43rd OSS commander visits CSAF Published Sept. 28, 2006 By Lt. Col. David Gould 43rd Operations Support Squadron commander POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Last week General T. Michael Mosely, Air Force chief of staff, held a squadron commander, first sergeant, and spouse' s conference in Washington D.C. to communicate with, and hear issues from, a representative sampling of squadron-level leaders from around the Air Force. He brought together individuals from every major command, the Air National Guard, as well as the Air Force Reserve -- 30 commanders, 30 first sergeants and most of their spouses in total. He wanted to hear about what the real issues were that impacted squadrons in our Air Force from the "horse's mouth," so to speak. This had never been done before. I know that because that is what General Mosely told me. I'm Lt. Col. David Gould, 43rd Operations Support Squadron commander, and together with my wife, Jill, we had the privilege of representing Pope and all of Air Mobility Command at the conference. From the minute the conference started, I knew that it was going to be something special. The first of many briefers for the day was Lt. Gen. Lichte, Air Force vice chief of staff. Following his welcoming comments, our group received briefings from a host of general officers from Air Force Headquarters. We discussed everything from combat operations, deployments, future weapons systems, family support issues, plans for the new uniform (always a lively topic), to current and future budget issues that will impact every member of the Air Force for the next decade and beyond. It was truly fascinating. By far the most rewarding part of the conference was when we had the opportunity to talk with Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney J. McKinley and General Mosely in person. The two of them spent almost four hours with our group, ending with a general question and answer period. Overall I learned a lot. I learned that the reason that Pope and other bases in the Air Force have and continue to maintain grounded aircraft that we have not disposed of yet is that the U.S. Congress has specifically prevented us from retiring them in legislation. This is why Pope is forced to spend over 300 man-hours every month to maintain grounded C-130E aircraft -- a truly perplexing situation for the thinking man. But the CSAF told us that legislative relief may be coming in 2007 so we'll keep an eye out. We also discussed the new uniforms and what drove him to look at changing them. General Mosely told us how twice in the past six months two of his JAG officers had been stopped in airports while in service dress and asked when the airplane would be departing. He said that he thinks that our current service dress coat looks like a bad $75 sport coat, mostly because it costs about $75, and you get what you pay for. His intention is to come up with a totally new design and material that we all can be proud of and is unmistakable that we are a member of the profession of arms. He also talked to us about the dire straits of the budget, for not only us, but all of the services. Stresses placed on us by rising fuel costs, recapitalization costs for our aircraft fleets and current combat operations will mean that fiscal year 2007 will be especially hard, and all of us need to do everything we can to effectively use every dollar we get and save every dollar we can. General Mosely's most urgent message for us and everyone in our Air Force is that the war we are in now is for keeps. Possibly not since the War of 1812 has our republic been at this level of risk. Our enemies are serious, unrelenting and will do everything in their power to kill as many of us as they possibly can. And this war will not merely go away if we were to disengage in Iraq. If they could, our enemies would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons on our soil to inflict as much damage as possible. It is this nightmare scenario that must drive us to win this war. We all must be the ones to make the tough choices. We must be the protectors of liberty. We must be the ones to answer our nations call. I walked away from this conference knowing more than when I went in. Most of all, I learned that our senior leaders are smart, driven and honest people doing their absolute best to ensure that we get the job done, both today and in years to come. With all of us focused and working together, we will win this war, protect the liberties of future generations of Americans, and continue to be the finest Air Force the world has ever seen.