly said.

There’s also an insufficient number of squadrons transitioning to new aircraft. Kelly said eight squadrons should be in that process but only three are.

“If there is an insufficient number in conversion, that either means your fighter force is getting smaller, getting older, becoming less capable, or all three,” he said.

The age of the fighter fleet was 9.7 years in 1991, but is 28.8 years now, he noted.

Readiness is also taking a dive, Kelly said, with fighter pilot flying hours hovering around 9.7 hours a month, versus 22.3 just before Desert Storm.

“Some folks may surmise that I’m trying to make a case for 134-fighter squadrons or 10-year-old aircraft where pilots get over 20 hours a month,” Kelly said, and while that would be a good thing, “it completely misses the point,” which is that declining readiness of the fighter force raises the risk that an adversary will see an advantage, resulting in a failure of conventional deterrence.

Kelly ticked off a series of combat air force achievements of China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force, which has gone from a rudimentary force to one that has nearly caught up to USAF through the rapid, “iterative” deployment of better aircraft and greater capabilities.

He also warned that there are “fourth-generation aircraft with fifth-generation capabilities,” and that it’s become too simplistic to pigeonhole aircraft into various categories. Older aircraft are carrying increasingly sophisticated sensors and weapons, he said.

Kelly also argued that there must not be a tradeoff between capacity and quality in the Air Force. He noted that Germany in World War II fielded rocket planes, jet fighters, jet bombers and rudimentary ICBMs—a truly advanced capability—yet got “completely destroyed,” because it failed to have enough air force assets.

“What I’m arguing for,” he said, is a force that will discourage any potential opponent from even contemplating a war with the U.S.

“Who wants to pick a fight with a nation that has 134 fighter squadrons” that are modernized, well-equippped and well trained, he asked. “No nation in their right mind,” he answered.

Kelly said the nation must stay on a rhythm of fielding at least 72 new fighters a year, and keep allies and partners at a comparable level of capability, because the U.S. will depend on them to provide mass.

He said the Air Force is still planning a “4+1” fighter force comprised of F-22s—which must be kept credible until the Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighter arrives, he said—the F-15E/EX family for “large munitions and payloads,” the F-35 for taking down enemy air defense systems, and the F-16 as the “capacity” airplane, with the A-10s as an attack aircraft force that will phase out circa 2030.

In a later press conference, Kelly told reporters it is too soon to think about the effect on the structure of the force that uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft will have; they will need to be put in the hands of “the captains” who will figure out the best use of such aircraft. It’s also too soon to calculate how many CCAs could be substitute for a fighter squadron, if indeed such a metric is ever applied.

AMC Commander Lays Out ‘Mobility Manifesto,’ Including Look at Limited Aircrews

Sept. 21, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

With an ambitious goal of being ready to fight inside the Pacific’s first island chain by August 2023, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Mike Minihan laid out what he called his “Mobility Manifesto” at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, highlighted by plans to move more boldly in the Pacific and test smaller crews on the KC-46 and other aircraft.

“AMC is the Joint Force maneuver. AMC is the meaningful maneuver,” Minihan declared Sept. 21. “There is too much water and too much distance [in the Pacific] for anyone else to do it relevantly, at pace, at speed, at scale. Everybody’s role is critical, but Air Mobility Command is the maneuver for the Joint Force. If we don’t have our act together, nobody wins.”

Minihan, who ascended to his role in October 2021, recalled that just before his promotion ceremony, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. urged him to “go faster,” echoing his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose.”

In the push to do so, Minihan noted four gaps that concerned him: command and control, navigation, maneuvering under fire, and tempo.

Seeking to address those gaps, Minihan detailed more than a dozen initiatives he’s pursuing, including the idea of removing the co-pilot from the KC-46, leaving the tanker with a crew of two—the pilot and the boom operator. Reports of such a move first came to light in July, sparking pushback from some who felt it would strain an already undermanned force.

“You’ll have to forgive me. I don’t think fighter pilots are the only ones that have a birthright to fly an airplane solo,” Minihan said. “And as much as I admire and trust that crowd, I admire and trust mine in exactly the same way.

