To get here . Hey , what's going on A T
A so
real quick , how many of y'all would be
super disappointed if I did not give a
speech ? And I just , well , OK , I
don't , I can't see but some of y'all
remember how many of y'all were here
last year at A T A . I still have
PTSD from last year's A T A when I came
out and my speech wasn't here . So
we're not doing speeches and , and two ,
I've been on the road for the last few
days and I've been to three locations
and I figure if it's all right with you ,
can we just keep it real for the next
50 minutes ? Is that cool ? I heard
General Minihan likes to keep it real .
So we're just gonna follow that . Hey ,
real quick before um I get started as
though . Big . Thank you to everybody
on the A T A team who made this event
possible . Um Big , thank you , General
Everhard , General Minihan , chief ,
all the chiefs and commanders who are
here . Um And big thank you to our
civic leaders who are here . Industry
partners , everybody , family members .
Where is the family members . Big
thanks to everybody here . Hey , um If
I can , I want to know who is in the
audience though real quick ? Are there ,
is there any guard in here ? Ok . What
about reserve ? That's good .
Ok . Do I have any defenders in here ?
I have a few . Ok , good , good Medics
Maintainers
apps . That was a
sad , whoa , back there . Um
Who am I missing ? Are there cyber
folks in here ? LRS type
folks ? OK .
Who am I missing ? I said medics , I
said air crew ops s air crew . All
right . Hey , how many of y'all if
you've been in the air Force , less
than five years , raise your hands .
Just a few 10 . How about 5 to 15 years
in the Air force ? Raise your hands ?
How about over 15 years ?
Over 20 ? Oh , I forgot what kind of
convention I was at uh
over 25 . OK .
Over 30 . OK . I'm gonna stop counting .
So , so everybody who's been in less
than 15 years , you probably need to
give a hand clap to the over 20 crowd .
So I always appreciate understanding
who's in the audience because I always
think chrono chronologically . And I
think back to when I had an opportunity
to join our United States Air Force and
I tell people all the time I joined it
over 30 years ago , I thought I'll do .
My dad told me somewhere that four
years in the military never hurt
anybody . So I thought I'd join four
quick years , get my G I bill and roll
out about the fouryear mark . I
reenlisted to pay off my Honda Civic .
And then about the eight year mark is
when I really joined our Air Force ,
when I really understood what it means
to wear our nation's cloth and , and
how , what an honor it was . And so I
think chronologically , so I'll go back
to some of that and the over 30 crowd
will all understand kind of where my
headspace is . Um And , and I think
this will be helpful for all of us .
But if you've ever heard me talk ,
you'll typically hear me talk directly
about competition . Where are we
focused today as a Department of the
Air Force ? And you'll hear me
typically talk about China first
because China is absolutely our most
sophisticated adversary that we have .
But if you want to know what's on the
minds of your senior leaders , and I
understand you had an opportunity to
already hear from General Minahan , you
had an opportunity to hear virtually
from the Secretary of the Air Force .
But what's on our hearts and minds
right now in the Pentagon is absolutely
re optimization . So what does that
really mean ? And what are we really
talking about ? And I know the
secretary kind of alluded to this , but
he sent out a memo back in the first
week of September that went to the
entire force . And if you paid
attention to that memo , you would
understand that he did not mince his
words and it's not lost on me that when
I was tech Sergeant Joe Bass , that I
probably did not read many memos from
the Secretary of the Air Force that I
probably would have said who's a
secretary ? And I probably would have
deleted it . But I'm gonna ask every
single one of you and I'm gonna ask you
to take this back to your teammates .
If you have not read the secretary's
memo dated in the early part of
September , I'm gonna ask you to go
into your deleted folders and I need
you to read it . I'm serious and I need
you to read it . Not just once but
probably two times , maybe even three
times . I've talked to enough audiences
since he penned that memo to know that
the majority of the force just glanced
it over or didn't even read it . But I
need you to really pay attention if you
listen to what the secretary says .
It's a , it's pretty telling when he
says the Department of the Air Force ,
both Air and Space Force are not
postured for great power competition .
The Department of the Air Force is not
postured today for great power
competition . And so today , your
Department of the Air Force , senior
leaders across the board are focused on
how do we need to make sure that we are
re optimized to be the Air Force that
our nation is gonna need at any time
anywhere . And so to that end , there's
five lines of efforts . I don't wanna
spend too much time on them , but we
are taking a holistic look at what
we've got to get . After . When General
Brown got in the seat over three years
ago , he rolled out his eight page
strategic approach , accelerate change
or lose . He rolled out four action
orders , ABC and D he made them easy .
