By Staff Sgt. Jake Barreiro
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
The Commander and Command Chief of Air Education and Training Command toured Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., June 18 – 19, and talked to Airmen personally and in mass about contemporary issues and challenges in the Air Force.
At the end of their visit Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr. and Chief Master Sgt. Gerardo Tapia held an all-call at the Hercules Hall where they talked about their visit and answered several questions from the audience. At the all-call Rice praised the base’s mission of managing the largest training center for C-130s in the world as well as carrying out real-world missions around the clock.
“We had a great visit here,” Rice said in his opening comments at the all call. “We had a great chance to see the mission here at Little Rock and we know how important the work you do is to AMC, AETC, the U.S. Air Force and our international partners around the world. I am very impressed with the way you all operate on the operational and training side.”
One thing Rice and Tapia got to do on their visit to the Rock was sit down and personally talk with small groups of Airmen on base in order to get a personal perspective on the issues Airmen here face.
“Talking to the Airmen was great,” said Rice. “It helps me look at the issues I have to talk about in Washington in a different way.”
Tapia praised Team Little Rock’s noncommissioned officer corps.
“I don’t always see this when I go places, but you all have some great NCOs here,” he said. “Judging from the talks I had with junior Airmen, your NCOs are concerned with their issues, personally and professionally and involved with them like they need to be.”
During the all-call, the duo took questions from the audience. Rice and Tapia answered questions about possible changes to tuition assistance, changes to professional military education and sexual assault.
Tapia told the audience he doesn’t anticipate a lot of stark changes to tuition assistance, but there may be minor amendments to the benefit in the future.
“Bottom line is we’ll find a balance,” Rice added to Tapia’s comments.
On the topic of PME Tapia said there are experiments with transforming some curriculums, with the aim to shorten TDY and in class time, but stressed the Air Force will not lose sight of ensuring their enlisted and commissioned force get the best possible educational experience they can via PME.
“In the future, you may see some more long distance learning,” he said. “Long distance learning is going to be critically important and I can envision NCO Academy, for example, still having a brick and mortar classroom, but only having 10-14 days of in-class education as opposed to six weeks or so right now.”
The last statement Rice made was on the topic of sexual assault in the Air Force, and he stressed the importance of not only acknowledging sexual assault as a problem, but working together to build a culture that makes sexual assault intolerable.
“First we have to accept we have a serious problem with sexual assault,” he said. “Then we have to commit to doing something about it, which means taking appropriate actions to address the problem.”
Rice highlighted the importance of looking out for each other as wingmen and said there needs to be a zero-tolerance culture in the Air Force for sexual assault.
“Sexual assault is a crime and it’s unacceptable,” he said. “There’s a different between a zero-tolerance policy and a zero-tolerance culture. We need to walk the walk with this. This is something that’s happening and we as a force need to find the people who are doing it and hold them accountable.”
Rice ended his visit with words of praise and encouragement for Team Little Rock. He expressed confidence in the base’s ability to adapt to upcoming challenges and overcome obstacles.
“We’ve had a fantastic visit,” he said. “Thank you for your hard work, living our core values and serving our great nation. I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen and I look forward to visiting again.”
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