“There’s a real operational need for it. In order to generate the tempo required to win, it’s not hard to imagine a pilot and a boom on the bunk sleeping with a pilot and a boom in seats, getting the mission done. And I’d rather test that out now than try to figure it out when the shooting is going on.”

And it’s not just the KC-46 that may eventually operate with skeleton crews. Minihan also included an objective in his manifesto to explore limited aircrew operations for other major weapons systems.

The KC-10 Extender, like the KC-46, usually has a crew of three. The KC-135 Stratotanker generally has a crew of four—two pilots, a navigator, and a boom operator. Other AMC airlifters like the C-17 and C-130J typically have two pilots and a loadmaster.

Minihan’s interest in being able to sustain a higher ops tempo and longer sorties was also reflected in his stated goal of having the KC-46 fly a 30-hour and 36-hour sortie—a Pegasus previously broke AMC’s endurance record with a 24.2-hour flight in May.

Such long flights, covering massive distances, may be needed in the Indo-Pacific region, a vast area known for its “tyranny of distance.” The Air Force and the broader Pentagon have increasingly emphasized the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility as part of a pivot toward competition with China, and Minihan went so far as to credit his promotion to commander of AMC to his previous experience in the region.

That focus on the Pacific will continue with Mobility Guardian 23, AMC’s “crown jewel” exercise, Minihan said. That event, scheduled for next summer, will take place “over the Pacific with the scheme of maneuver I briefed the Chief, so I can demonstrate a win,” Minihan said.

Previous versions of Mobility Guardian have been in Michigan and Wisconsin and the Pacific Northwest, but Minihan stressed the importance of AMC being able to fly and project power into the Pacific, arguing that there is “more permissive than nonpermissive” air there.

Running through a series of famous air battles in USAF history and adversaries’ capabilities, Minihan said the takeaway should be to not overestimate China’s capabilities and instead move boldly.

“When you base your argument on threat rings, you’re making some flawed assumptions,” Minihan said. “The first being that it’s a worst-case scenario. It extends persistence that’s not real. It extends a custody that’s not real. And it extends a magazine depth that’s not real. Invest in our tenacity and go. We don’t have a choice.”

Starting down the list of tasks and objectives he has set, Minihan acknowledged that there is plenty of work to be done to fulfill his goal of: “We’re not ready to fight and win inside the first island chain—but we will be in a year.”

Ultimately, though, he framed it as a matter of will.

“We can decide to accelerate. We can decide to change. We can decide to be lethal,” Minihan said. “We can decide to maneuver, and we can decide to win.”

Air Force’s PME Strategy Shifts Toward Great Power Competition, Joint Campaigns

Sept. 21, 2022 | By Chris Gordon

Professional military education must better prepare Airmen for real-world warfighting scenarios, commander of Air Education and Training Command Lt. Gen. Brian S. Robinson said Sept. 21 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

The Air Force’s new educational approach aims to create combat leaders more coherently and effectively and to do away with the curriculum that will not be applicable in a conflict.

This follows a review of Air Force PME after the 2018 National Defense Strategy charged that PME had “stagnated, focused more on the accomplishment of mandatory credit at the expense of lethality and ingenuity.”

After that, the Air Force redesigned its PME syllabi to focus more on practical lessons its students can apply on a future battlefield with an increased emphasis on America’s real-world adversaries.

“That feedback was heard,” Robinson said.

Over half of the Air Force’s PME will now focus on joint operations and air campaign planning. China, now known as the “pacing threat,” is front of mind.

More uniformed faculty have been brought in across AETC, the Air Command and Staff College, Air University, and other education centers after the service decided too large a proportion of instructors comprised civilian subject-matter experts.

America’s military, and the Air Force in particular, cite service members’ intellect and decision-making skills as critical advantages over rivals such as China, which have a manpower advantage over the U.S. and possess some of the same advanced technology.

Key to the quality of the U.S. armed forces is the strength of noncommissioned officers. U.S. military leaders have routinely cited Russia’s lack of an NCO corps to enable lower-level decision-making as one of its weakest points. With that in mind, Air University’s NCO Academy is also shifting its focus to creating better critical thinkers in battle.