Airmen bureaucracy , competition design ,
the action order that I resonated the
most with , by the way is action order
D for design implementation . And so
essentially Secretary of the Air Force
saying we've got to re optimize for
great power competition . General Brown ,
previous chief of staff said we have
got to get after action order D that is
what we're working on today . If we had
a blank sheet of paper and we could re
optimize our force to be the air force
that our nation needs , what might it
look like . And so when I think back to
over 30 years ago , when I joined ,
it's such a very different force with
very different challenges . Back 30
years ago , you had to be strong on
four war fighting domains , air land
and sea . Did I say that ? Right ? I
think I missed one . OK . You had to be
strong in air three war fighting
domains . I didn't have coffee today by
the way because I flew . But you had to
be strong in three war fighting domains ,
air land and sea had , have strong army ,
strong navy , strong Marine Corps ,
strong Air Force . And here we are in
2023 almost 2024 . And I'd suggest to
you we've got to be long strong in air
land , sea space , cyber and
information . And I'd also submit to
you that if we lose in any of those
three last war fighting domains , by
the way that we probably lose period ,
and we can't even generate air power if
we lose in space , cyber and
information . And so for the past
30 years , while we've been focused
primarily in one A or , and oh , by the
way , we're still focused in that a or
many of your teammates are all deployed
to that a or , and oh , by the way ,
we've extended many of our , your
brothers and sisters who are there
right now . And so when you think about
what , what's been going on in the last
30 years ? And why is the Air Force so
focused on ? Why is the Department of
Defense so focused on our most
sophisticated adversaries ? Because
they've been moving out fast and every
one of our airmen serving in today's
military has to understand that they
have to understand and , and , and
every airman and every audience that I
talked to has to understand that China
has absolutely put a stake in the
ground . And they've told us in the
year 2049 they will take their rightful
stand to become the world dominant
power . Every airman needs to know that
if you talk to are there intel folks in
here , by the way ,
one person I love it , I'll keep all
this on class open source . I didn't
ask . Are there guardians in here ? No
space , no space , guardians . Hey , I ,
I'll keep all this on class open source .
But , but this is , you know , there's
a lot that we can say on class open
source with respect to China . But when
you look at what China's done in the
past , well , let me get back to their
100 year marathon which by the way ,
they called their century of
humiliation . If you talk to your one
intel person back here , what your
intel person is probably gonna tell you
is China is actually ahead of time , 15
to 20 years . You know , you do the
math 2020 . I learn that from gentlemen
at hand not to say numbers out there
and so interesting ,
you know , I got love for you , sir .
What we learn from each other . But
what I , what I've learned is
it doesn't matter . It's not our jobs
to predict when it's our jobs to be
ready today tomorrow and into the
future . So the Secretary of the Air
Force says we are not prioritized for
great power competition . What do we
have to do ? Let me just let me just
talk a little bit about China , I don't
know if you have an ops intel briefing
in here and certainly most of you are
operators so you get it . But what I'll
tell you is what you need , especially
to the commanders and the chiefs in
here . Don't let it be lost on you that
the majority of your forces never get
an ops intel briefing , never get an
opal briefing . Never understand or
hear somebody say that China has put a
stake in the ground 2049 . And so let
me just talk a little bit about that
piece . If you look at what they've
done in the past 30 years alone and how
they've really gotten after their
strategic objective , which is to
become the world dominant power . And
you look at how they've modernized from
a military perspective . If you look
and see what they've done from a road
initiative and how they've poured into
uh nations across the globe , across
Europe , building railways , building
ports , pouring into other nations ,
giving them loans into Africa . In fact ,
China believes that Africa is their
second continent . If you've ever
deployed to Djibouti , you know , that
China practically owns Djibouti , you
know , the influence and , and and and
perspective that they're pushing into
South America . So China's been
masterfully getting after their Belt
Road initiative in the last
eight years alone , they've taken a
string of islands in the South China
Sea . They've managed to put them
together , put a runway on at places to
hide munitions , not because they feel
like it , but because they can have
reach capability . If you look at what
they've done by investing into media
outlets across the globe , why would
China invest into media outlets across
the globe to control
information , control the narrative ?
If you look at the influence that China
has even within our own nation in
Hollywood and how we didn't even
release Maverick in time because of the
influence that they have there , China
is absolutely playing the long game .
And again , if they can win in space ,
cyber or information , they win . So
here we are not short of challenges .
That is why it is upon every single one
of us to really take seriously . What
does the Department of the Air Force
need to do to make sure that we are
optimized for great power competition ?
And what's that gonna look like ? I
will , what I would say to you is
you're probably gonna see more change
in the next 4 to 6 years than I've seen
in my entire 30 year career . And it's
about time . One of the things that I'm
focused on is your chief master on the
Air Force , is Action order A is all
things airmen . And I have a good time
in the Pentagon focused on those things
because one of the things that I share
with all of our staffs are we are not
going to be able to on board and retain
the talent that we need in today's Air
Force and our future Air Force , the
force of the future with 19 nineties
and two thousands policies . And so
we're taking a look at everything .
It's always interesting to me when I
hear our airmen say , I wonder if , I
wonder if the chief of staff knows
about this . I wonder if Chief Bass
knows about this . The answer is yes ,
we absolutely know the challenges with
bah with tuition assistance or whatever
it might be . So there is nothing that
we are not looking at that is important
to you and your families . I promise
you that um with that , I really
actually want to turn the mic over to
you guys so that I can field any
questions and find out what's on your
mind before I do . Um Let me start to
get ready to close it out . I want to
close it out with saying thank you to
each and every one of you . Thank you
for being part of the 1% who serves in
this great nation . Thank you to your
family members , your loved ones who
support you wearing this uniform . I
tell our airmen all the time . I
actually don't care how long you serve .
