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Personnel chief promotes initiatives before Congress

by Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker
Air Force Print News

03/14/03 - WASHINGTON -- The Air Force is facing one of its greatest challenges -- adapting to the new steady state of accelerated operations and personnel tempo, the service's top personnel official told Congress in a March 13 hearing.

"Our people are our greatest asset," said Lt. Gen. Richard E. "Tex" Brown III, deputy chief of staff for personnel at the Pentagon. "They are ready, willing and able to meet any contingency, and their patriotism and morale are high in spite of a very increased tempo."

However, the Air Force cannot continue to conduct business as usual, Brown told members of the House Armed Services Committee's Total Force Subcommittee. The Air Force must transform its forces to be successful in meeting new and unexpected challenges.

"Therefore, one of the Air Force's top priorities is shaping our force mix with the skills required to make best use of our greatest, yet limited, resource -- our people," he said.

As part of this process, the Air Force conducted a complete manpower review.

"We critically scrubbed all of our functions to determine which core tasks are needed for success on the battlefield," Brown said in written remarks.

By concentrating on what makes up an Air Force core task, personnel officials will be able to provide the service's leaders with the information necessary to free up manpower resources and realign those resources into stressed career fields.

"The result will be an Air Force that transforms into a more flexible, higher tech force, postured for 21st century warfare and consisting of the right total force mix of active-duty, Guard, Reserve, civilian and contract personnel," Brown said.

Other Air Force priorities include continued emphasis on recruiting and retention, quality-of-life initiatives and the professional development of the total force.

Although the Air Force exceeded its enlisted recruiting goals and line officer accession targets for fiscal 2002 and expects to do so again this year, Brown cautioned that the service cannot afford to back off from its retention bonus programs or recruiting efforts.

"Since one-third of the force is eligible to reenlist each year, the Air Force continually has the opportunity to influence people's decisions as to whether or not to reenlist," he said. "We must stay the course with these programs to continue meeting our recruiting and retention goals."

How airmen perceive their quality of life also directly affects recruiting and retention, Brown explained.

"We place intense demands on our mission-focused total force, and it's imperative that we provide our airmen and their families with the quality of life they have earned and deserve," he said.

Besides alleviating stress on high-demand assets, the general said the Air Force is committed to improving workplace environments and educational benefits, as well as providing fair pay and competitive compensation, the right benefits, safe and adequate housing, and quality health care.

"These critical initiatives are keys to meeting our retention challenges and directly improve the readiness of our total force," he said.

It is that force, Brown said, which is the ultimate source of the Air Force's combat capability and why the service is focusing its attention on the professional development of its active and Reserve component officer, enlisted and civilian workforce.

"This force development construct focuses on the systematic and deliberate development of the necessary skills required to be an effective leader in today's and tomorrow's expeditionary air and space forces," he said.

Each program will be tailored to meet the different needs of the varied career paths and designed to give people exposure to the Air Force mission while still focusing on their functional area.

The general ended his remarks by asking the committee for their continued support of Air Force personnel initiatives because "while our tools and technology are impressive, it's our military and civilian airmen who fight and win this nation's wars."