U.S. Air Force's top enlisted member visits JBLM

Published May 12, 2016
By Master Sgt. Todd Wivell
62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- A full season of visits from distinguished visitors from across the Department of Defense, to include the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Mobility Command commander was capped off when the top enlisted member for the Air Force, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Cody and his wife, Athena, visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, May 3-4, 2016.

This was the first visit to JBLM for the Codys since he was promoted to Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force in January 2013.

The visit included interactions and conversations with Airmen, civilians and spouses from the 62nd Airlift Wing, the 446th Airlift Wing, the 627th Air Base Group and the Washington Air National Guard, along with Army mission partners, to understand what makes JBLM so successful.

During the trip, Cody toured a C-17 Globemaster III static display and heard from McChord Airmen about the specific mission sets assigned to JBLM, such as the Joint Precision Airdrop System, Aeromedical Evacuation and Operation Deep Freeze.

Following the C-17 tour, he had a chance to hear from some joint base partners.

Airmen from the civil engineer, security forces, communications, logistics readiness and force support squadrons shared how they are integrated with their Army counterparts. This gave Cody a chance to see how the Army-led joint base was different from other joint bases across the DoD.

After visiting with Airmen at the static displays, Cody focused his time on Airmen from the McChord Field Julius A. Kolb Airman Leadership School and First Term Airmen Center.

The visit also included stops at the 262nd Network Warfare Squadron, the McChord Olympic dining facility for lunch with Airmen, a visit to the JBLM Stone Education Center for a brief on the benchmarked transition assistance program and a stop at the 62nd Medical Squadron. The highlight of the trip was an all call, in which Cody addressed an aircraft hangar full of Airmen, civilians and spouses.

"We had a great time visiting with the Airmen as we got to travel around and see from a big picture aspect down to a tactical level what you are doing here every day," said Cody. "I want to say thank you for all you do; and I know that the Secretary of the Air Force was just out here, and she expressed her gratitude as well, and I just want to echo those thoughts again."

"Thanks for working as hard as you do, and thanks for working through all the challenges that are real in life and real in our military."

Cody went on to discuss issues currently affecting the Air Force, hitting on topics such as the changes to our enlisted professional military education, slots for Airman Leadership School for total force partners, changes in deployments, manning and accomplishing the mission.

The chief spent the majority of his time answering questions on these topics and provided answers to every question asked; however, he also wanted to spend time with Airmen one-on-one and concluded the all call early in order to leave enough time for Airmen to meet him and Athena personally to ask any question they wanted.

"This was one of the best all calls I have ever been to," said one of the Airmen in line waiting to meet the Chief. "He was honest, up front and provided us the factual answers that we all needed to hear."