I don't care if you just serve four
years , six years , eight years , 28
years , as I mentioned before I signed
up then to just do four . What I ask
every single one of our airmen is I
just ask you to make your service
better , make your career feel better ,
make your unit better . I think that's
fair . What I ask our Air force to do
is to make you better so that when you
take this uniform off , because every
single one of us will that you can go
do great things in your hometown . I'll
close it out . Also talking about
taking care of you and taking care of
those around you . Resiliency , which
is something that I know is very
important to each and every one of
these leaders on the front row . Make
sure that you're taking care of you .
For those of you who um enjoy a good
book . A good , a good audible or a
good uh read . If you've never read
Generation Z unfiltered , actually ,
how many of y'all have teenagers ? You
need to read Generation Z unfiltered .
That's a pro tip for you . I read it a
few months ago and I came home and I
told my husband Ron , I was like , dude ,
like we need to change the way we lead .
We still have a 17 year old at home .
And when you read this book , it really
does t in fact , everybody needs to ,
if you are leading a and you need to
understand it because we have to have a
deep appreciation for the five
different generations that are serving
in today's workforce . But when we talk
about generation Z and how it applies
to me when I was talking to my husband ,
I said we have to change the way that
we lead even our own kiddo who's still
at home . Because what I learned in
that book is generation Z actually
wants to serve . They just want to
serve in their own way and they just
want a different pathway and they want
flexibility . What I also learned is
generation Z , the 28 years
old has become what we knew was 18 .
Adolescence has extended
kids don't want to drive anymore
seriously . Like they don't wanna get
license and that's not true for
everybody . Right ? My daughter wanted
her license at 16 , but that's not true
for everybody . But by and large kids
don't wanna drive as young as they did .
They don't wanna work as young as they
did . They don't necessarily
experience life as we did . They used
to call us , by the way , I'll figure
out how to tie this into war fighting
at some point . But they used to , they
used to call us helicopter parents .
Y'all remember that they don't call us
helicopter parents anymore . They call
us snowplow parents . What's a snowplow
parent ? It's somebody for the ce folks
in here who just paves the path and
make sure that there's no bumps in the
road and nothing bad happens . Right .
So I go home and I tell my husband like
we , we can't pay , we can't be snow
pla like we've got to make sure that we
change the way we do things . And it's
true . They said they don't even date
until later in life . So it's true in
my household because my daughter , 17
years old just got her first boyfriend .
I had mine at eight . I don't , I don't
know . What's , it's , it's a little
weird for me . So , so she tells us
it's our third month anniversary and I
gotta prepare her for life . I can't be
that snowplow parent . So I said girl
don't get excited . It's not gonna work
out . So , so I'm , I'm preparing her
for life . Here's how I'm gonna tie it
back into resilience in you all . Like
these are the airmen coming in today's
air force , right ? Like I don't need
my kiddo coming in and then you're her
supervisor for the first time in life .
They're experiencing life when you look
at most of the resiliency challenges .
By the way , 90% of um relationship
issues , 90% of them
relationship issues . We have got to
teach people , we have got to teach
each other about how to deal with life .
So with that pro tip generation Z
unfiltered , it will help you be a
better parent . It will help you be a
better wingman and a teammate to each
other . And so with that , um I told
you I wasn't gonna give a speech . I
want to just have some real talk and
now I'm gonna turn the mics over to you
do we have mics in the audience ? We
don't have mics . So I'm gonna turn it
over to you all . What I would say to
you again , to all the folks here at A
T A to the folks that are online to all
of our mobility teammates , to our
guard and reserve by the way , who are
the secret sauce in what we do ? Thank
you for serving . Thanks for being
great teammates . Thanks for making our
air force so great . And with that , I
want to hear what's on your mind .
Sorry , ma'am . We were doing a little
admin there . Uh and , and it's for
what happens next , but we , we're ,
we're on good shape . So ma'am , here's
how we're going to do this . Uh I am
getting questions uh through AAA
process and I will go ahead and ask
them . We don't have a whole lot yet ,
but if we run out , then I'll ask
members to just come forward . Yes ,
ma'am . Oh , yes , ma'am . And , and
more importantly I've learned and so ,
uh I know I know how to do it as
well . I , I even found out , I , I
learned a new term crowdsourcing .
There's a sort of a crowdsourcing
function and all of the youngsters and
oldsters can see the questions and they
can if they like it and it pops up to
the top of the list . And so I'm just
gonna , so here's general killer . What
you also need to know is they're not
shy of opinions and they , and they
share them online , so certainly
they're going to share them with us .
Ok . So , ma'am , in order to share ,
here's the first question and they're
not shy , ma'am . How are we addressing
the rise in mental health cases ?
Specifically that members remain in el ,
remain eligible for deployment Taskings
and reducing the extended wait times
for referrals for most of our medical
groups , which can be attributed to
overworked staff . Yeah , there's a
couple of things that we're looking at .
Um by the way , we started a four and I
think I mentioned this last year if ,
if I didn't forgive me , but we started
a fortify the Force Initiative team .
