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AFGSC commander visits Andersen, addresses changes with deployed Airmen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Melissa B. White
  • 36th Wing Public Affairs
The commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, met with deployed Airmen here March 2-3, to thank them for their work and provide updates on various command initiatives.

"Thank you all for setting a really high bar over the last six months and doing some extraordinary things like supporting Cope North, the no-notice deployments, getting jets out of here for typhoon evacuations ...  flying around every place in the AOR, and just being good Airmen setting a great example for all our partners," Wilson said during an all-call with nearly 400 Airmen deployed here from Barksdale AFB, La., supporting the Continuous Bomber Presence mission in the Asia-Pacific region.

During the event, the general also provided an update on AFGSC's Force Improvement Program, an ongoing bottom-up program that seeks feedback from Airmen directly on how to improve mission accomplishment.

"It's a continuous force improvement philosophy, so I want to make sure that people understand that.  It's not a 'one and done,'" Wilson said. "We're going to go back to the field and talk to people who have ideas on how to do things better."

Since FIP's inception a year ago, AFGSC has collected more than 4,100 surveys and conducted more than 1,700 one-on-one interviews with Airmen supporting the bomber mission. This program helped leadership pin-point six major areas that needed more focus including training capabilities, CBP, aircraft sustainment, cruise missile sustainment, Total Force integration and maintenance generation.

Wilson also noted some other changes within the command, including an upcoming change in leadership. AFGSC will become a four-star command, pending the Senate's confirmation of Gen. Robin Rand, the current commander of Air Education and Training Command.

In addition to the all call, Wilson met with the governor of Guam and the commander of Joint Region Marianas. He also made several site visits around the base to meet one-on-one with deployed Airmen supporting the CBP and garnered feedback from them regarding accomplishments and recommended improvements from their deployment.

The general also took the opportunity to recognize a handful of Airmen who came up with problem-solving initiatives for the mission during their six-month deployment here. Among those recognized was a group of Airmen who set up a fully-functional consolidated toolkit located conveniently on the flightline, saving the Air force almost $2 million and significantly cutting down on transit time for maintainers to manage their tools.

"We've got a lot of incredibly smart and talented Airmen," Wilson said. "We need to listen to them and empower them to continue to be innovative."