PACAF commander discusses roles, mission, people at Global Warfare Symposium

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Amaani Lyle
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
LOS ANGELES (AFNS) --  The Pacific Air Forces commander addressed the command's current and future opportunities at the Air Force Association Global Warfare Symposium here Nov. 20.

On the final day of the two-day summit, Gen. Gary North discussed the command's relative stability and continuity over the decades and provided insight as to the roles, mission and people, some 45,000 strong, that comprise the Air Force team in the Asia-Pacific region.

"Our priorities are clearly to address the security challenges every day and ... are a direct reflection of our chief's and our Pacific Command commander's priorities as we join our joint and coalition partners to win today's wars," General North said.

With its vast size, PACAF's area of responsibility covers half of the world's surface and contains half of the world's population. A principal challenge in the AOR is what's commonly referred to as the "tyranny of distance," describing the staggering expanse of land that spans 36 countries from the west coast of the United States to Africa and from Alaska into Antarctica.

In light of PACAF's variance in cultures, terrains and economic impact of the nations therein, the general emphasized the critical need to forge new partner relationships with nations in the region.

"Our global vigilance, reach and power that is provided across the Pacific underpins the security and stability that allows us to support the unrestricted flow of commerce ... and that clearly fuels the economic development that is so important."

Among the command priorities are the posturing of its forces and providing immediate and responsive combat capabilities.

"Organic airlift capabilities are greatly enhanced by two C-17 (Globemaster III) squadrons and C-130 (Hercules) that provide tactical airlift throughout the region and we look forward to modernizing those C-130s in the future," General North said.

The general added that the Air Force Space Command continues with the implementation of Wideband Global Satellite constellations and PACAF was the first AOR to benefit from WGS-1 in Oct. 2007.

"That Wideband Global (satellite communication) provides us a ten-fold increase in our ability in critical command and control communications."

Despite technological advances, the general asserted that the people behind the equipment have been the cornerstone of the command's success.

"Airmen are great innovators," General North said. "The Airmen of today are so much more capable than the Airmen of any time in our past. They're intuitive young men and women who look at how we do business and come up with solutions ... they politely tell us how to do it and execute it as we get out of their way."

General North shared a compelling account of the many PACAF members who have embraced the Air Force Smart Operations 21 philosophy of stewardship.

"In the last several years, we have fielded 43 initiatives developed by young Airmen, and we've saved $67 million and recovered 198,000 man hours through the initiatives of young Airmen," General North said. "In a budget-constrained environment, that's huge for commanders."