- Roger flight 807, approaching runway seven bravo. - The Air Force has announced the creation of a new information operations Technical Training School. - 1st Command simply must arm our airmen to out-think, out-perform, out-partner out-innovate any potential adversary. - Air Force basic military training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and lethality. - This is the Developing Mach-21 Airmen podcast. - Hey, hey, everybody. Thanks for the subscribe, stream or download, however you might be listening in. If you got a little bit of extra time, we certainly appreciate some stars, even a review of the podcast to let us know how we're doing. Bringing you timely and relevant info across the recruit, train and educate spectrum. My name is Dan Hawkins, from the Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs Office, and your host for this professional development podcast, dedicated to bringing total force, big-A airmen, inside tips, tricks, and lessons learned from the recruiting, training, and education field. We're closing in on the end of this calendar year, 2019. Hard to believe 2020 right around the corner, and we're back at it on the pod today, which, by the way is Episode 21 for the year, so it's been a pretty good year here at Developing Mach-21 Airmen. A bit of full disclosure here. We recently did a AETC Command Team Facebook Town Hall, and sat down with Lieutenant General Webb and Chief Gudgel to talk about a variety of different things but the conversation mainly centered around the 1st Command's new mission, vision, and priorities, that the boss recently outlined. And so, General Webb and Chief Gudgel go really in depth into how the mission, vision, and priorities came together. And they also go in depth into each of the four priority areas, which much like General Webb's nature, align with the letters AETC. The A, advancing force development. So we spend some time there and talk about the focus areas surrounding advancing force development such as strengthening airmen and squadrons, scaling enterprise force development, and the expansion of strategic relationships. And then we dive into lethality and readiness and how we're going to enhance it. And we talk about things like diversity as a war-fighting imperative, as well as the outlook on valuing force generation when it comes to our AETC Instructor Corps. And we have such an outstanding corp of instructors here in AETC and so we go really in depth on that particular topic. We also talk about building the premier integrated recruiting service which is also part of enhancing our lethality and readiness here in AETC. We dive into the T as well which is the T is transforming the way we learn and the boss talks extensively about learning next as the engine to aggressively and cost effectively modernize education and training as well as give his thoughts on reorienting from Space Operations to space war-fighting, training and education, which was one of the go dos for the Command from the Chief of Staff. And last but not least, we discussed the C which stands for cultivating an environment of excellence. And we talked to the bosses take on the Air Force's core values and quality of life for the Commands airmen. We go really in depth here into some topics about resiliency and things happening around AETC. Just a lot on this podcast, again, taken from our Facebook town hall with the Command Team that we did a week or so ago. So settle in, buckle up, away we go with Episode 21 of Developing Mach-21 Airmen. - Good afternoon AETC. Welcome in to the first ever AETC Command Team Facebook Town Hall live. And I'm so excited today to be joined by Lieutenant General Brad Webb, our commander here in AETC as well as our Command Chief Chief Master Sargent Julie Gudgel and Sir, Chief this is pretty cool, right? Pretty exciting and a great opportunity to talk to our airmen. - A new first for me anyway, the social media you know, We're, Chief Gudgel and I are really making a point of trying to reach out in all the ways that we can and this is proven in the past to be a really good one. So I really look forward to this session today. - Chief, and I know connecting with airmen is such a top priority for our Air Force leadership today, I think for all airmen it is. - Oh, it is, and you know, it's been really hard to keep General Webb off Twitter. Because he is tweeting all the time these days, we are going to get more on Twitter, here we go. But this is an exciting time for us, to share with you our mission, our vision, our priorities today, because we really think that through your feedback, and through the feedback of the chief leadership course capstone project, and we received a lot of feedback, and hopefully probably receive some today too. But on where we needed to go with our mission, vision, and priority. So we hope that you see that these are just as much our priorities as they are yours. And then I believe everyone's going to be able to find their place within the AETC priorities now. - And I want to remind everybody, if you have a comment or a question we have our public affairs team is monitoring the feed so please make sure that you drop those questions in the comments. And we'll try to get to as many of those questions as we can. So I hope you two are ready. - We are ready. - And I really wanted to start, Sir, with you've been in the seat for a few months, and obviously you come from AFSOC, a little bit different of an environment. And you come here to Air Education and Training Command. And so what has surprised you maybe the most, or what has been the most exciting things that