a 53rd wing family . This is Colonel
Ryan Messer , chief after car , and I
have asked P A to reach out to each of
you to ask for any questions that you'd
like answered . So he and I are going
to run through a series of questions in
order to make sure that we're adhering
to the proper social distancing . He's
actually joining me , but he's joining
me in his office across this wall so
you won't be able to see us together .
But know that we are in sync and
answering these questions along the
lines of social distancing . Our first
question is , my unit isn't following
the restrictions . There's too many
people in the office symptomatic .
Members are coming to work and tell a
work opportunities aren't taken or
encouraged . What can I do ? Well ,
here's the deal . The first thing you
need to do is if you find that the
proper procedures are not being
followed , then you need to continue to
elevate that up the chain . What I will
tell everyone from the wing commander's
perspective is we need everyone to
ensure that they're following the
proper procedures so that we can
flatten a curve and weaken stem the
spread of this thing . Very dangerous
virus . Look , I know that CDC has put
out guidance and we've put it out
through the wing about what are the
proper procedures for washing your
hands ? Cleaning your workspace is all
those things we've all talked about
social distancing . That's why Chief
after car and I aren't sitting next to
each other Right now , we've talked
about the number of people that could
be in a room at any one time . And in
order to meet all of those requirements ,
we have been very liberal with the tele
work policies that we put out and the
ability for people to work remotely
from home , I will tell you that we do
have some people that must still come
to work , that we've deemed mission
essential . Not only do those people
know what those duties are , but the
people that we have identified know
whether or not they fall into those
categories . So to the max , it's
impossible . If you are not in a
mission essential category , then you
should be staying home and should be
telling . Working to the max isn't
possible . Please , if you are
symptomatic even If you're a mission
essential in any way , please do not
come to work . We want you to stay home ,
get rest , drink plenty of fluids , get
over whatever it is you have , Whether
it's the cove in 19 or anything else ,
we want you to get better . And we want
to ensure that the health and welfare
of all of our airman and all of our
families , our communities , remains
intact . So please follow the
procedures that we've put out . If you
have any questions or any concerns ,
especially for very specific workplaces ,
please bring that directly to myself or
chief . After Carson , we can address
it personally , Thank you very much for
the question and thank you all to
everyone for your continued support as
we walked through this leadership
challenge . Thanks
a tough question for me to answer . We
deal with 23 locations . Therefore , it
would be impossible for me to go
through all 23 locations on here . So
highly recommend you do is follow your
host wing page or get the information
through your host wing leadership , and
that will be able to explain most of
your questions for your specific
location as a reminder , though , if
your if your state has a no movement
policy , it does not affect your
ability to come to the base .
Another question is what triggers H
become Delta in what will change . The
big thing to realize is that R H pecan
levels dictate on the amount of threat
that we really have for Cove it . So ,
really , when we're looking at wide
local transmissions , like in dormitory
or on the base transmission , that
truly impacts the mission , That's
gonna really what triggers is going
into aged become Delta . So I'll give
you an example if we have our security
folks that defend the base force on
this every single day . And we started
having a widespread positive cases of
Kobe going through the Security Forces
Squadron , and that severely impacts
our ability to defend a base . So
therefore we would have to trigger each
pick on Delta and some of those changes ,
you know , and I can't guarantee you
any of the changes because it's all
scenario basin dependent upon what
areas were impacted . But obviously it
could impact many of the areas
restricting the base access to those
just needing to come in to help the war
fighters on things of that nature . But
as of now , obviously we can't predict
the future . We don't know what's going
to happen . But I would say that just
hang in there and stay within the
measures that we're in for now . And ,
uh , you know , just travel . If it's
essential you there's no reason you
should travel unless you need the
essentials . Get some food , go the
store , things like that .
Okay , so 53rd wing family , We have
another question here . It says , Why
haven't we canceled ? All flying is the
mission and flight currency ,
particularly for senior leaders , Maur
important than your team's health . I
think that's an excellent question .
One of the things that I will tell you
is we have absolutely reduced the
mission to the lowest possible level .
