Top chief discusses training, wingmanship during Academy visit

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Don Branum
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNS) --  The chief master sergeant of the Air Force visited with the Air Force Academy's enlisted cadre Oct. 1 and talked about the way ahead for the Air Force, professional military education and taking care of Airmen and families.

Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James A. Roy was in Colorado Springs, Colo., for Corona, an annual event wherein the Air Force's top leaders discuss Air Force policy.

Chief Roy opened his conversation with the Academy's Airmen by thanking them for their part in making Corona successful.

"You don't just move every four-star (officer) in the Air Force to one place, and everything just happens," he said. "It happens because of you."

The chief's focus areas are being ready for joint and coalition operations, deliberately developing Airmen and building resiliency of Airmen and their families.

Coalition operations, he said, encompasses more than the 40,000 Airmen who are deployed around the world on any given day.

"We have another 168,000 Airmen who are shaping the battlefield every single day," he said, using the satellite operations mission at Schriever Air Force Base, (Colo.), to illustrate his point. "If I talk to our joint partners, and they say, 'What are your other Airmen doing?' I say, 'I notice you have a GPS in your vehicle ... do you like that? Who do you think is operating that satellite?' I've met him; I've met many of them. It's a young Airman who's running that operation.

"Anyone ever been in the strategic airlift business? Anytime a C-5 (Galaxy) flies off from -- pick a base -- that's strategic airlift," the chief continued. "Whom does it fly for? United States Transportation Command."

How the Air Force presents its forces is important, he said, because "it's not the United States Army, the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, the United States Air Force or even the United States Coast Guard that are at war by themselves. Our nation is at war. We need to understand that. Anything and everything we do, we do as a joint and integrated team."

The enlisted corps has shrunk considerably since Chief Roy joined in 1982 and more than 700,000 Airmen were on active duty.

"The active-duty Air Force today is 332,000, less than half (of what it was)," he said. "We've got to get the right person in the right place at the right time. So my next focus area would be on the delivery and development of Airmen. That's a huge undertaking."

Today's Airmen have undergone experiences completely different from what today's senior leaders have gone through, Chief Roy said. The nature of warfare and Air Force operations has changed.

"Sure, we were fighting another war, but what was the war? The Cold War," he said. "But it's a different war today. The experiences that you're getting today are different. We need to be able to temper that with how we give you education and training as well."

The chief said he envisions a future wherein Airmen sit down with career mentors who can vector them toward specific assignments and goals to further their experiences, education and training -- the pillars of the enlisted force development. A pilot program will begin in the near future with senior NCOs from six career fields as test subjects.

"Somebody is going to be guiding you," he said. "That's where we need to go. If we're going to manage this enlisted talent, that's what we need to do."

Education is the second pillar, and today's enlisted force is increasingly well-educated, Chief Roy said.

"Obviously, you're in an educational environment here at the Academy. If you're not taking advantage of some of the school systems here ... please do that," he said. "I met a young Airman the other day who was in training at a technical school. He was a Guardsman, and he had a master's degree. My goodness! That's our enlisted force today.

"I've been down to basic training many times," the chief said. "When I sit down with those young enlisted men and women who are coming through, they have advanced-level degrees. Many of you started with an advanced-level degree as well."

Air University offers an associate-to-bachelor program to help Airmen who have an associate degree receive a four-year degree. The Air Force Institute of Technology has also increased the number of slots available for enlisted Airmen, from four to 13.

"The Air Force pays for it," Chief Roy said. "You continue to receive pay in the grade you're in, continue to get promoted as your cycles come up. One-hundred-percent free. We'll even give you housing."

Training encompasses the third pillar.

The Air Force, Chief Roy said, is looking at how to improve professional military education.

Technical sergeants may now complete the Senior NCO Academy's correspondence course, but the Air Force must still determine how best to fix a backlog of 14,000 Airmen who need to attend an NCO Academy and how to shorten the average length of time between Airman Leadership School and the NCO Academy, which is currently 10 years.

"You -- staff sergeants and technical sergeants -- you are our first-line supervisors," the chief said. "(That's) one of the hardest jobs that we have in our United States Air Force. You are the face of the Air Force. You're the one who does the work schedule. You're the one who makes sure your Airmen are taken care of, that their families are taken care of. You're the one down there where the 'rubber meets the road.' That's you."

A new NCO Academy at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, will open in January to help address the backlog.

Seminars at other bases may also help reduce the number of overdue students and work toward an end goal of allowing staff sergeants to attend the course, Chief Roy said.

An envisioned senior NCO exchange program will allow Air Force senior NCOs to attend other services' and even other nations' corresponding schools.

The chief changed gears to discuss the resiliency of Airmen and how to reverse an upward trend of suicides, from 56 in the first nine months of 2009 to 73 so far in 2010.

"We're looking at (suicide prevention) institutionally," he said. "Statistics would tell you in years past, if you were 17 to 25, white and male, you are at risk. Can we say that today? No. We've had everybody from a trainee to a cadet to a general officer. We've had senior NCOs, master sergeants; we've had young Airmen ... different races, different genders, different backgrounds."

The top two factors for recognizing someone who may be at risk are finances and relationships.

"We have to focus on how to help people with relationships," he said, adding that "relationship" doesn't refer to only married couples. "Maybe it's a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Maybe it's a long-distance couple ... and the relationship went sour."

One suicide is too many, and claiming that suicide is a part of modern-day society does not make it okay, Chief Roy said.

"It's not acceptable. It is not acceptable," he said. "What else is not acceptable is for us as Airmen not being able to help out another Airman. Watch for those pointers; watch for those cues. When I talk about resiliency, I think the wingman program is a part of it. I think the other part of resiliency is getting you the tools before you need them. I think a lot of the time, we focus only on those Airmen who are deploying or deployed. That's not the majority of us."

If a shop's wingman program is not up to par, the chief said, Airmen need to get it up to par.

"We have to make sure that our Airmen have resiliency," he said. "This is a tough business -- this is tough. This is what we get paid to do. The stressor might be the new fitness test. Who knows? But you have to have resiliency within your people. This is serious business. We have got to take care of each and every one of us. I don't think a wingman program is 'one-v-one.' I think we've got to watch over everyone."

Resiliency also includes families, whom the chief credits with enduring more than anyone gives them credit for.

"I think Americans give us a lot of credit, and they tell us that they appreciate us, but do they fully understand?" Chief Roy asked the audience. "Do they understand the late nights? Do they understand the missed birthdays or the missed football games or basketball practice? Do they know about that? Do they understand that you're on call 24 hours a day? Do they understand that you have to be physically fit?"

As someone who does understand what Airmen and their families go through, the chief asked the Airmen to pass his thanks and the gratitude of Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz to their families.

"Please relay back to your families how much we fully understand and appreciate what they do for us each and every day," Chief Roy said. "We appreciate what you do and what you provide, and the example you set to the future leaders of the United States Air Force."