USTRANSCOM, AMC commander: 'It takes a team'

Published Nov. 1, 2004

DALLAS -- When the four-star commander of Air Mobility Command and U.S. Transportation Command addressed the 36th annual Airlift/Tanker Association convention here Oct. 30, he spoke of modernizing equipment, but his primary focus was on people.

Why am I here? One big reason to thank each and every one of you for what you are doing for our great nation, said Gen. John W. Handy.

Reflecting on his travels around the vast transportation network with its Army, Navy and Air Force components, he said that people often ask him what they can do to contribute.

If you look at what we do, the answer is obvious," said the general. "There are 156,000 people [in U.S. Transportation Command] and each and every one of them is needed to do the job that we do. It takes an entire team.

The general expressed his humility and amazement as he enumerated the mobility teams accomplishments in the Global War on Terror.

Think about moving 1.7 million people 12,000 miles and back, he said. Think about moving 4.7 million short tons of cargo; (off-loading) 2.2 billion gallons of fuel; and (flying) over 900 million air miles. Think about 23,000 patients evacuated out of the theater of operations and not losing one single patient in that entire process. That is simply incredible!

That speaks to our aircrews; it speaks to our backend medical capabilities. It speaks to the team work we have in Air Mobility Command, said General Handy.

Searching for a readily understandable comparison, the general chose a Texas landmark.

If we were given the task of moving the entire city of San Antonio, Texas -- every man, woman and child; every car, bus and cab; everything they own, and everything it takes to sustain them -- move them 12,000 miles away, and sustain them while they are there, thats what weve been able to do as a team, he said. It gives me cold chills to think about it. Thats an incredible feat!

Returning to the question of individual contributions, he again emphasized the team concept.

It takes everybody, said the general. It takes maintenance people, it takes rated people, it takes administrative people, medical people, and on and on. None of us can make do without everybody else.

Pointing at the audience of over 3,000 military, civilian employees and contractors, he exclaimed, That incredible team is you!

The general also reminded the audience members of their role in the even larger Air Force team.

Its all of us pulling together active, Guard and Reserve; bluesuiters, civilians and our corporate partners who make all this happen, he said. Its a team of Americans.

Speaking of his pride in being part of the team, Gen. Handy said that it feels good to put on his uniform and have people of all walks of life thank him for serving.

Thats a wonderful feeling, he said, and each and every one of you can share in that feeling because of what you do and who you are, and the pride we all feel in being part of our Air Force, our Air Mobility Command, and the way we get the job done.

Modernization

Turning to hardware, the general recognized the end of an era as the C-141 nears final retirement in 2006.

We are saying farewell to that great airplane, the C-141, he said. It is both a joyous and a sad sight, to see that aircraft fly off into the sunset. It is a graceful, wonderful, but older aircraft.

But as we take the C-141 out of the inventory, we are so proud of our C-17s, said the general.

I cant think what it would be like to be challenged with what we do and not have the C-17. That doesnt mean we dont need C-5s and C-130s or KC-10s and KC-135s. It just means that the C-17 is a particularly unique and incredible aircraft and if our predecessors hadnt been wise to argue for and get us the C-17, imagine where we would be today with the C-141. We cant fly it; its run out of flying time. Wed be totally crippled, he concluded.

General Handy was emphatic that now is the time to recapitalize the tanker fleet.

As you look at the KC-135-E model, its nothing more than todays C-141, he said. We need to have the same zeal to replace a geriatric airplane like the KC-135 the E-model especially.

The incredible tanker force that was created in the Eisenhower administration and worked hard ever since is a great aircraft, but if we cant recapitalize that fleet, theres going to be tough times in the future, he said.

Like the scenario weve seen with the C-141, we need to do the same thing with the KC-135. The average age of the KC-135 is 44.5 years. At the traditional production rates of 15 to 18 aircraft per year, the last KC-135 is going to retire somewhere between its 80th and 100th birthday. Who can argue about the tanker capability we need today? challenged the general.

He also spoke of modernization programs for other aircraft in the fleet including the C-5, saying We cannot afford to lose the capability of that aircraft. He touched briefly on improvements to the KC-10 and then addressed the fleet of C-130s, some of which he flew in Vietnam.

Its an amazing airplane; we have 64 of them in the desert right now and its taking everything we can do from the Air Force Reserve Command, the Air National Guard and the active component just to sustain whats over there, and thats a two-year mobilization.

And its an older aircraft. We have 38 E-models so restricted right now that we can only fly them in a training environment. "Look at what the maintainers have to do to maintain aircraft that are getting that old, he added.

Thank goodness we are bringing on the J-model C-130; what an incredible airplane! It is an amazing airplane to fly and will make life easier for aircrews and maintainers and everybody supporting it.

Families

General Handy then returned to his focus on people and concluded his presentation by describing some of the many mobility challenges the command supports.

When people ask me what are the things that concern me, said the general, I tell them exactly this -- it is the stress on our people that really concerns me. How long can we run this marathon?

Everyone and their families are doing everything they can to support what we have been asked to do, and thats hard, he said. If you look at virtually any career field, it is deploy for 120 days, come back home for little more than that, and deploy again. And its not just Afghanistan and Iraq that were talking about.

Our people are everywhere. Somehow, said the general, you find the ability to make things happen no matter whats going on in the world.

And our families support us. Its our husbands and wives; its our children and grandchildren, our immediate and extended families that rally around and we somehow find the inner strength to do the things that we do.

Please do me the honor of going home and telling them how proud I am of their contributions to the things that we do in this world. They are a special group of people and we owe them so much. I feel a deep sense of obligation to them as I do to you its an incredible command, and we have you to thank, but it is those family members that sustain us all."

He concluded with a moving tribute to the audience.

There is no greater honor than to stand before this audience at the Airlift/Tanker Association as the commander of Air Mobility Command and U.S. Transportation Command, and to be able to thank you and feel the pride and humility I feel just looking in your eyes. Thanks so very much.

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