AFCENT commander, command chief visit JBB

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jake Richmond
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) --  Lt. Gen. Mike Hostage, the new U.S. Air Forces Central Command commander, and AFCENT Command Chief Master Sgt. Scott Dearduff visited Joint Balad Base Aug. 25 to survey various missions and address some of the Airmen he now commands.

During his visit, General Hostage met with Army officials from the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), received a mission brief about the MC-12 aircraft, toured the Air Force Theater Hospital and hosted an Airmen's call.

He told Airmen in the briefing that they need to remain vigilant, despite recent decreases in violence in the region.

"You can't lose your focus," General Hostage said. "You can't let your guard down -- not until you go home."

The general recently took command this month. Chief Dearduff has served in his position since February 2008. Both gentlemen sat down for interviews and shared their own perspectives on the AFCENT mission.

General Hostage interview

Question: Sir, when you found out about your new assignment, what were your initial thoughts about the responsibility you'd be inheriting as the new Air Forces Central commander?

General Hostage: Well, I was humbled and I was excited. Humbled at the concept that I would be responsible for 28,000 superb Airmen out here doing the mission and absolutely excited at the thought of leading men and women in a combat situation. It is the ultimate professional challenge. So, I've been looking forward to this from the moment they told me I was headed here. I'm excited to be here and to work with these young folks.

Question: In the first stages of the U.S. drawdown in Iraq, what are your priorities for our combat forces in country?

General Hostage: We're going to go through an interesting time in history here with the elections upcoming and the seating of a government, and then the drawdown of our forces to 50,000. There's going to be a tremendous amount of turmoil, both on our part and in terms of the Iraqi populace going through the challenges of an election. And the key thing for our young folks, as kinetics and the violence has been tapering over time, is not to forget that there's a significant threat out there that they need to be ready to deal with. As they get comfortable in their procedures and processes and doing the job here, they can't forget that and lose their edge. Keeping their edge up and staying focused, I think, is going to be one of my priorities here.

Question: As you take the reins, in what areas do you feel AFCENT overall is especially strong? And, so far, have you identified any areas that you plan to focus on right away?

General Hostage: I think the key thing that AFCENT provides is precision airpower, whether we're talking about ordnance on a target or we're talking about young (joint expeditionary tasking) Airmen across the region doing the variety of things that they do. Our (Airmen) are focused on putting key capabilities where they're needed by the customer. The customer is the commanding general of the ground forces, and our job is to make sure the airpower that we give him is as good and effective as it could possibly be.

Question: At the same time, you're taking command right at the beginning of the reinvigorated fight in Afghanistan. In general, what's your vision of how airpower will help solve the strategic challenges of that ongoing conflict?

General Hostage: It's about precision. (International Security Assistance Force Commander) General (Stanley) McChrystal is focused on a counterinsurgent conflict, which requires that the center of gravity is the Afghan populace. What we're doing is making sure that our precision strike capability is only used when it's absolutely necessary, and then at the minimum level required to achieve the effect the ground commander needs. The idea is that we minimize, absolutely as much as possible, civilian casualties to keep the Afghan populace from losing heart in the mission that we're engaged with the Afghan government in dealing with the Taliban.

Question: As you know, you command thousands of Airmen deployed in support roles. What can you tell them about their role in the overall mission downrange?

General Hostage: No weapon reaches a target, no mission gets accomplished without all the elements that build up the support to it. The key thing every Airman needs to understand is that if they are out here in this theater it's because we need what they provide. We don't have extra folks. We don't have tag-alongs. We want to minimize the number of folks we have to bring here, for a variety of reasons -- for the intent of the counterinsurgency mentality, and minimizing the footprint, so that the Iraqi people or the Afghan populace, either one, doesn't see that we're just showing up in huge numbers...it gets back to precision. We only bring what's required to execute the mission, and then we take them home when the mission's done.

Question: What changes do you foresee as a result of the 9th Air Forces and AFCENT split? And as your office moves from the states to Southwest Asia, what benefits do you think it will have both up and down the chain of command?

General Hostage: My predecessor pulled a Herculean load in having to run six bases and the organization of 9th Air Force and run the mission at USAFCENT. I'm blessed with being able to focus 100 percent of my time and attention on the mission of USAFCENT. So, I'm going to live here in the (area of responsibility) for the next two years. That's my job. I don't have to worry about anything else, and I can focus on it. So, I think it'll be good for me, and I think it'll be good for the command.

Chief Dearduff interview

Question: Chief, how has this assignment as AFCENT command chief compared to others you've had?

Chief Dearduff: When I was first put into this position, I was given a very simple mission statement: "Go take care of our Airmen." And at that point in time, with 27 years in service, nobody really had to explain to me what that meant. I didn't have to get a daily order. I've been given the opportunity to lead as I have felt it is important to lead. One of the things that I have tried to influence -- and all of the wing command chiefs around the AOR have joined me in this -- is sort of an unofficial approach called "walk the mile." We as command chiefs go out and spend time with our Airmen in their mission sets, whether it be battling up and going outside the wire with EOD on one of their missions, or taking off your shirt, and strapping on some tools and going out on the flight line in 120 degrees. And what I've seen, by bringing myself back down to the 5-skill level...I was able to get the truth about what was going on. As a senior enlisted leader at the command level, you would think you spend a lot more time doing high-level official meetings and briefings...but I thought it was most important to get back down to where the rubber meets the road, the flight lines, the dirt trails, the (forward operating bases). And that has been very rewarding for me as a leader. It's been rewarding and challenging at the same time.

