TOP STORY>> It's time to step it up

By Brig. Gen. Wayne Schatz
314th Airlift Wing commander

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a safe and restful holiday break. By now, everyone should be back to work and back into the swing of things.

The holiday break provided us time to rest and recharge. But now it’s time to shift gears.

The next several months will be busy for Team Little Rock. We are poised to kick off the first ROCKEX of 2008.

This exercise will provide us each a chance to hone our already sharp skills. We will use the exercise as an opportunity to identify which areas we can improve on as we speed toward April’s ORI.

It’s important to remember during the course of the next three and a half months that this is a marathon and not a sprint. We need to pace ourselves and make sure that we’re making the right decisions for the right reasons.

Exercises are not meant to have people jump through hoops. They are designed to test our readiness and as a means to ensure that we are conducting business in a way that makes sense and works best.

This isn’t a time for band-aids and pencil whipping.

Now is the time to identify those areas that are broken – or aren’t working as well as they can – and put processes in place to fix them. And those fixes should be permanent.

Doing the right thing when no one is looking is a pure sign of integrity. That same integrity applies to the upcoming exercises.

We need to make sure our processes are in place and correct regardless of who is being inspected and who the inspectors are.
I have been consistently impressed by the integrity and attention to detail displayed by our Combat Airlifters every day. I know that the practices we have in place now would be strong with or without an impending ORI.

I ask of you now to buckle down, step up the pace and prepare for the long road ahead. I’m confident that you will impress the inspection teams in the same manner that you have always used to impress me. Combat Airlift!