View From The Top>>Why do we exercise?

By Chief Master Sgt. Anthony Brinkley
19th Airlift Wing command chief

One of our most popular chants on our base is “combat ready, combat proven.” Yet there are several aspects to being combat ready. Over the past weekend we exercised our ability to execute Combat Airlift. This required a huge team effort from every group on base as we all worked through the weekend to hone our collective skills.

Being combat ready requires us to have effective communication. When the call comes to our base to respond, we must first be able to gather our teammates in a quick and efficient manner. Also, ensuring that the right people and equipment gets where it needs to be takes a great deal of communication. We have to be able to respond whether things such as our computers or telephones are functioning or not.

Besides communication, working our individual processes effectively are force enhancers. Col. James Johnson, 19th Airlift Wing vice commander, is a huge proponent of continual process improvement. Each of us play a part in Combat Airlift and should look at better ways to perform our tasks each day. Recently Col. Johnson led an initiative that has reduced redundancy while increasing efficiencies in our administrative functions.

So our exercises give us a bird’s eye view of how well we work together through communication and unit processes. We must take each opportunity to hone our skills so that when the call comes to Team Little Rock we provide seamless support.

Each of you play a great role in helping us get better by communicating what you may have seen that will help move us forward. So, though we are happy overall with our progress we are challenged to keep striving for continued excellence. To be combat ready and combat proven we have to remain vigilant.

Combat Airlift!