How many of y'all have heard of that ?
So it's a phenomenal team made by
guardians and airmen and family members
and veterans soft community , every ,
every kind of community . It's , it's ,
it's a team of about over 300 people
that could bring us challenges and
barriers to resiliency and fortifying
the force all the way from the grass
roots level up because what we know
about resiliency and mental health
challenges , et cetera is that programs
don't helps save lives and , and
top-down programs are not always that
helpful . And so we , we started this
fortify the Force Initiative team from
the grassroots up . And one of the
lines of efforts that they're focused
on are what are some of the policies
that are not helpful to any of us and
some of those policies are that we
would have policies that just
automatically cut you out and say you
can't deploy or we have policies where
here's a true story . We had an uh a
senior master sergeant on our
formations who his spouse had passed
away 10 years ago and he went and got
help . And then 10 years later , he
could get an assignment to Florida that
doesn't make a whole lot of sense . And
so these are some of those barriers
that that team has brought to our
attention and we're working with the A
OS of those A fis to help fix some of
those barriers . So the policy piece is
one thing , the other thing is it
relates to the challenges with wait
times and mental health , et cetera .
Um Another memo that we pushed out that
I don't know how many of you guys read
it , but myself and General Brown
pushed out a memo to the field um
entitled Spectrum of resilience . If
you hadn't seen it , just check it out .
And that was something that myself and
General Brown personally , there wasn't
a week that went by that . We did not
talk about the resiliency of the force .
Not a week that went by that we did not
talk about mental health . And a week
that didn't go by that we didn't talk
about suicides . And so for me and
General Brown , we started talking
about why and why is there such a
challenge and how do we help alleviate
some of the pain points with respect to
the lack of mental health providers ?
And so here's just some data points for
everybody and most of you all know this
but , but our nation is , is is at a
shortage of mental health providers ,
our nation . And so if our nation is
short mental health providers , that
means the dod is going to be short
mental health providers . That means
the Air Force is going to be short
mental health providers . But what
we've learned , talking to our mental
health providers is that out of every
10 airmen who comes into mental health ,
only two of them technically need
clinical mental health support . The
other eight just needs to know somebody
cares . So what we're not short of in
the military is leaders and
supervisors and wingmen . And so we've
got to have some strong NCO development ,
strong CGO and FGO development so that
we can get to a place where everybody
feels cared for . And so we rolled out
this spectrum of resilience because
there are more things within the
spectrum than just I'm healthy and I
need to go seek mental health . I am a
huge fan by the way of comprehensive
Airman Fitness . I'm a big fan of the
fact that we have to be focused on our
own resilience by focusing on our
physical fitness , our mental , our
social , our spiritual , if we help
build those things up that might help
alleviate some of the friction points
there . If we tap into our fellow
wingmen and teammates and maybe get off
of our phones sometimes and our devices
and actually have analog face to face
leadership , maybe that'll help
alleviate some of the friction points
where we can't get people in if we'll
tap into the other resources that we
have . So there's lots of things that
we have to get after General Kelly . Um ,
and we're identifying what those things
are , um , before we can get to that .
And so , um , if you have ideas , we're
open to hear them , but I think there's
a lot of supporting fires that we can
have , but we are focused on how do we
fix some of the policies and then how
do we do more ? Let me , let me just
add one more thing and we talked about
it at Corona as well . Um , I know the
CFT is focused on it . I'm a big fan of
what we all used to know as Hawks . Do
y'all remember that ? Health and
Wellness Centers all the 30 up .
Remember that , right ? I , I don't , I
don't know , I don't know how we got
away from that . And so we're going to
get back to a model where we have total
force fitness if you will kind of
centers back at our bases . I don't
know what they're going to be called
Wellness Center or something like that ,
but we've got to get to a place where
our airmen have a place to go . Whether
you're in Aviano , whether you're at
Scott , whether you're a mcguire , you
have a place to go that has a total
force fitness . And how about we get
left of the situation and we have
exercise physiologists there and we
have other things that build up the ,
build up our to the core . That is
where we're gonna go at some point .
Thank you , ma'am . The next most
popular question is Chief Bass . What
are we doing to address the recruiting
and retention issues that are facing
our air force ? Is there anything you
can share uh perhaps about upcoming
changes in things like dress and
appearance or new uniforms ?
I don't know . Thanks for the , thanks
for the question . I don't know , the
dress and appearance in new uniforms is
why people are not coming into the
military or not . But y'all tell me , I
don't necessarily think that's it . I
think that's kind of two separate
questions , but I actually do want to
touch on the recruiting thing , you
know , just again , a data point , I
talked to a lot of leaders across our
nation , whether they're , they're from
industry or whether , you know ,
they're CEO S or , or wherever like
recruiting . The recruiting challenges
in our military are recruiting
challenges across the nation .
Everybody is struggling to hire a
workforce . Just know that the
Department of Labor . In fact , called
my office before the school year to ask
how many , um airmen do we have that
have commercial driver's license ? What
they really want to know General Lowe
is how many Gua Guard airmen do we
have with commercial drivers license ?