Question: What were some of your goals when you first started in this job, and in what ways are you proud of your successes?

Chief Dearduff: One of the things I asked from our Airmen when I first came into this position was to get every Airman to understand how they fit into the mission -- to tie them directly to what's going on. It doesn't matter if you're the vehicle maintainer working out in the motor pool or at the vehicle maintenance shop and your job day-in and day-out is to fix trucks. I want that Airman who fixes trucks to be able to understand how important that it is. And if he or she doesn't fix those trucks properly, that's going to relate to someone else not being able to do their job. And that's going to continue to work its way down to...maybe we can't launch an aircraft that's scheduled today because we didn't get that truck fixed and back out on the line like it was supposed to be. At another location in theater one day...we had Airmen from a bunch of different disciplines, and I asked this young airman first class, who was by far the youngest in the room, 'So, what do you do?' He said, 'Chief, I fix trucks.' And I said, 'Okay. Is that important?' And he said, 'Well, I think it is.' And I said, 'Well, I think it is too, but tell me why.' And he said, "Well, there's a tire that they're supposed to deliver that has to be changed on one of our air-refueling aircraft this afternoon. And if I don't get this truck fixed, they can't get this tire out to the airplane, that airplane may not be able to fly. Therefore they can't dispense gas to one of our fighters...' And before I knew it, this young Airman had walked me to the battlefield -- to a troops-in-contact situation -- and I just smiled and said, 'That's a victory.' We have a young airman first class, in his first year in service, who can tie himself from the vehicle maintenance shop all the way out to the battlefield.

Question: Considering the recent increases in deployment tempo across so many career fields, what guidance can you give to all the enlisted folks who are spending so much time overseas?

Chief Dearduff: My wife will often remind me that I love what I do when we're deployed, but that I have to remember that there are other things that have to be done as well. If it were up to me, I'd stay deployed all the time. I'd just continue to serve over here until the war is over, or I retire. But it's comments like that from my wife that remind me that I have to think about that for myself and have to keep that in balance for everybody else. So, I want you to come to the fight. I want you to be deployed. I want you to be a part of what's going on in our contingency operations all over the world. But at the same time, I want you to be a complete Airman. I want to you to take time and go back to (professional military education). I want you to go back and take leave. I want you to go back and consider other assignments. I want you to consider going into a special duty assignment. Go back and serve in some other capacity where you can take your recent experience and insert that into the next group of Airmen who are going to be coming over (here).

Question: As the joint concept becomes more the norm, how do you foresee the enlisted Airman's role evolving over the next few years in Southwest Asia?

Chief Dearduff: The role may not evolve too much more than it already has. I think we've gotten outside of some of our core (Air Force specialty code) experience and I think we've adjusted our training curriculum...I think we're at a place right now, based on the current fight we're in, that our Airmen for the foreseeable future are going to be able to stick with the skill set that they have. What Airmen bring to the fight is different from what a Soldier brings to the fight, or a Marine or a Sailor. And our sister services on the senior enlisted level (and) at the senior officer level have really grasped that Airmen bring something different. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it's positive. We get a lot of requests for more forces. And a lot of the time, it's a request for more Airmen, because they know they have the capability. When my generation is gone and the younger generations have become my generation and they're at the senior enlisted levels, there will be relationships formed over many years. Our staff sergeants who are deploying with Army sergeants today will grow up to be E-8s and E-9s together, and they'll see each other and they'll have been to a couple of (professional military education) schools together. So...in the future, we'll have better cultural understandings. We are going to be able to get to a joint battlefield together, and we are going to be able to march down the same streets together at the same time and accomplish our skill sets and finish the mission together. And it will be a wonderful thing.

Question: How have you stayed connected to the perspectives of deployed Airmen at so many different installations and FOBs across Iraq and Afghanistan?

Chief Dearduff: I'm blessed that we've had the ability to select a group of wing commanders, group commanders and wing command chiefs. At some points, we actually even get to hand-select the group superintendents. We've selected the right kind of people to come over here with the right attitude. And because of the relationships that we at AFCENT have been able to keep with the wing leadership teams, it's very easy to stay piped into what's going on everywhere. One leadership team can't be everywhere -- that's obvious. But we get around, and because of the relationship that we have, we are given the opportunity to sit down and talk to Airmen, and it doesn't always have to be a formal structure. Most of the wing command chiefs will tell you that the best time that we have during a unit visit from AFCENT leadership is when we go sit in the fire station and we go to the training room, and we have all of the firefighters sit in the training room at their level -- some in PT gear if they're off, some in uniform, some on stand-by ready to go and fight a fire -- but just sitting down at their table and drinking a cup of their coffee. You stay in touch with them as you can. And then you have leadership teams that have the exact same objectives as you do, so that when you're not there, the squadron chief and commander, the group chief and commander, the wing command chief and the commander, they're all doing the exact same things. And it's just reinforced with our Airmen -- we have leaders who care about us.