Says All Airmen May Lead By Example In Troubled Times

Good leadership at all levels will fix what ails the Air Force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during an event at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base on Tuesday.

"There's nothing more important ... to what we do than leadership. It covers the full spectrum of our people. It covers the full spectrum of our missions. It covers what we're doing now and how we look to the future," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said.

On this first leg of a four-day tour of western-US military bases, it was the chairman's first opportunity to talk with airmen face to face since the June 6 resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley.

Standing in a hangar, flanked by A-10 Thunderbolt II and F-22 Raptor fighter jets, the chairman set about easing the concerns of hundreds of airmen gathered to speak their minds and hear what the nation's top officer had to say about the future of their service.

It was Mullen's first visit here, and the "all-hands" meeting is a trademark of the chairman's visits as he listens and responds to concerns of servicemembers.

Mullen said he admires Wynne and Moseley for taking responsibility for the degradation of nuclear program standards reported within the service, and said it will help the Air Force move forward in fixing the problems within its nuclear mission.

Still, the chairman conceded, there is a "great deal of work to do, and it needs to be done and grasped by the entire Air Force." Mullen also emphasized that the fix does not set squarely on the shoulders of the senior leaders.

"This is not just senior leaders. You can lead from E-1 to O-10. You can lead from the front, the middle or the back," Mullen said. "Leadership is at the core of what makes us great."

Mullen also told the airmen that the military as a whole is undergoing "enormous" change. Counterinsurgency operations and irregular warfare are evolving and will remain "for the next several decades," the admiral said.

This requires the force to adjust its training, education and promotion systems, as well as its weapons and munitions development, Mullen told the airmen. And in doing so, he added, the services must balance their development and training to be ready for both conventional and irregular warfare.

"I've got to match my enemy in speed," the admiral explained. "I can't be lagging, and in many cases I am. In fact, matching it isn't even good enough. I have to get ahead of him."

(Aero-News thanks Fred W. Baker III, American Forces Press Service)

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