Why we didn't have enough school bus
drivers ? And so , so the recruiting
challenges really felt across the
nation . I will tell you that today we
are in a really good place and I've got
uh a TC commander looking at me , but
today , we're in a way better place
than we were last year and we think
we're gonna be fine this year . But
here's what I might suggest to you .
Like recruit . The recruiting challenge
is not the recruiters challenge . The
recruiting challenge is everybody's
challenge . And if you're a senior
leader , you probably need to be
steeped into . What does it mean to
recruit somebody into the military ?
And all of us has a role in this . If
you're a leader and you're serving at
one of our installations , do you know
who your recruiters are ? Do you know
who your junior RT C folks are ? Do you
know who your RT C folks ? Your civil
Air patrol ? Have you been out to a VFW
or an American legion lately ? So that
we can all tackle this challenge that
we have as it relates to recruiting .
We have a lot of internal things that
we're doing and anything that um is an
Air Force policy we are tackling all of
those Air force policies first on ,
what are the things that are not
helping us bring some things in ? We
actually had this discussion with the
Secretary of Defense on Monday , in
fact , and what we brought up to his
level of attention are the things that
Os D needs to do when it changes . When
it comes to some of the changes we need
to make . We haven't modernized some of
our sessions policies . If you have a
peanut allergy and we find out about it
before you enlist into the military ,
you're probably going to be gone or
we've got to do a long outdated waiver .
That's a dod policy . We're working on
that . If you have asthma , all , all
those things , we're taking a look at
how we can get after those things . I
will tell you , we're also gonna have
to balance the changes that we make the
Air Force challenge the Air Force
policies that we make . We'll have to
balance that with , you know , making
sure that we are supporting a more
modern force that that's applicable to
the 21st century , but not letting go
of our high standards . And so that's
that balance that our team is very
carefully looking at to make sure that
we get right . I'll tell you , we made
a change for instance to the tattoo
policy this past year where we allowed
airmen or recruits to come in if they
had a one inch tattoo on their hand or
if they had a one inch tattoo on the
back of their neck , some of the emails
that you I got , you would have thought
that like the air force was going to
hell in a hand basket . And here's
right . Like , again , this is good
order and discipline . This is like
we've got to some degree , we , we have
to have good order and discipline and
we have to appreciate military image
and we will , we will . But I'm not
recruiting 50 year olds like we've got
to figure out how to modernize things .
I'm sorry , nobody laughed . Ok . But
we've got , we've got to modernize
while not taking away from our high
standards . And those are the things
that I hope that you trust the
institution with . Thanks . Yes , ma'am
chief this morning . Uh Secretary
Kendall had a message for us . Uh And
in that message , uh he mentioned that
F four gen does not apply to the
mobility air forces . I was uh the
crowd is wondering , have you been
given any insights into what that
something unique for uh mobility air
forces might be ? And can you elaborate
on it in any way ? I cannot elaborate
on anything about that ? Um A a and ,
and here's why , right ? Like I think
we are still building out what some of
that force presentation like and , and
I don't want to get premature and I'm
not necessarily the best person , but
what I do know is that the folks that
are making those decisions in the
Pentagon are not doing it in a vacuum
and they are absolutely doing it with a
lot of stakeholders within a MC ,
within the guard , within the reserve
to make sure that we figure out how do
we present our forces in a way that
makes sense , ma'am with the record low
promotion rates , how can we
incentivize performance in other ways ?
With the ? Yes , ma'am . I'm sorry ,
with record low promotion rates , can
we incentivize performance in other
ways ? Um
So a couple of things on , on the
record low , I don't , I I hope we get
out of the phase and this is for the
enlisted force . I hope that we get out
of the phase of record low promotion
rates probably within the next year or
two years . But there were some levers
that levers that we had to pull . And I ,
I think it's important that everybody
understands why . And I think I share
this same thing last year a bit , but
we're still in that second year of , of ,
of lower promotion rates . But our
enlisted four structure should really
look like a pyramid right from , from
ee one all the way to E nine . But over
the past few years , because we have
record high retention rates , people
don't always believe the hype on what
you see on the information space . We
have record high retention rates . We
don't look like a pyramid anymore . We
look more like a muffin top . And so ,
so we have too many E fives , E sixes
and E sevens in our four . And so we
had to address it . And when the A one
team came and brought that to me , what
they sh you know what my first question
is , what if we don't address it ? And
what if we maintain status quo and we
don't change our record high promotion
rates . The answer was , well , chief ,
if you keep kicking the can down the
road , then at some point whoever
replaces you or the people who , the
person who replaces that person will
promote zero people . The Air Force
that I came into 30 years ago , you
couldn't even make E five . I don't
know if some of y'all remember that ,
no matter how high you tested , you
physically couldn't make E five even if
you got scored hundreds . And so we
never wanted to go to that place . And
so we made some adjustments to those
record lows . By the way , one of the
things that you would hear from our
force by and large , if you asked the
force about two or three years ago ,
what some of our biggest challenges
were was that the Air Force doesn't
value experience anymore . That's what
we were hearing . And then when we
pulled a lever to value experience ,
everybody said , but not when I'm
testing . So that lever that we pulled
which is why the promotion rates are a
little bit lower . And we did some more
things to value experience by adding
points is really going to get us to a
place where we start to have more
experienced E fives and sixes and
sevens . And so I think that that's
important . Now , as far as the
incentivizing piece , I've never been
the best person to ask for that because ,
you know , for me , it gets back to
intrinsic motivation , right ? Like for
me , it's been about , you know , how ,
how do you get motivated in the job
that you do um and stay motivated and
it , and you're not looking at outward
things to do that , you know , I just ,
I guess I grew up old school where my
mom told me do your job and do it well .