In fact , we actually have gone for our
flying units to split teams , so a team
will work for 14 days , continuing to
sanitize not only the aircraft , but
all of their work areas throughout that
entire time . And then we have a
another team that is in reserve that
will not come into the squadron
operations area at all . During that
entire 14 day period . Then there will
be cleaning That's done between the two
shifts . And then after the 14 days
expired , everything's clean and a new
team comes in to fly . But the question
still remains . Why ? Why are we still
flying ? Why will tell you that on a
weekly basis I'm engaged with folks
that are in deployed locations , and we
continue to have a mission that we have
to serve . We have brought down our
flying operations to the absolute bare
minimum of what is required to support
our other partners , and we have
reduced that to only mission essential
activities . Now , as faras addressing
senior leaders flying , here's a
reality for those that fly . There are
certain currencies . They have to keep
eso . For instance , If you haven't
landed on aircraft in a certain number
of days , then you lose that currency
and then to be able to get you to fly
again , we have to get an instructor or
someone else to come in and monitor you
as you go through your flying
operations . What we learned as an air
force after sequestration back in 2013
was , if everyone takes a knee , it
makes it very very difficult to get the
squadron's back up to speed once we
have to get back to normal operations .
So we've tried to maintain currencies .
I will tell you personally , I haven't
flown since this crisis has started ,
Um , and probably will not find myself
flying a whole lot as my primary focus
needs to be on leading the wink during
this time . That is not to say that I
will not fly as we start to come out of
this , but But for the time being , my
service is air best served here . I'm I
expect that every squadron commander in
every leader at every level to make the
right decision , recognizing that there
is a balance between focusing on
leadership and then getting a story
every now and then to make sure obtain
your currencies . I'll tell you what .
If there is any concerns about that out
there , I ask that you please come
directly to me or your lies . Your
change so that we can address those on
a one on one basis . Thanks .
Let me tell you , we do realize that
isolates gonna be very difficult in
many different ways , but we'll let you
know that we are here . We care about
you as well as everybody . Up and down
your chain cares about your well being
altogether . What we do is we encourage
every single team . Maybe do some video
chatters of coffee or do some video
chats over , you know , um , afternoon
snack or after work out any way that we
can to at least increase that
connectivity . Eso everybody continues
to know that we care about him and know
that they're valuable member of our
team . And we also know that there's
parents now that I've become both
teachers and employees , and we
understand that that that is a
complicated scenario . And if
there are any extenuating circumstances
that we can help you out with , please
make sure that you run that through
your chain . Eso . That way we can help
you because if we don't know that
there's something you're struggling
with them , we can't help you . Overall ,
this is a difficult situation . We will
make it through together . It's just
gonna take us a little bit of top .
Hey , 53rd wing family . This next
question is ideas for future operations .
It says T D Y restrictions during this
crisis have shown how much waste we had
in our normal T D Y practices . Can we
implement measures to maximize virtual
meetings in our normal daily practices ?
Absolutely . So , um , I will tell you
that as we were walking through these
challenging times , we should all be
gathering lessons of how we can better
operate as an organization . I know
that I take daily lessons on how I
might lead better as your wing
commander , whether that's in response
to taking care of all of the airman in
this wing and their families , whether
that's in how we execute the mission or
how we operate as a team . You know ,
one of the things that we started here
in the 53rd wing was our wing sink .
The idea was , rather than have a wing
commander staff meeting , we once a
week bring all commanders and
interested parties together to address
what's going on the wing , try to
arrive at decisions and then give
direction on where we are going forward
to include setting priorities across
the wing . We will continue to do that .
One of the things we've found is as we
entered this crisis , our sink , the
way that we had set it up for people to
be able to vtc and although not always
perfect from a technical I t .
Standpoint , um , we found that we had
created a very , very useful but
operating rhythm that allowed us to be
able to work through this situation . I
will tell you that as we have worked
through people now dialing in from
their homes , we've discovered other
technologies that are allowing us to
better connect . We should all be
taking lessons about how we can do
things better . How we can be better
stewards of our nation's resource is
not only their money , but also the
time of our airman . So if there are
things that were discovering about ,
maybe we could reduce the number of TD
y's by doing things virtually . We
actually should be capturing that we
should implement that as we come come
out of this crisis and we go into our
normal operating rhythm . Thanks for
the question . I appreciate the input
as well