Photo By 2nd Lt. Heather Cozad Staley | Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez, Fourth Air Force Command Chief, drives a D-5...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Fourth Air Force leadership toured the 446th Airlift Wing here to observe unit and personnel readiness Nov. 5-6, 2022.
Brig. Gen. Scott Durham, commander of 4th Air Force, and Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez, command chief of 4 AF, visited multiple units across the wing during the unit training assembly.
During the visit, 4 AF leadership shared some of their priorities with Reserve Citizen Airmen.
Durham expressed, during an All Call, how the basic needs of the Airmen need to be met first to accomplish the Air Force's mission.
"Personal readiness starts at home," said Durham. "For an Airman to be ready to walk out the door, he or she has got to know that their family is taken care of."
"You'll hear me say it over and over again," said Durham. "Focus on the fundamentals."
Those fundamentals empower Reservists to maintain basic readiness, operational capacity, and strategic depth now, said Durham.
Nuñez echoed the general’s sentiment.
“It’s the three R’s - build ready force, build a resilient force, and then retain the force,” he said. “Focus on the basic things, again, going back to the fundamentals. Do your job well. That's how you build a ready force.”
During the visit, 4 AF leadership saw first-hand how the readiness of Reserve Citizen Airmen from around the wing.
Reservists assigned to the 86th Aerial Port Squadron demonstrated their readiness by performing a pallet-building exercise. While the 446th Force Support Squadron built a single pallet expeditionary kitchen (SPEK) for a field-feeding exercise serving food to Reservists displaying preparedness and unit versatility.
The 446th Maintenance Squadron briefed 4 AF leadership on their recent accomplishments and how they've leveraged technology, such as virtual reality, to train their Airmen and build a ready force. And two 446th medical units – 446th Aeromedical Staging and Aeromedical Evacuation Squadrons – exercised their readiness through the critical care air transport team and transforming an aircraft into a flying hospital.
But in addition to readiness, what stood out to Nuñez about the 446 AW was one word – pride.
“Every single unit we visited; every single Airman was proud of what they do. They wanted to showcase their abilities,” said Nuñez. “You see it in their eyes, you see when they walk around, you see it when they want to showcase the things that they do.”
“It [446 AW] is a very proud wing, and it's a very multicultural thing. And that was one thing that stood out.”
| Date Taken: | 11.09.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 11.10.2022 14:34 |
| Story ID: | 433096 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 135 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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