Four-star general says U.S. Air Force personnel cuts unlikely to

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 11, 2006 by Kevan Goff-Parker

U.S. Air Force Materiel Command commander Gen. Bruce Carlson visited Tinker Air Force Base's Air Logistics Center on Wednesday to review operations and efficiencies gained by streamlining processes at Tinker.

The U.S. Air Force is using several civilian efficiency programs, including aspects of Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing's business process improvement tools, to develop what it calls Smart Operations 21. He said his most lasting impression of the day was made by a worker named Elaine and her team who impressed him as they worked on Total Component Management.

In a published report, Carlson said that the U.S. Air Force's forecast is to reduce its force during the next three to four years by about 57,000 people and to reduce some of its contractor force across the U.S. Air Force.

That will be painful. People are still and always will be the most important product we have in the Air Force, Carlson said in the report.

But Wednesday, Carlson said he did not believe Tinker Air Force Base would be greatly affected by reductions in force.

Tinker's work force is for the most part paid for, Carlson said.

He said he had just participated in a teleconference with four other four-star generals and the chief of staff who were working to manage cuts to the overhead staff throughout the U.S. Air Force.

It will not be a major impact for Tinker, Carlson said.

He said the U.S. Air Force has been reduced from 750,000 personnel to 360,000 during his tenure.

We're trimmed down to the bone, Carlson said.

He said Tinker Air Force Base's support function of providing materials to the war fighter means that Tinker's airmen are often gone and that Tinker has had to work short-handed.

Carlson said because of the war-fighter commitment and the U.S. Air Force's leaning out of everything they do, fewer planes are available and there was plenty of hard work for the men and women at Tinker now.

He said the National Security Personnel System, which is a pay- for-performance initiative, is a possible new way of managing Department of Defense personnel and will be implemented at Tinker within one to two years, if the U.S. Air Force is given the authority to pursue the initiative.

But Carlson said the most important thing he learned during his second visit to Tinker was that he needed to return.

What I learned today is that I need to come back again, he said.

Carlson said initiatives Tinker Air Force Base personnel are working on are large and complex and that he just scratched the surface during his visit. He also described Tinker's workers as magnificent.

I'm going to come back and talk in detail about specifics - the whole agenda - and I like coming to Oklahoma, Carlson said.