Air Guard members are flexible, adaptable to change, says Wyatt

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith
  • National Guard Bureau
ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) --  The Air National Guard still provides the best bang for the buck because of the ability and flexibility of its Airmen, the reserve component's director told hundreds of Air Guard enlisted members in Dallas Nov. 3.

"We will leverage those to provide the country with the most affordable, the best trained, the most highly experienced combat-capable force that we have ever been," said Lt. Gen. Harry M. Wyatt III at the Air Guard's annual enlisted symposium. 

"The challenge is to take it to the next level, and that's where you come in," he said.

The general told the audience of enlisted leaders from the nation's 50 states and four territories to use the event as one building block toward that goal.

He commented on the symposium's theme, "Send Me."

"When you think about where we are at this time in history and what we have gone through in the last several years to get to this point, one of the things that sticks out in my mind is the great volunteerism of the Air National Guard, of our people raising their hands and saying, 'Send me,"' General Wyatt said.

He added the Air Guard had endured much since 9/11, including Base Realignment and Closure recommendations, a reset, changes in its command staff and in the nation's elected officials, and in new defense and security strategies.

"There are considerable challenges out there," he said.

He said that imagination, networking and working with both Air and Army Guard members in their states postures the Air Guard for the future.

Trying to balance the force means change, and whenever there is change there is opportunity, he said.

"What a perfect opportunity for the Guard and what a perfect opportunity for the Air National Guard, we are exactly where we want to be," he said, "but the biggest part of that change is what you as individuals do and what you in your units do to bring our people along so that they can be the adaptable, flexible Airmen that we need to lead in the future."

General Wyatt also addressed that message to younger Airmen, calling them the "leaders of tomorrow."

"(They) will position and shape the Air National Guard, so that it continues to be a relevant, reliable, always ready, always there, force that we have always been and always will be," he said. "We can't look backward. We have to look forward. We learn from our experiences, and go forward from there."