Air Force's top chief visits Travis AFB

Published Nov. 1, 2005
By Airman 1st Class Tiffany Low
60th AMW Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AMCNS) -- The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force visited here Oct. 13 and 14 to meet and discuss issues with Travis Airmen.

“To represent an enlisted force of more than 400,000 members, I have to be among them, hear from them and see first-hand what they are experiencing,” said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Gerald Murray.

In three years, Chief Murray has visited approximately 75 active-duty units and 30 Air National Guard and Reserve units, traveling about 230 days per year.

“I started out as an airman basic and worked my way through the force. It’s one thing to say that I’ve walked in your shoes because that was a long time ago. I want to stay in touch with our Airmen,” he said.

During his visit, Chief Murray held an enlisted call and visited various units at Travis.

“Everything I’ve seen is extremely positive,” he said. “I’d like to thank all [of the] Airmen here at Travis in the various commands – active duty and Reserve – for everything they do every day. It’s a great team of total force. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen and the commitment of our Airmen.”

Among the topics the chief covered with Travis Airmen was the need for continual force shaping.

“We have to look at force shaping today as getting the right Airman at the right position at the right time to sustain the capabilities of the Air Force,” he said.

According to the chief, a couple of years ago Air Force manpower surged to more than 23,000 above the authorize enlisted strength, and an extra $3.5 billion was coming out of other areas to pay for manpower. Therefore, the service had to take action and reduce that number.

Now, with approximately 30,000 less members in the Air Force than 1.5 years ago, senior leadership is working to balance the force to ensure everyone can complete the mission without being overstressed.

“In the past three years, we have moved 45,000 authorizations from what we consider less-stress career fields to higher-stress career fields. In some career fields, such as security forces, we were able to increase manning to mitigate the stress caused by deployments and workloads,” he said.

Although the size of the Air Force has decreased, he said the quality of the force has improved.

“We have the most educated force ever with 94 percent of the people coming in to basic training with some college,” said the chief.

In addition, he said Airmen have been engaged in combat and global operations for nearly 15 years. The experiences they pass down will make the Air Force even better in the future, said Chief Murray.

“I came into the Air Force in 1977 and it was the greatest Air Force in the world, but it is a better Air Force today than it was in 1977. My hope is that five years from now, 10 years from now, Airmen will be able to say the same thing – it’s a better Air Force today than it was back then,” said Chief Murray.

The chief also reminds Airmen that they are part of a Total Force team (active-duty, Guard and Reserve Airmen) and need to take care of each other and be good wingmen.

“We have lost more Airmen to accidents and suicides than we have lost to combat," the chief said. "It pains me every day to open up the reports and see that we’ve lost another Airman regardless of the reason. So many times these can be prevented by being mindful of our own actions and by extending our hands out to our fellow Airmen."