TOP STORY >>19th Air Force command chief engages in 'rumor control'

BY Staff Sgt. Kati Garcia

By Staff Sgt. Kati Garcia
314th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

“The mantra is no longer ‘do more with less’... we need to learn to do less with less.”

These words summed up the 19th Air Force Command Chief’s message to the Little Rock Rising 6 organization early this week.

Chief Master Sgt. Robert Tappana addressed the group of junior enlisted members Monday, touching on the changing Air Force climate and the challenges that today’s enlisted leaders will face in the coming years. “We’re going to have to figure out how to identify the things that we’re not going be able to do anymore,” Chief Tappana said. “We’re going to have to get smarter and smarter about the way we do business.”

The theme through the command chief’s speech was rumor control, with a specific emphasis on what he calls “rampant rumors surrounding people cuts and money cuts.”

He cited “critically aging” aircraft and satellites and a decrease in military funding as the prevailing reasons for the forecast cut of more than 12 percent of the Air Force’s current personnel.

“Congress won’t let us get rid of our oldest aircraft,” Chief Tappana said. “So our last option is cutting people.”

The 19th Air Force’s top enlisted leader said that the biggest hits in manning cuts are affecting the officer corps, not the enlisted structure. He also said that despite rumors to the contrary, there will be “no big, deep mandatory cuts” in enlisted force.

“We’re utilizing (Career Job Reservations), which the Air Force has always had, and getting rid of those people who are refusing retraining,” he said.

He drew a direct correlation between people and money by citing that over the course of a normal career span, 10,000 people cost the Air Force roughly $1.5 billion in training, pay, housing and benefits.

Chief Master Sgt. Tappana acknowledged that he often hears complaints about Air Force quality of life declining, but says that isn’t true. “People cite no towels at the gym or less channels to watch in Services facilities. Those aren’t quality of life issues.”

His said real quality of life issues, to him, are “equipment and training, decent safe housing for all military members and the money to be able to take care of each other.”

That, he said, is where his focus is when he is discussing quality of life issues with senior leaders. The command chief also discussed issues on a more local level, explaining that it is important for those in Air Education and Training Command not to feel as if they’ve lost sight of the war fighting mission.

“Our wartime mission in AETC is training people. And it is every bit as critical as dropping bombs on (Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader Musab) al-Zarqawi, so right now, you are doing our wartime mission,” the chief said. “We all have a little bit of John Wayne is us. We want to put a knife in our teeth and get in the fight. That’s the way we’re wired. We’re Americans. There’s a fight going on and nobody likes being left out of it. We have some opportunities — not a lot — to deploy those people in AETC who want to be deployed.”

His advice for those Little Rock Airmen looking for opportunities to deploy is to let their chain of command know. “Most opportunities will come in the form of (Third Country National) escort duties,” he said. But, he also said there is limited opportunity for AETC personnel — especially in maintenance career fields — to fill deployment roles for their Air Mobility Command counterparts on Little Rock.

“Never forget that you are a big player in the war on terror,” the chief said. “Every day, you contribute to that mission”