CSAF shares concerns with Maxwell Airmen

Published June 9, 2015
By Senior Airman William J. Blankenship
42nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- While at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, June 3, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III spoke with Airmen about the state of the Air Force.

Airmen from the 42nd Air Base Wing, Air University and mission partners had the opportunity to not only hear from the general, but to ask questions after his presentation.

"Everybody in this room is critically important to what we do," said Welsh. "You deserve to be treated that way. We have to keep our pride, which is the most important thing in our Air Force."

Given the multitude of Air Force topics of concern for Airmen, Welsh encouraged them to let him worry about the big picture items and for them to continue doing the excellent job they are doing in today's Air Force.

"We are not cutting more people," said Welsh. "Force shaping was awful, and I hated it. We need to figure out how we can move forward, together."

He said that one of the main problems in the Air Force today is getting information out to Airmen. Many topics of concern could be better understood if Airmen had all of the information, he said.

"It is easier to understand facts rather than random information you read in a blog somewhere," he said. "There is no single place I can put information where I know everyone in this room is going to see it. We are going to put accountability back into communication."

Another issue Welsh mentioned are the fleets of aircraft that are too old.

"We have to modernize our Air Force," he said. "We have an Air Force that was built for 50 years ago. During the first Gulf War, did anyone in here expect us to fly the B-17 to Baghdad and drop bombs on it? At that time, the B-17 would have been younger than many of our aircraft are today. We have 12 entire fleets of aircraft that could drive around the state of Alabama with antique license plates. It is not about what we used to be able to do, but about what we will have to be able to do in the future."

Welsh ended his presentation by thanking the Airmen for all that they do and restated how inspired he is by them.

"You are the greatest people on earth," he said. "There is no way I could care too much about you all, and there is no way you could care too much about each other. That is the Air Force I want to be a part of."