Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Cody visited the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Feb. 7 and 8 to meet airmen and talk about service issues with them.
Welsh and Cody toured work centers, giving service member's the opportunity to interact with the leaders.
During an Airman's Call, Welsh emphasized the importance of every Airman's contribution to the mission.
"You are making the business happen in Afghanistan, and conducting training in the region," he said, "and you do it incredibly well."
In their first visit to the 380th as the Air Force's highest ranking officer and enlisted Airmen, the two leaders discussed the three main points of the new Air Force vision statement--Airmen, mission and innovation. Airmen, Welsh said, because they are the driving force. Mission, because how we perform the mission is our bottom line. Innovation, because it is at the root of everything we do.
"When we talk about all the innovation in our Air Force and the change that has taken place throughout the history of our Air Force, it's been a lot," Cody said. "It's why we're so good."
"Innovation is new and different ways of doing things often figured out by airmen," Welsh added. "So in your work space, every day, you should be thinking about how we can do better at our jobs--to fight and win our nation's wars."
Cody also spoke about the importance of the recent health and welfare inspection.
"The chief of staff pivoted the organization with the inspection," he said. "Nearly 700,000 people had to stop, look at ourselves and say 'what have we been missing here?' We're a great Air Force because of you and how we treat each other is foundational to that."
Welsh discussed the future of the Air Force in the context of the uncertainty of the current fiscal environment.
"Everyone has questions and the chief and I owe you answers," Welsh said. "We don't have answers yet because they're dependent on decisions to be made in Congress in the coming months. As soon as we know, we'll tell you what it's looking like. I'll tell you this, though, nothing here is going to be affected."
Welsh closed with a challenge for airmen to get to know each other better, which he said will positively impact the overall effectiveness of the Air Force.
"Every airman has a story," he said. "If you don't know the story, you can't lead the airman. Please get to know your airmen. If we do, all the stuff that happens to people--suicide, sexual harassment, assault--we'll get them under control. Because the better we know each other, the better we'll take care of each other, the more dependable we'll be, the more trust we'll share and the better we'll do the mission--because that is the bottom line."