And so I would say , you know , that
might be something that we need to ,
you know , every one of us internally
needs to think about . The other thing
that I will say though as it comes to
people operations and I started to um
talk about it earlier where there's
nothing that we're not going to look at
when it comes to people . And if you
look at the re optimization loes that
the secretaries pushed out . One of
those loes is people and in the people
space , one of the things that we're
looking at and it kind of ties back
into that Gen Z book that I was telling
you about is we have to have different
ways to incentivize people to come into
the military and to stay in the
military . And that's about talent
management . And so one of those things
that we're looking at is how do we re
retain our technical expertise in our
military . And so we , three years ago ,
for instance , we might not have been
talking about things like warrant
officer . We are talking about them now .
It doesn't mean that we're going that
in the way , but we're
long pause , but I see y'all back there .
Here's what , here's what I'll tell you .
I think it absolutely has a lot of
merit for us to very much consider that
because it's another pathway to be able
to retain talent and it's a model
that's already out there . But we've
got to do a smart , every decision that
we make has 2nd and 3rd order impacts
and we've got to do that . But I will
assure you that we're looking at ways
on how we retain our technical
expertise for the cyber folks in here .
We are pushing very hard for a cyber
pay . Um It's 2023 almost 2024 in
the same way that we have aviation pay
and jump pay . We need a cyber pay .
And so those are some of the things the
cyber people should have been like ,
yes , like those are some of the things
we're looking at . I have no idea what
the question was , sir . I'm sorry ,
you answered . It is hard because you
and I , and if you would rather stay
over in the shade , you can , because I ,
I , and I'll speak up , can you ? It's
still , it's still , it's still getting
you . I'm sorry , ma'am . Ok . Uh , so
chief , this is a little bit related to
what you just said . Uh , and , uh , so
I , I hesitate to repeat the first part
of the question because I think it's
redundant . But , uh , the
questionnaire said , I just saw that
the Air Force raises its , its
enlistment age to 42 . Can you also
raise or can we also raise high year ,
10 year limits for those who want to
keep serving ? Absolutely . And in fact ,
that's , that is one of the things that
we're looking at is what is the
appropriate hyt for those who are
serving now , just , you know , I said
we were gonna have real talk . I
probably shouldn't as much , but we're
family look like . So when y'all think
you read about stuff and find out about
stuff online , uh , me too . So , so
here I am . And somebody sends me a
link and it says the Air force raised ,
raised its limits to 42 . I said we did
it . So anyway , just it's not just you .
Um , but then somebody said that was in
one of the emails that we sent you ,
you know what I mean ? Keep them brief
people keep them brief . So , so the
answer is yes , we are looking at all
things , everything people related .
What is the hyt , what's the age limit ?
But we're being very thoughtful and
what is the cause and effect if we , if
we raise those things ? I absolutely
think we need to . Yeah , Chief . The
next question is when uh this
particular individual uh enlisted 20
years ago tuition assistance was a max
of $250 a credit hour tuition costs
have increased over the years . Yet
tuition assistance limits have stayed
in place . Uh Is there anything that we
can do to address that discrepancy ? So
some of the things that we're looking
at when it comes to T A is really
working with the schools and the
universities . Um In fact , we've got
people that are calling and , and
spending time with the universities to
try to get them to lower some of their
uh what they're charging for credit
hours for the military member . The
challenge that we have is if we raise
our T A limits , there's an assertion
that then the schools are also then
going to raise their limit . When we
compare how much the Air Force gives in
T A at all and all the costs and
education and by credit hour , et
cetera with the other services , I
still think that our policies with T A
are probably better than any other
service in the dod , right ? Like it
could always be better . But , but that
is at this time , not , not anything
that we're looking at because if we
raise those costs , that cost is going
to come from somewhere and somewhere ,
then we're gonna have to figure out
what are we lowing ? And at the same
time , we just raised our costs and how
much we're pushing out for Air Force .
