Senior AF leader visits 386th AEW

Published June 19, 2007
By Senior Airman Andrew Dumboski
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- A member of the Air Force's senior leadership visited 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Airmen recently as part of a tour throughout bases in Southwest Asia.

Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, Deputy Chief of Staff, Manpower and Personnel, hosted an Airman's Call, and visited facilities and units throughout the wing, speaking with Airmen about current Air Force issues and the way ahead.

At the Airman's Call, General Brady took the opportunity to speak candidly to a packed house on issues including the Air Force budget, the new Airman Battle Uniform, personnel drawdowns and the state of Air Force deployments.

The Air Force's budget is not getting bigger, and in order to be able to afford updating our aging equipment while keeping our Airmen ready and capable to fight, he said. "We need to look at what we are doing and ensure it makes sense."

Unfortunately, what the Air Force is left with is figuring out how to continue maintaining our capabilities with less people, he said.

The general called on everyone to look at what they're doing and try to think of an easier way to do it.

"[Air Force Smart Operations 21] isn't just the new buzzword of the decade. It's what we're going to have to do to survive. We're going to be in flux for a few years," General Brady said.

General Brady also spoke about the state of Air Force deployments.

More and more, we're seeing Airmen in convoys and filling other roles that have typically belonged to Soldiers, he said. "We need to make sure that our Airmen are properly trained to do these things."

"I'm glad I came down here to see what we're doing, because I am seeing some of the jobs we're doing with the Army and I want to make sure I understand all of it," he added.

After his briefing, the general answered questions on topics ranging from the possibility year-long deployments for some career fields to the ABU and new service dress uniforms.

The first question asked was -- when should people in the security forces career field expect to see one-year-long deployments?

General Brady said the Air Force was not looking at one-year deployments for Security Forces. In fact, the focus is on identifying more SF members who are currently non-deployable, and adding them to the pool of deployable members.

"Before we move to year-long deployments, we need to make sure it makes sense," he said. "There are some situations where it will be better to make the deployment a year long," he added. "But as for whole career fields, it's not something we're looking at."

In another question, the general was asked: in a time when the Air Force is feeling such a financial pinch, why is the service looking at a new service dress?

"It's about more than just a new uniform. It's about our service's heritage." he said.

The service dress uniform that the Air Force is currently using says nothing about where the service came from, he said. "As a service, we are a baby compared to everyone else, but we're rich in heritage and tradition. We need a uniform that will bring that heritage with us."

The general closed with a discussion on annual ancillary training for Airmen.

"We're spending too much time on ancillary training," General Brady said. "So SECAF told us to take all of the ancillary training we do each year and make it fit into 90 minutes. He said we could cut what ever we wanted to, but make it fit into that window."

"I'm not going to say everything that will be on the list, but, right now there are 161 ancillary training requirements scheduled to be cut," he said to a cheering crowd.

General Brady added that a revised list of ancillary training requirements will be released soon.

After the Airman's Call, General Brady took time to visited many of the quality of life facilities here and spoke to Airmen one-on-one before ending his visit.