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JBLE exemplifies CMSAF initiatives

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tristan Biese
  • 633rd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
The Airmen at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, are at the forefront of implementing Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright’s three initiatives – resiliency, leadership and training.

Resiliency

As the global environment rapidly changes and the world becomes increasingly unpredictable, Airmen must be prepared to cope with stress, change, limited resources and an increased operations tempo.

The Airmen of the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing manage these obstacles by embedding an Airman Resilience Team in their unit. The ART provides 24 hour medical, chaplain, mental support and even a therapy dog named Sam for 480th ISRW Airmen.

“I think it’s an amazing opportunity to get ahead of some of the resiliency challenges that we all have, and certainly some that are germane to our intel professionals,” Wright said. “I really do believe that this is a pathfinder program to the way that we conduct resiliency and get out the resiliency issues in the Air Force.”

Leadership

When it comes to developing effective enlisted leaders, talent management is one of Wright’s keys. It is a mission critical process that ensures units have the right leaders in place to meet the current and future mission requirements.

The leaders and NCOs at JBLE provide their Airmen the opportunities to use their knowledge, creativity and skills to be innovative. These innovations span from making their unit’s job easier to saving the Air Force money.

An example of this is the Materiel Acquisition and Relocation System program developed by Master Sgt. Theodore Winnen, 1st Maintenance Squadron armament flight chief. MARS is a site that gives JBLE resource advisors a convenient means to locate and relocate supplies between units.

“When it comes to innovation, I think we have to understand that failing forward is a novel concept,” Wright said. “Our Airmen won’t always get it right, we just need to give them the time, the resources and the space. They have the energy and they have the insights, we just need to be willing to allow them to make mistakes sometimes and move forward.”

Training

Airmen in today’s Air Force must have a relevant and effective training infrastructure that prepares them for operations against a wide variety of potential adversaries under any condition.

Whether its Airmen taking late night college classes to increase their knowledge, or the total force integrated Airmen of the1st and 192nd Fighter Wings training for their day-to-day operations. The service members of JBLE are always looking for ways to further their career and better themselves.

“When we fight, nobody is concerned about who’s a guardsmen, who’s a reservist or who’s active duty and so that’s the way we should train,” Wright said. “That’s the best use of resources in today’s environment. It makes perfect sense. When we go forward we will be operating together. Then we should train together, and there’s no better place to do it than right here in the 1st and 192nd Fighter Wings.”

The Airmen here were given the opportunity to show Wright just how they implement resiliency, leadership and training throughout their duties. These duties ranged from the inner workings of the intel squadrons to the aircraft maintainers of the 1st FW.

“I was thoroughly impressed with all the [Airmen at JBLE]; so many interesting things are happening here on a daily basis,” Wright said. “I feel like there’s great leadership all across each one of the wings. The Airmen were all excited, motivated and wicked smart. This has been a great visit and I just want to tell all the Airmen here thank you for your service to our Air Force, our joint force and our nation.”