Cool . Which is a good thing that's
going directly to our airmen with
licensing and certification . So
something we'll have to give and for us ,
I think we think it's appropriate but ,
but I will reach back out to the A ONE
D team to find out um where we are with
the discussions with some of those
universities , ma'am . I'm going to
paraphrase this next question . It's
regarding uh the potential of a
government shutdown . Uh And the
questionnaire is wondering if military
leaders are engaged on Capitol Hill to
try to ensure that there is no loss of
military pay during the shutdown . But
if that is unsuccessful , are there
other things we are doing to look at
mitigating the impact on our
individuals if there is a government
shutdown , 100% so very engaged
on Capitol Hill and on all fronts ,
right ? This is , this is really a
whole of nation . In fact , you know ,
the when , when you look at um even
this past week , how much um our
secretary and our chief of staff has
been engaged with our elected officials
on the hill with a whole lot of things ,
government shutdown is absolutely one
of those things . Um Even for myself ,
my engagement , the last go around and
making sure that we talk to members um
that actually have a vote to make sure
that they understand this , that
engagement is happening across the
board to include a lot of our vs OS who
are actively engaged in supporting and
representing every single one of you
when it comes to mitigations . Um You
know , we'll push some of the talking
points that , that , that we pushed out
to all of the command teams as well as
through social media . Um And I'm sure
we'll have resources like financial
institutions that are doing their part
to try to be able to make sure that
they can help when it comes to um being
able to like , uh you know , uh
compensate what your military pay might
be with a zero cost loan , those things
will happen , our Air Force Eight
Society will be there . Um But I think
one thing that I might ask your help
with for you and , and , and for your
wingman is um I remember our , most of
our parents always reminding us to save
for a rainy day , right ? I think it's
important for all of us if , if we
haven't talked to our fellow airmen and ,
and make sure that they have like six
months worth of monthly costs , right ?
Saved up in a place . Right . That it
doesn't excuse the fact that we should
never have a government shutdown , but
that's uncontrollable . And that's
something that we can't control . But
what we can control is our ability to
protect ourselves and have discussions
with all of our wingmen . And so what I
would ask is that all of our
supervisors are having those
discussions on , are you good if you're
not , then how do we help ? And you've
got first line supervisors there ,
you've got first sergeants , you have
lots of resources . We don't want any
airmen and their families to um suffer
in silence and not get the help and the
support that they need . And there's
many of those resources out there and
chief this next question is , is uh
related . Uh And that is , and it just
moved on me . I'm sorry , there we go .
Uh uh Can you share with us any
initiatives that are being looked at by
the Air Force to help families uh
obtain more affordable childcare ?
So here's one of the things um that I'd
like y'all to know back in September ,
your Air Force pushed the Department of
Defense to have a childcare summit .
Your Air Force did because we're not OK
with the status quo when it comes to
childcare today and just for a data
point , um we have about 18 to
20% . Um We have the ability to cover
down on about 18 to 20% of childcare
across the force . And that's really
because the modern military family has
evolved a lot in the past 30 years ,
you have more single parents , you have
more dual working parents , you have
more dual military parents . And so
here we are with a very different
situation on all of our installations .
Some of our installations have a hiring
problem . Some of our installations
don't have a hiring problem . They have
a space problem and some of our
installations have both . And so this
is where every one of our installation
command teams is working very hard to
figure out ways to get after whatever
their issue might look like . And we've
pushed out a lot of incentives to help
incentivize hiring and , and push it to
the lowest level . One of the things
that the Air Force did specifically is
in order to get more childcare
providers , we're offering 100% free
for your first child for your child if
you can , if you become a childcare
provider . And so you've got a child in
the CDC , you're working there , that
child's free , the Air Force . Um Also
added some more benefits where we're
also providing 25% for your additional
Children if you'll come be a childcare
provider , I've seen where some of our
bases are for FCC providers are
providing bigger houses on base or an
additional bedroom on base to encourage
being an FCC provider . So lots of
money are going toward incentives to
try to increase Childcare . And that
Childcare summit that the Department of
Defense hosted is actually looking at
how we might be able to get after this .
But especially , and as I look at
community partners by reaching out to
the communities and fi figuring out how
we can um help get after some solutions
together with working with boys and
girls clubs and , and all those other
things , Chief , we've got time for one
more question if you please , ma'am ,
as you look back , pardon me ? As you
look back on your career , can you talk
about a significant struggle that you
had to overcome or to ? And the lessons
that you took from overcoming those
struggles ? How much time do we have ,
ma'am ? We've got , we've got time . So
you just take as much time as you want .
OK , I've got two . I've got two . I've
got , there's a lot , but , but I've
got two and here's what I've learned
that with every struggle or with every
challenge , it's part of character
building and with every challenge comes
opportunities . So personally , um one
of the struggles that I had to learn to
overcome was making sure that I didn't
get in my own way , right ? Especially
as a female leader . I did not , I grew
up , right ? I joined the Air Force
over 30 years ago . So I didn't see a
lot of female leaders , especially
female chiefs . It wasn't until I was a
tech sergeant that I found my first
female chief and I was down range
somewhere and I went up to her and I
said I am so inspired by you . I don't
even know why she might not even been
that great . But I was like , I'm , I'm
just inspired by you because I finally
saw . And so so I never , for me
personally , I never , when I thought
about strong leadership , I thought
about people like my army husband who's ,
who's , you know , pretty strong and ,
and domineering . And when I learned to
that strength comes in different forms
as long as you're competent , credible
and committed , like any of us can be a
great leader . And so when I got out of
my own way and realized that I was a
bad in my own , right , then life was
good . And so that was my first lesson
that I had to learn is to make sure
that I'm not the reason why um you know ,
that my own self limiting beliefs
weren't keeping me from going as far as
I could go . Um Here's another
challenge that probably all of us deal
with . But here's a challenge that I
dealt with since sitting in this
position , specifically learning how to
navigate the information age . Y'all
know what I'm talking about . Like
learning how to navigate this social
media age . I'm gonna talk about
information age and I'll try to tie it
back to that question real quick
because I think it's , it's important
Right . You know , I talk about war
fighting domain information . Um , like
all of us have to understand and
appreciate that the information age
isn't going anywhere whether you're on
social media or not . Right . Like
that's , it's a thing . And so I
learned coming into this position how
we've got to be very careful about what
our eyes see and what we hear in this ,
in this information age . In fact , um ,
I was probably a novice in the
information age . I didn't , I know
y'all think the chief master in the Air
Force um is online all day . It's not ,
it's my pas um But if it's ever a clap
back , it is me just so , you know , um
but it's typically my pas and I'll
never forget they were like , gee when
I first got in the seat , you have
trolls on your site . I was like trolls .
