10th Air Force commander speaks on training, Total Force, 442nd Fighter Wing

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Leo Brown
  • 442nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Maj. Gen. Richard Collins, 10th Air Force commander, made his first visit to Whiteman Air Force Base and to the 442nd Fighter Wing where he discussed, among other items, ancillary training and Total Force Integration. The following is an interview the general granted the Mohawk.

Mohawk: Ancillary training requirements in the Air Force Reserve match those on active duty, but this seems to be an issue for reservists, who work part time for the Air Force, as opposed to active-duty Airmen who work full time for the Air Force and generally have access to computers. Do you see a need for change in this area, and, if so, what changes are needed?

General Collins: This topic of discussion has been heard in almost every organization I’ve visited in the last day and a half.

It seems that we go in a cyclical fashion when it comes to ancillary training. 

We have to formulate teams and take a look at what’s out there, and make the determination to push this or that aside, and prioritize. 

Even as we speak, there’s an integrated process team that Lt. Gen. John Bradley, commander of Air Force Reserve Command, put together and my vice commander, Col. Craig Gourley is the team lead to look at all the ancillary training requirements and see what we’re going to have make a lower priority. 

It seems that most of the types of things we’re doing are in a computer-based format, and that creates a problem, because typically, in the active duty, each individual has his own workspace and computer, and we don’t necessarily have that capability in the Reserve. 

There is some capability to do it from home in a telecommuting fashion and the Air Force instruction does allow for that. But that also requires an individual to have computer access at home and because some of the things we do here require such large file sizes, if you only have dial-up network, it creates some problems and frustrations. 

The leadership of the Air Force Reserve is aware of these issues and we’re working to come up with solutions. It becomes, to a certain extent, a leadership issue when you have requirements that exceed your capabilities. At the leadership level, you have to make the determination what the priorities are and what’s important, and certainly I would say that giving our troops the training they require in their individual specialties is the most critical thing, so that we maintain combat capability, because the aerospace expeditionary force is job one, and we need to recognize that. Then we’ll attack those other ancillary training issues as our time permits. There’s certain things we do on a regular basis as “just in time” type training. When you’re getting ready to deploy and going into harm’s way, then we can focus on those skill sets. 

There ought to be one focal point for ancillary training in our Air Force Reserve and that ought to be the clearinghouse for determining what is going to be levied upon units and individuals as required training.

Mohawk: Total Force Integration, the mixing of Reserve, Guard and active-duty Airmen in single units, seems to be a trend in the future. Is this a correct assessment, and, if so, what opportunities does this present to the Air Force Reserve?

General Collins: When we look 10 to 20 years from now, it’s going to be a very fast-paced, fast-changing environment from the Air Force we all know today. 

This is not your daddy’s Air Force. 

Total Force Integration is a reality that is a mandate from the chief of staff and the secretary of the Air Force to merge organizations to take advantage of efficiencies that can be gained by doing that. 

Our first Total Force Integration effort is at Hill Air Force Base (Utah) with the 419th Fighter Wing and the 388th Fighter Wing, the active-duty and reserve units there. They’re in the process, even as we speak, of associating those two organizations. The reserve unit will give up its airplanes to other Air Force Reserve units, but the individuals will retain their unit identity and use active-duty equipment. That, I believe, will be the wave of the future. 

Right now, we’re in the throes of putting together our Fiscal Year 2008 (plans) to the Air Staff and, as part of that, some of our higher priority initiatives are to integrate with active duty in pretty much any weapon system we have out there. 

The Air Force Reserve will get involved in integrating with the A-10s at Davis-Monthan (AFB, Ariz.). We will integrate with the F-15 Es at Seymour-Johnson (AFB, N.C.). We’ve already started integration with the F-15s at Langley (AFB, Va.) and we’ll integrate with the F-15s at Eglin (AFB, Fla.). 

We are going to be involved as an associate organization with the F-22s at Elmendorf (AFB, Alaska) and, ultimately, I think as we see the success of those initiatives down the road that it will be become intuitively obvious that we will need to integrate with organizations flying the F-35. 

So, it’s our opportunity to get in on the ground floor with some of the new equipment that the active duty is procuring and dealing with. 

For current organizations, we are doing what we call “active associate.” We are absorbing into our organizations, young, active-duty aviators from both the F-16 and A-10 world who will come to us to get some seasoning.
 
The active duty is struggling with an imbalance between experienced and inexperienced aviators in their flying squadrons. They’ve had an imbalance for a while and it’s difficult to change the dynamics of that and work your way out of it. Because the experienced individuals have to fly all the sorties for the inexperienced guys, it just becomes a situation where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. To work out of that dynamic, they're going to hand their young guys off to us for three or four years to give us the opportunity to season them so they go back to the active-duty ranks with experience. That period of time will balance the active duty’s flying squadrons. 

Having said that, just about every organization in 10th Air Force is a target, at some point in time, for an “active associate” relationship. 

It may not necessarily happen right away in large numbers and whether it grows to larger numbers, is yet to be determined, but so far, so good. All those issues are on the table right now and, as things change and we’re helping them work through this problem, we may get the active duty back to a balanced state where we no longer have to absorb their pilots in our ranks.

Mohawk: What will you take back with you to 10th Air Force from the 442nd Fighter Wing? What were your impressions of the 442nd and how does our future look from where you stand?

General Collins: This is my first visit to Whiteman and the 442nd. General Bradley, our commander who was previously the commander of the 442nd, has always spoken highly of this organization and it becomes intuitively obvious to me now that I’ve visited here why that is the case. 

This is a great organization, it’s got great leadership and the people I’ve visited with over the last two days have just incredible enthusiasm and a lot of pride in what they do. You also see that pride in the facilities and in the equipment, whether it’s ground support equipment or the aircraft. 

I looked at some of these airplanes, ‘78 and ‘80 models and they’re in pretty darn good shape. 

There’s just a lot of pride and professionalism in what they’re doing to maintain this organization’s combat capability. 

So my take away is the strong leadership, the enormous pride, a lot of enthusiasm, and you see smiles on people’s faces, which means they’re enjoying what they’re doing and that’s good. 

I’ve been around fighter planes for quite a few years, so I have an image and expectation. (The 442nd) met all my expectations. 

On one of its previous deployments, the 442nd Fighter Wing was reporting a 93 percent mission capable rate for the aircraft and the reports go up through active-duty channels and the people there in the theater were just a little bit shocked and they didn’t necessarily believe it. They had to come take a look for themselves and when they walked away, they said, “They really are that good, the numbers don’t lie.” 

What I enjoyed the most was getting out there and talking with people, and people like to tell you what it is they do and how proud they are of their product. Particularly, some of the young troops. I always enjoy finding out about them and what motivated them to become part of this organization. 

Being a traditional reservist myself, and being an airline pilot, there is nothing like the camaraderie and the singleness of purpose that you find in the military and, more specifically, in a fighter organization. People are just really enthused about what they do and they take a lot of pride in that and it makes for a great team. It’s almost as if the leadership is doing nothing more than making sure the boat is headed in the right direction.