“We’re going to have a good turn of the wheel on that this year coming and get that rolled out,” Robinson said. “It’s going to be across the board for all PME sources.”

The goal is to graduate Airmen who understand how to apply air power to joint, multi-domain planning and operations. In addition, the Air Force’s PMEs want to increase wargaming to test the practical application of what its students learn.

“Our Airmen are our competitive advantage vis-a-vis PRC or Russia or any other significant adversary,” Robinson said. The Air Force must ensure that “we’re pushing them, developing them, recruiting them in the right direction, so that they have confidence that they can go forth and help the Air Force return to the great power mindset.”

Strong Military-Community Partnerships Tackle Quality-of-Life Problems

Sept. 21, 2022 | By Nick Adde

The days when military installations and the communities in which they are located kept an arm’s-length from each other are long gone.

“In the early 1980s, you had everything within the confines of the base. And the base really did not talk to the local community. It was highly discouraged for a spouse to work,” said Kathleen Ferguson, an AFA board member and former principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and energy, who moderated the discussion at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “Seventy percent of our families [now] live off base, and we are looking to increase opportunities for spouses to work.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was part of the panel, credited military spouses with leading the change in base-community relations. He cited the service’s 2021 “Five and Thrive” initiative, which focuses upon child care, health care, housing, education, and spouse employment.

The Five and Thrive plan took on added importance in recent years, Brown said, as inflation, skyrocketing housing prices, and the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“We extended the temporary housing allowance, partly because it was taking people so long to find housing,” Brown said.

He added that he would like to see military families be able to plan a budget that is “not going to be a roller-coaster ride” once the economy stabilizes.

“We’ve got to be a bit more responsive,” Brown said. “I think we have all the data, all the tools, but we have got to move a bit faster.”

When the Association of Defense Communities was established around 50 years ago, its primary focus was dealing with issues such as land use and the aftermath of base closures, said panelist Matt Borron, the organization’s executive director. Those issues are still relevant, he said, sharing space with the quality-of-life concerns addressed in Five and Thrive.

“The issues you want to tackle cannot be tackled only within the fence line,” Borron said. “All of this stuff transcends the fence line. And if you’re not working with your community, you’re not going to make a dent.”

Flexible responses that address specific circumstances typically work better than dogmatic top-down approaches, said panelist Robert Moriarty, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations.

“The Air Force is a large organization and we have a lot of authorities at our disposal,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort to make sure we’re in concert with that, and also working with the communities and the installation.”

Some situations are best addressed by the communities, Moriarty said, while the Air Force should try to tackle others.

“We’ve got to listen to those voices out there and see what the needs are. We have a tremendous amount of authority. We have a lot of tools at our disposal. It’s a matter of getting smart people to look at it,” Moriarty said.

Panelist Glen McDonald, who manages strategic projects and development at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, Florida, provided a first-person testimony as to why good base-community relations are important. When Hurricane Michael ravaged the area in 2018, the wind and rain made no distinction between infrastructure and powerlines in the community and at nearby Tyndall Air Force Base. Community partnerships set up some six months before Michael hit provided what he called “small wins,” which sparked the arduous process of rebuilding. The base commander knew the local county and city managers, the sheriff, and other community leaders, McDonald said.

“It was very helpful. But I will tell you the foundation was set with community partnerships, and community leaders that work with wing commanders,” McDonald said. “My advice to everyone is don’t wait. Don’t think someone else is going to do it. Be kind and courageous and go talk to your military members. If you have an idea, don’t be afraid to talk about it.”

Bass Announces Changes to Assignment Policies—Including Job Swaps

Sept. 21, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force is poised to revamp how it does assignments, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass announced Sept. 21—including a policy allowing Airmen to swap assignments with each other.

Bass detailed the changes in a keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, while also announcing the service will begin field testing digital tests for enlisted promotions and debut a new foundational document intended to educate Airmen on the Joint Force, the “Purple Book.”

Assignment Changes

The changes to enlisted assignments are the result of recommendations from the Enlisted Assignment Working Group, Bass said. The working group, which she first announced in April 2021, was tasked with making the assignment process more flexible and transparent, with an eye toward how assignments should look in 2030 and beyond.

