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The Air Force perspective
Air Force Speeches, Feb 3, 2006 by Michael Moseley
Thanks for the opportunity to be here with you today. It's an honor. It's an honor to look out on a crowd like this and see mentors and friends. It's an honor to be here with folks from Central Florida, the ROTC Detachment. It's an honor to be here with the wonderful, wonderful people of the Air Force Association who have never failed the active Air Force, the Total Force, have never failed any of the endeavors that the United States Air Force is involved in. So it's just great to be here.
I would like to chat with you about what this conference is about and what the core discussions are about today and that's this notion of interdependence. But let me talk to you about that from my perspective of what does that mean relative to the contributions of an air and space force? That's how I'd like to address some comments with you.
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A lot has happened since we were together six months ago. A lot of things have gone on. We've had some interesting challenges on the Gulf Coast with bad weather; we've had some interesting challenges in South Central Asia with some earthquakes; we're still fighting in Afghanistan; we're still fighting in Iraq; doing business in the Horn of Africa; doing business in the Pacific. We've still got 700,000 plus of the finest Americans on the face of the earth involved in activities with the United States Air Force.
But one of the best things that's happened to us over the last six months is we now have Secretary Wynne on board. Secretary Wynne and his wife Barbara represent everything that we would want in a Secretary and a First Lady. For Jenny and me it's a particular honor to be able to serve alongside both of you, to represent this great Air Force and the city of Washington and at every opportunity that we can be together. Sir, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for taking this on and being a part of not just this crowd but of the 710,000 Airmen out there--Guardsmen, Reservists, civilians, active--that are doing the Lord's work today in defense of this great country.
Secretary Wynne took this job at exactly the right time. We're fighting a global war, a real global war. We're focusing on developing more expeditionary notions of Airmen and more expeditionary notions of presentation of forces. We're in the business, each and every one of us in this room, of looking for ways to better take care of our folks, to better develop Airmen and to better prepare them for this expeditionary world and this long war on terrorism. And we're in the middle of an interesting set of challenges on recapitalization of the oldest inventory in our service's history.
So we're blessed, Mr. Secretary, to have you on board with us.
He's got the right credentials to do this. He is a graduate of a service academy. It happens to be a different one. He was an Air Force officer, his brother was an Air Force officer. He's got a technical background and he knows more about acquisition and technology and the world of Washington and the Pentagon than anybody alive, so we can all rest assured that we have the right Secretary on board at the right time in our service's history.
Between BRAC, a hurricane or two, QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review), hearing prep and hearings, a new budget, executing an old budget, preparing a new budget, oh by the way, righting this war on terrorism, your senior Air Force leadership has been pedaling pretty fast. As I look out here on this front row, we just spent two days locked up at Maxwell (Air Force Base, Ala.) to talk about these very things alongside Chief Murray. We spent two straight days talking about the things that matter to our folks; talking about the things that matter in this joint and interdependent world we live in with coalition partners and joint partners, and we spent two days wrestling with the notions of recapitalization and modernizing this country's asymmetric advantage which is the U. S. Air Force.
So Don and Pat, Peto, Pat and Bob, let me just say thanks again for putting this together and the opportunity to share a few thoughts. You guys have done an awesome job and having it here in Central Florida is a real treat.
Chief (Gerald R.) Murray, (Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force), Godspeed to you and Sherry. As the Chief of a service and as a member of the Joint Chiefs, there's no better partner to have than you in this endeavor as you represent the enlisted men and women and the officers and the civilians of this great Air Force. This military body has never been stronger because of you and your efforts, and your legacy will continue for a long time. Thank you, and we all wish you the best.
But there's one other person here I would like to recognize too. This may be, it was his last Corona. It won't be his last Air Force Association get-together, but it may be with him wearing a uniform on the front row, and that's General Lance Lord (Commander, Air Force Space Command).
Lance, you've been a mentor, a friend, a brother, to all of us. You've taught us so much about a medium and a domain that is so critical te everything that we do. But beyond that you've been commander of numbered air forces, you've been a teacher, you've been an educator, you've been a trainer, you've been an operator, you've done all of this and you've clone it with such dignity and class the Air Force is also a better place just because of Lance Lord.
