CMSAF thanks Airmen serving in Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Capt. Brian Wagner
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Cody visited with Airmen at several locations throughout U.S. Air Forces Central Command April 12-18, to encourage, inform and thank them for their hard work supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in the region.

During Cody's stop here, he toured the Craig Joint Theater Hospital and met with patients and the Airmen who run the largest U.S. hospital in Afghanistan. He then met with multiple operations, maintenance and mission support Airmen prior to an all call.

"You can absolutely see how hard these Airmen are working and what a difference they're making every day," said Cody. "It's really, really impressive. They're in good spirits, they're motivated, they know what's ahead of them and they know what they're trying to accomplish."

At each stop during the tour of Bagram Airfield, Cody answered personal questions and addressed many of the concerns on Airmen's mind including force management, compensation, promotion changes and updates to the enlisted evaluation system.

"There is a lot going on in our Air Force," Cody said. "Our Airmen are in tune with what's happening even in the deployed environment and they have lots of questions -- which are all legitimate questions and concerns."

Cody said he wanted to be open and honest, and to give them updates to "put them at ease as much as you possibly can in a time when there is so much turbulence."

Cody stressed that his main priority during the visit was to look Airmen in the eye, thank them for their hard work and let them know they are making a difference every day.

"When I look at the enlisted Airmen and the impact they are having ... this is history," Cody said. "When you talk about building an air force from the ground up, we have Airmen over here enabling that every day."

"For decades to come, we will look back at this and see the significant impact that we had on the country of Afghanistan and how they were able to progress," Cody said.

After the visit to Bagram, Cody departed for Jalalabad and then onto other locations within the region, including Bagram, Kandahar, Herat, Kabul, Shindand, Mazar-E-Sharif, and Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.