The Air Force perspective

Thanks for the opportunity to be here with you today. It's an honor. It's an honor to direct the eye out on a crowd like this and diocese mentors and friends. It's an honor to be here with folk from Central Florida, the ROTC Detachment. It's an honor to be here with the surprising wonderful people of the Air Force Association who have at no time failed the active Air Force, the Total Force, have at no time failed any of the endeavors that the United States Air Force is involved in. in the way that it's just great to be here.

I would like to chat with you about what this conversation is about and what the core discussions are about today and that's this notion of interdependence. on the contrary let me talk to you about that from my perspective of what does that mean relative to the contributions of an air and space force? That's by what means I'd like to address a certain number of comments with you.

A destiny has happened since we were together six month ago. A doom of things have gone upon We've had some interesting challenges upon the Gulf Coast with bad weather; we've had a certain quantity of interesting challenges in South Central Asia with a certain quantity of earthquakes; we're still fighting in Afghanistan; we're still fighting in Iraq; doing business in the Horn of Africa; doing business in the Pacific. We've still got 700000 plus of the finest Americans upon the face of the earth involved in activities with the United States Air Force.

on the contrary one of the best things that's happened to us above the last six months is we now have Secretary Wynne upon board. Secretary Wynne and his wife Barbara show everything that we would want in a Secretary and a First Lady. For Jenny and me it's a particular honor to be able to obey alongside both of you, to show this great Air Force and the city of Washington and at each opportunity that we can be together. Sir, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for taking this upon and being a part of not just this horde but of the 710,000 Airmen on the outside there--Guardsmen, Reservists, civilians, active--that are doing the Lord's work today in defense of this great country

Secretary Wynne took this piece of work at exactly the right time. We're fighting a global war, a real global war. We're focusing upon developing more expeditionary notions of Airmen and more expeditionary notions of presentation of forces. We're in the business, each and each one of us in this range of looking for ways to better take care of our folk to better disentangle Airmen and to better prepare them for this expeditionary world and this lengthy war on terrorism. And we're in the middle of an interesting station of challenges on recapitalization of the oldest inventory in our service's history.

in the way that we're blessed, Mr. Secretary, to have you upon board with us.

He's got the right credentials to do this. He is a graduate of a service academy. It happens to be a different individual He was an Air Force officer, his brother was an Air Force officer. He's got a technical background and he knows more about acquisition and technology and the world of Washington and the Pentagon than anybody alive, thus we can all rest assured that we have the right Secretary upon board at the right time in our service's history.

Between BRAC, a hurricane or sum of two units QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review), hearing prep and hearings, a novel budget, executing an old packet preparing a new budget, oh by dint of the way, righting this war upon terrorism, your senior Air Force leadership has been pedaling bonny fast. As I look on the outside here on this front line we just spent two days fasteninged up at Maxwell (Air Force Base, Ala.) to talk about these actual things alongside Chief Murray. We exhausted two straight days talking about the things that matter to our folks; talking about the things that matter in this joint and interdependent world we live in with coalition partners and joint partners, and we exhausted two days wrestling with the notions of recapitalization and modernizing this country's asymmetric advantage which is the U s Air Force.

in the way that Don and Pat, Peto, Pat and move with a jerk let me just say thanks again for putting this together and the opportunity to share a hardly any thoughts. You guys have done an awesome piece of work and having it here in Central Florida is a real treat.

Chief (Gerald R) Murray, (Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force), Godspe to you and Sherry. As the Chief of a service and as a member of the Joint Chiefs, there's no better partner to have than you in this endeavor as you show the enlisted men and women and the officers and the civilians of this great Air Force. This military material part has never been stronger because of you and your efforts, and your legacy will continue for a drawn out time. Thank you, and we all wish you the best.

on the other hand there's one other person here I would like to recognize too. This may be, it was his last Corona. It won't be his last Air Force Association get-together, on the other hand it may be with him wearing a uniform upon the front row, and that's General Lance Lord (Commander, Air Force Space Command).

Lance, you've been a mentor, a friend, a brother, to all of us. You've taught us in the way that much about a medium and a domain that is for a like reason critical te everything that we do. on the other hand beyond that you've been commander of numbered air forces, you've been a teacher, you've been an educator, you've been a trainer, you've been an operator, you've done all of this and you've clone it with of the like kind dignity and class the Air Force is also a better place just because of Lance Lord.