Chief on quest to improve communication with Airmen

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jeff Loftin
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFPN) --  Telling Airmen the Air Force's top priorities was the focus of the Pacific Air Forces command chief master sergeant's visit here in mid December.

"I'm amazed at how poorly we have communicated the Air Force's priorities to the Airmen in the field," said Chief Master Sgt. Anthony Bishop.

"We need every Airman to tell the Air Force's story," Chief Bishop said. "We need them to explain that our No. 1 priority is winning the war on terrorism, No. 2 is taking care of our Airmen, and No. 3 is to recapitalize our fleet.

"If we can help them understand the need to do those things and all the parts that come with that, the rest is easy," he said. "I think the priorities of the enlisted members of Pacific Air Forces need to be the same as the Air Force's priorities."

The chief said many people have misconceptions about the Air Force's top priority --winning the war on terrorism.

"A lot of people think you have to go to Southwest Asia to get involved in the war on terrorism," he said. "That's not true. We are engaged in that fight right here in the Pacific theater today. The other part of that is they think only the Army is fighting the war on terrorism. That is a fallacy. While we may only have 14 percent of the Air Force population currently in Southwest Asia, everyone is fighting the war on terrorism today."

Chief Bishop used Air Mobility Command as an example of how Airmen do their wartime mission every day even though most are not deployed to Southwest Asia. To deploy most of AMC to Southwest Asia, for instance, would cause interruptions in the flow of cargo and passengers ultimately reducing the effectiveness of the Air Force.

"The bottom line is the war on terrorism is, one, a war we have to win, and two, it's got to be an away game," he said. "We are not going to fight that on our home territory. We're going to take the fight to the enemy."

In discussing the Air Force's second priority, the chief addressed the many changes on the horizon.

"There is a lot of transformation going on in our Air Force," said Chief Bishop. "Most of the things we do are going to be transformed in the next few years partly under Air Force Smart Operations 21 and partly because we have to. We can't continue to operate in the inefficient ways we have in the past. As far as changes go, I would ask Airmen to be mindful of what I said earlier. Since our inception in 1947, we've been transforming, and evolving and morphing. That is going to continue in the future.

"Technology changes so fast we can't keep up with it. As we procure new weapon systems and learn better and smarter ways to employ those weapon systems, we have to continue to change the way our Airmen think and act and fight an asymmetric war with against an unknown enemy," he said. "So I guess the one thing I'd ask our Airmen to do is to not worry about change and don't be afraid of change. But don't let change distract them from our No. 1 priority, which is winning this war."

The chief was very thankful for service of all our Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen.

"There are 300 million people in the United States," he said. "Two percent of whom will ever wear a uniform of any of the branches of the armed forces of the United States. My children, my grandchildren, my parents, everybody I care about is safe and free today because of you and those who've come before us."

Chief Bishop said Kadena AB's aging aircraft are a perfect example of the importance of achieving the Air Force's third priority -- recapitalizing the fleet.

"You know it has been 58 years since our ground forces have been attacked from the air," he said. "That's a pretty darn good record. We're not about to change it now. But if we don't recapitalize our fleet, get our fifth-generation fighters, the global reach, global power that our tankers provide us, and a combat search and rescue aircraft that we can use to make sure we don't leave any of our servicemembers behind, it won't be long before we start losing that record."

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