AMC command chief visits Fairchild

Published Feb. 22, 2012
By Airman 1st Class Earlandez Young
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- "It's a blessing to be known as Airmen," said Air Mobility Command's command chief during a visit to Fairchild Feb. 16-17. "I believe passionately as members of the United States Air Force we think of ourselves as Airmen first. As important as boom operators are, as important as medics are and as important as fuel technicians are we are all Airmen first."

Team Fairchild members chanted "tanker pride" to welcome Chief Master Sgt. Andy Kaiser to Fairchild at an enlisted call Feb. 17 held at the base theater. In turn, Kaiser thanked them for their hard work and put emphasis on the caliber of Airmen entering today's Air Force. He demonstrated this by singling out all of the lowest ranking Airmen in the crowd.

Choosing an Airman with only about six months time in service, the chief tasked him with giving feedback about the enlisted call.

Kaiser said, "When civilians ask us what our profession is, most Airmen will answer what their job is. Probably less than 25 percent of us say 'I'm an Airman.' Most of us tend to focus on a specific specialty or AFSC we do -- that's nothing but a J. O. B."

"We fulfill a role in the profession of being an Airman in the United States Air Force. The more we breed that mind state in our new Airmen, the more effective we will be as a whole."

The chief, who assumed his position in August, thanked Team Fairchild for their tremendous contributions while overcoming obstacles in 2011.

"I had a pretty good idea, but not sufficient enough, about what you do day in and day out," said Kaiser. "You've had so many accomplishments in 2011 -- it is absolutely eye watering. The way you support the Transit Center at Manas, being the lead wing there since 2005, is amazing. Tankers are supporting what's going on in Afghanistan, and you continued to support the mission there while operating out of Moses Lake last year."

Kaiser talked about how the Army National Guard and the 36th Rescue Squadron were able to maintain their operations during runway construction.

"You continued to support your tenant unit's missions and continued to fly split ops out of the Spokane International Airport. You also had March Madness standing up the 313th Air Expeditionary Wing to support operations out of Libya. What more could you do?"

Although the chief said he doesn't know what 2012 will bring, he did say there will be some important inspections.

"You may ask 'how much more can we do?'" said Kaiser. "Regardless of what comes our way we are able to deal with it - this heritage goes back decades. It's about the mission - excellence in all we do, and you are the epitome of our core values."

"I had never been to Fairchild before, but it was an amazing visit thanks to Team Fairchild. There's so much they accomplish with the Total Force here every day."

At the end of the enlisted call, Airman Garret Baker, 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron shared his feedback with the chief and the crowd. "It's not every day you have Chief Kaiser ask you to critique him on the way he handles an entire enlisted call. It was very shocking. I don't think my critique session at the end wasn't too harsh on the Chief."

(Airman 1st Class Taylor Curry contributed to this article.)