“By the way, they’re going to benefit the whole of Air Force,” Bass said of the changes in her keynote address.

Among the changes are switches to assignment priority posts for military training instructors, military training leaders, and recruiters, Bass said. The service will also remove time-on-station requirements for expedited transfers, an issue linked to ensuring survivors of sexual assault and harassment can move away from abusers and get a fresh start.

Another change Bass announced that garnered cheers from the thousands of Airmen in attendance will affect recently deployed troops.

“For Airmen returning from deployment, you will not have a ‘report no later than date’ within 120 days from the date that you return,” Bass said—ensuring service members will have time to recover and reset after deployments before moving to a new assignment.

Perhaps the biggest round of applause, however, came after Bass teased a new “assignment swap policy.”

The Air Force previously had an assignment exchange program for Airmen in the continental U.S. Enlisted and officers could find other Airmen with the same grade and speciality and apply to swap assignments.

The program was shut down, however, when it was determined to be “unfair,” according to an Air Force Personnel Center post on Facebook. Because Airmen had to cover their own moving expenses, some in the lower ranks couldn’t afford to participate. All told, less than 5 percent of Airmen took advantage of the program.

Bass declined to share any details on the new assignment swap policy, and an Air Force Personnel Center spokeswoman told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the service is still “in the early stages of establishing” program, with no set start date established.

“We are working with our partners to build out the process and identify business rules to make the program more inclusive with minimum restrictions,” the spokeswoman added.

Still other changes are coming to assignments, Bass promised.

“There’s a whole lot more coming, but I knew this would get to the media, and I’d get the details wrong. So there’s more coming,” she said.

Digital Upgrades

Elsewhere in her speech, Bass gave a nod to the “#Fixourcomputers” rallying cry that has become popular among Airmen frustrated with the service’s outdated IT systems, displaying a picture of herself from her early days in the Air Force, working at a computer.

“We all realize that we have a whole lot of work to do on some fronts,” Bass acknowledged. “That said, we have dedicated leaders who are well aware of these IT and these system challenges and they are very committed to getting after this, especially our CIO,” Lauren Barrett Knausenberger.

In particular, Bass pledged improvements to myEval, the new enlisted and officer evaluation system application that launched early this year but has garnered negative reviews from users.

The problems with myEval aren’t stopping the Air Force from going digital in other areas, though. “We will start field testing digital WAPS and finally bring promotion testing into the 21st century,” Bass said.

Digital testing for the Weighted Airman Promotion System has been a longtime goal for Bass. Earlier this year at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium, she pledged that if digital WAPS testing didn’t happen before the end of 2022, “something is wrong.”

The move to digital testing would eliminate the possibility of losing paper tests in the mail. There have been several such incidents in recent years, costing some Airmen a shot at promotion. It would also help usher the promotion process into the modern era, something Bass has said is crucial for cultivating and retaining Airmen.

Purple Book

Also in the digital realm, Bass’ speech included a moment when a QR code flashed on the screens flanking the stage, directing those who followed it to the Air Force’s newest “foundational” document—the Purple Book.

The 39-page document is intended to help Airmen “internalize what it means to fight jointly, understand the missions of the Joint Force, appreciate the joint organizations that are leading the fight, comprehend how to integrate in a joint warfighting environment, and identify how the Air Force fits into the joint construct,” its Purpose section states.

It includes basic information about the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commands, joint components and task forces, and other DOD-wide agencies. It also establishes basic principles, functions, and ideals for joint service members.

The Air Force is “the first service and the only service who has a book to help [you] become a better joint-minded service member,” Bass said.

The release of the Purple Book was one of the objectives established in the Enlisted Force Development Action Plan released by Bass, and follows on new editions of the “Blue and Brown Books—“The Profession of Arms: Our Core Values” and “The Enlisted Force Structure,” respectively.

Reserve Misses Recruiting Goal; Leaders Cite Decline in Accessions

Sept. 21, 2022 | By James C. Kitfield

The Air Force will hit its Active-duty recruiting goals for fiscal 2022, which ends Sept. 30, but the Guard and Reserve will fall short by about 1,500 recruits each, or about 2.1 percent for the Air Force Reserve.

