KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The 403rd Wing leadership team focused on its priorities of Airmen Readiness, Airmen Development and Transformative and Effective Wing during two commanders calls Sunday at the Roberts Consolidated Maintenance Facility Auditorium.
Col. Jaret Fish, 403rd Wing deputy commander, and Chief Master Sgt. David Jackson, 403rd Wing command chief, led the event on behalf of 403rd Wing Commander Col. John Benson, who was at C-130J training.
The deputy commander thanked the Citizen Airmen in the audience for their service and sacrifice, taking time away from civilian jobs and their families, and kicked off the event with award recognition.
To ensure Airmen understood the why of what they do, Fish explained how earlier this year, the Department of the Air Force announced 24 key decisions to make the service more competitive in an era of Great Power Competition. These decisions impacted four core areas: Developing People, Generating Readiness, Projecting Power and Developing Capabilities.
“In June, we held a strategic alignment to not only align with the Air Force, but with Air Force Reserve Command’s priorities of Ready Now and Transforming for the Future,” said Fish. “We developed goals and objectives for the priorities of Airmen Readiness, Airmen Development and a Transformative and Effective Wing.”
With taskings ranging from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron’s support to joint services commanders of U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Pacific Command under the umbrella of the Defense Support of Civil Authorities to the 815th Airlift Squadron support to geographic commanders, Fish emphasized the importance of being Mission Ready.
“We need to make sure we're ready to meet the taskings we're going to be asked to do and orient ourselves to meet the greatest challenge we expect to meet, and that's over in the Pacific,” he said. “We need to develop our Airmen; what we do every day grows our skills, our abilities, our leadership, and we need to do this in a transformative and effective way. We can't do things in the same way we have in the past, and there are many changes upcoming.”
Focusing on Airmen Development, Jackson opened with a quote from General Curtis LeMay, the fifth chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, “Leaders are not born; they are educated, trained, and made.”
The chief focused on enlisted achievements in pursuing professional military education, with 62 Wing Airmen fulfilling educational requirements for career progression.
“If you are interested in attending in residence PME or enrolling in distance learning, inform your supervisor and training manager and can will work to make it happen,” he said. “My messages have been a bit of motivation, inspiration, leadership and empowerment, and to give you room to grow and to help develop Airmen.”
During the one-hour all call, Airmen also received briefings on safety, operational security, synthetic drug awareness, helping resources such as the Director of Psychological Health and Resiliency Integrator, and politic activity dos and don’ts for Airmen. The wing’s Inspector General Inspections provided information about the Unit Effectiveness Inspection Oct. 17-22, provided a recap of lessons learned from the June 3-8 readiness exercise, the first for the wing in four years, and explained the importance strategic plan execution at the until level.
“As a reservist, our time is the scarcest resource, so how we spend it is critical,” said Lt. Col. Devon Burton, 403rd Wing IGI. “So, unit priorities matter, because they should guide our choices of how we spend our time every day, if your tasks and actions are not matching up with these priorities, is a red flag in how you're spending your time.”
Whatever the future brings in ways of changes, Fish’s message to Airmen was to continue effective mission execution.
“You crush it every day,” he said. “I'm so proud to brag about your accomplishments and contributions to this Wing. I'm really proud and thankful for everything you do.”