What's a , what's a troll ? Like , I
didn't know . Right . And he's like ,
you got swarms of them and I'm like
swarms . Like , don't these people have
jobs and , and , and oh , by the way ,
he said they're all intel to the intel
person back there . And I said , oh ,
that checks . So , no , I'm joking .
Hey , but , but we've had to learn how
to deal with this information age and I
don't know that we've done it that
great as a military , but we're getting
there and we're getting better . I've
been pushing really hard to make sure
that people understand this information .
We're age that we're in , in fact , I
wrote an article in the A U press
called a New Kind of War because I
think that it's important that
everybody understands that , that if we
lose an information , we could lose ,
he who gets the information out first
will typically win whether it's truth
or not . And so I've had to
learn how to navigate in this
information age . And hopefully even
through our team , what we've tried to
teach is that social media can be a
great tool . We have to be focused on
truth . We have to be focused on
flattening cons , we have to be focused
on the good . Um Hey , let me just talk
about one thing . My kids hate when I
talk about this , but I think it's
important to talk about tiktok . Um
None of y'all do it because this is
kind of the over 20 crowd but , but the
under 20 crowd , I'm gonna quit saying
that Joe because none of y'all actually
ever like that anymore . But , but the
the under like your Children , my
Children who are on tiktok all the time ,
like it's really important that we
understand this informa information age
that we're in , we need to know that ,
right ? Like most of us know that OK ,
trying to create a tiktok , no big deal .
What most people don't know is that
China created tiktok . But the version
of Tik Tok that is used and employed in
China is very different than the
version of tiktok that is employed
throughout the rest of the world . What
most people also don't know is the
version that Russia uses is very
different too . And so the version of
Tik Tok that is employed in China that
they use is very focused on education .
It's very focused on stem , it's very
focused on making a good human being .
The version of tiktok that the rest of
the world uses is really like hot
garbage . It's cat videos ,
it's things that just keep you
mindlessly scrolling . Why does all
this matter ? Why would I be talking
about this because it's back to the
long game , right ? China put a stick
in the ground 2049 long game . They did
a study on Chinese Children and
American Children . And what do they
want to be when they grow up ? Chinese
Children wanna be astronauts ,
scientists ? What do American Children
wanna be ? Social media
influencers ? So if you think about the
long game , what does that mean ? And ,
and , and some of us used to laugh .
It's actually not funny . What is that
gonna mean in 10 years from now ? And
so we've got to be focused on the long
game y'all as I close it up . General
Kelly , thank you so much . What I
would say is that's probably the
biggest challenge that I've dealt with
is how do we navigate this and how do
we get the Department of Defense to be
a little bit more proactive and how we
navigate this because this is
absolutely gonna be a challenge that
our nation has to deal with when it
comes to our strategic competitors .
And so bringing it back to what I was
talking about earlier , like the only
way that we're going to continue to be
able to be our best , especially as an
air force is we need a whole of nation
approach , a whole of society approach .
And so what I will share with you is
your senior leaders know that very well ,
your senior leaders are very engaged
with from a whole of government
perspective by talking with leaders ,
our elected leaders , by reaching out
to our community partners to leverage
our connections and our commitments
with them to talk to industry leaders
to make sure that they understand their
role as well , talking to school
systems , to figure out how do we get
left so that we can grow . Fifth
graders who are smart and ready to
tackle all the challenges and
opportunities that are gonna come their
way . If you need a really good book
that speaks on whole of nation , I'd
offer uh The Kill Chain by Christian
Bros . One of the first books that we
put on my in on our reading list , a
great book to talk about that , but
it'll take a whole of nation until then .
Thank you for being the airman
and the leaders and the human beings
that you are to make this air force so
great as we look to make changes and re
optimize our force . I'm gonna ask your
help in this . I'm gonna ask your help
in figuring out how can we , we re
optimize at the squadron level at the
flight level . How can we make our air
force better so that we can continue
being the air force our nation needs
when called upon today tomorrow or any
time ? Thank you to our mobility team
for every single thing that you do .
You are in the fight today , you'll be
in the fight tomorrow , make sure that
you take care of yourselves and on
behalf of General Alvin who wishes that
he could be here , we salute you and we
thank you for what you do . Thank you .
She can stay happy .