Air Force Reserve Command boss Lt. Gen. John P. Healy and Command Chief Master Sgt. Timothy C. White Jr. spoke about the shortfall to Air & Space Forces Magazine at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

Q: The military services have faced well publicized difficulties in meeting their recruiting goals over the past year. How has the Air Force Reserve fared in recruitment?

Healy: Well, we’re not meeting our recruitment goal this year, either, so it’s a challenge that stretches across all components. We’re at just over 68,000 recruits this year versus our 70,300 authorized end strength. So recruiting is a challenge, one first identified by the Army a couple of years ago when their recruiters first saw a steady decline in accessions. That’s been a topic of significant discussion between myself and [Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.], and it is a problem we’ll continue to work together in an effort to come up with creative solutions. We have to approach it from a total force perspective, because I want to ensure that when a young major leaves the Active component, his or her first choice is to pursue a continuation of service with the Air Force Reserve or Guard. And that’s been a challenge.

Q: What have you identified as the major causes of the recruiting shortfall?

Healy: One key cause is a natural attrition we saw as a result of COVID-19. Because of the pandemic, recruiters were unable to get out to the normal recruiting venues that they focused on in the past. So we are now working to get recruiters back into those venues as we increase our outreach. The numbers of individuals in the potential recruiting pool who are physically and mentally qualified has also been decreasing. We’re also having to come to terms with the mentality of a new generation, to try to figure out how to get them interested in serving in the military. That has also been a challenge.

Q: How does the mentality of that next generation of recruits differ from their predecessors?

Healy: Well, I have a 24-year-old and a 25-year-old at home, and I was unsuccessful in recruiting them! I almost convinced my 25-year-old nephew to join. So it’s a fundamental challenge to understand the mindset of this new generation. I will also tell you the pandemic shifted some fundamental norms in our society in terms of how younger people consider what they want out of their lives and careers. We’re having some trouble identifying and drawing into service those younger Americans who want to be part of something larger than themselves. I would also note that a 20-year-old today has no memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which were a significant driver over the last couple of decades in terms of both Active-duty and reserve recruitment. That was the context that provided the answer to the question of whether I prioritize rising up the company ladder or doing something that is bigger and more important. So now we’re struggling to reach some of those people.

Q: Are there other ways the pandemic impacted reserve recruitment?

White: Yes. When it comes to drawing people into public service, in the past the U.S. military was the litmus test. After watching the amazing medical professionals and first responders who stepped up during the COVID-19 crisis, however, a lot of young people who are called to service now realize they can give back to society and make a difference in their communities without leaving. So we’re seeing some of that talent that we in the U.S. military used to capture going into fields like medicine, first responders, and teachers. As the general said, many of those young people we’re trying to attract weren’t even born on 9/11.

Q: Have the struggles of the Active-duty components in terms of recruiting rippled into the reserves?

White: Yes. In the past our recruiting models were based on 70 percent of recruits coming from the Active component and 30 percent representing non-prior-service individuals. Right now we’re not achieving that 70-30 mix. In fact, we’re probably at 60-40 and in some cases 50-50, depending on the military occupational specialty. That means we have to adjust our budgets for schools and training to qualify non-prior-service individuals to serve. We’ve never had to do that in the past.

Healy: I love those non-prior-service individuals who come in off the street to serve, but there is a significant bill involved to train them. There’s obviously a cost-benefit to recruiting an individual into the reserves who has already had a career in the military and is fully trained.

Q: Does the fact that the nation’s unemployment rate of 3.7 percent is historically low—and is considered near full employment by many economists—directly impact recruiting?

Healy: Yes, and I’ll use myself as an example. As a pilot in the Air Force Reserve, I’m on loan from an airline. When I left Active service, I joined the Reserve in order to continue serving, but also as a security blanket in case I was furloughed by the airline. Today there is a pilot shortage, with the airlines talking about a hiring spree for pilots that will last for the next 20 years. So pilots who are leaving Active duty and might have joined the reserves in the past are going right into civilian cockpits and staying there. We’re not capturing those pilots to the degree we have in the past.