you've really discovered about the education, training and recruiting airmen process? - Yeah, well, Donna and I have been here now probably, I would say three and a half months. And it is different than Air Force Special Operations Command. And I think that's good. Actually, the scale, the scope and scale of Air Education and Training Command is probably the most surprising thing, Dan. The breadth of the missions that are done here in Air Education and Training Command. You know, I've been in the Air Force a long time. But the bottom line is, I did not know how much that we actually do. We have gotten out and about some, But we have a lot more to do, as we reach all the various edges of the enterprise. But very excited about it. I can tell you, the coolest thing about this is, this is the 1st Command. And of course, there's not an airman that comes through our Air Force, that doesn't touch the 1st Command first. And so we have the the ability to really mold and shape the future. And of course, we have a saying here, the Air Force starts here. And to be surrounded by all that are in Air Education and Training Command. It's the young, bright eyed, bushy tailed, got a lot of goals, a lot of objectives in life. That is a really, really exciting part of AETC, and I could not be more pleased to be here. - So when you look at, Chief, that BMT graduation every Friday, and you guys get to go to that a lot. It just kind of works out that way where that's just part of the job description, right? - We try. - But so exciting to go to those events and see really where the Air Force, as General Webb mentioned, starts. - You get to see all of America at those BMT graduations. I think one of the most exciting parts, I know for me, is to see mum and dad run out and see their airman for the very first time. After eight and a half weeks of basic military training, they're going to be able to spend that time with them. And many times, as we walk through that field on graduation, there are marriage proposals happening, reunions happening, and parents who stop you to say, "I can't believe this is my child "that I sent you eight and a half weeks ago." - "What did you do to my son?" "What did you do to my daughter?" - But that's a rewarding part, and then and I always love it especially at the coining ceremony when I hear Chief Lee Hoover say, "You are now my Air Force brother and sister. "Welcome to our Air Force family." The day they become airmen at the coining ceremony. So there's so many great things that just happen right down the street from us. We are very fortunate, - Really fortunate to be here in the 1st Command. And, Sir, this is probably a natural segue to talk about our mission and vision here in AETC and you just recently, a couple of months ago, outlined what those mission, vision, and priorities would be. And we're going to get into those today. But I wanted to start really, with the mission and vision, and our mission of recruiting, training, and educating exceptional airmen. What is your take on what we do from a mission perspective here in AETC? - Yeah, well, the mission, I'm not sure that new commanders, when they come into command, are going to want to try to take a look with fresh eyes. That's really one of the tenants of the military. I'm not sure that we changed a word with respect to the mission, recruiting, training and educating exceptional airmen is fundamentally what AETC is all about. The vision, as for that is, look, us calling ourselves the 1st command, I'm not sure how far back that dates. It could not be more appropriate in the character, aspect of that, in the lethality that's implied there in, are fundamental pieces for the Air Force. And so certainly you would expect that to be part of Air Education and Training Command - And Chief when you think about our vision here in AETC, developing those airmen of character, and the foundation of a lethal force. I found it really interesting, and you've said it before, you've talked about, the core values, if you're not talking about those, then you're probably doing something wrong. - Yeah. - How did the vision statement really come together for you? - So I want to say it's a collaboration. So, as we started reaching out to the big six, and that's all our AETC NAFs and DRUs, they made the contribution, to what they all contributed to it as far as our vision. So I think it took a few email sessions and we finally got it right. But the foundation of a lethal force, because at the end of the day, what we are creating as lethal ready airmen to go out to our Air Force, and then to serve within your squadrons, your groups and your wings. - Yeah, really the Chief nailed it, because this is a collaborative effort, and it was active participation. So there there was some storming and norming involved in the development of all that, that we're going to lay out today. But at the end of the day, everyone contributed to it. Everybody's bought into it. It's on splash pages in AETC now. And, yeah, I think we're off and running with respect to mission and vision. - And it's really interesting, because I think there's a lot of things that go into play as we start to transition into our priorities. And I think a lot of people might be curious, how were you able to finagle it, so everything worked into the AETC as perfectly as it did? - Yeah, well, that's another case of, I would say, active participation, active storming and norming that occurred. Listen, I'm in my eighth command here now at AETC, And, commanders all have ways, leadership will have ways, of going about articulating what their priorities are going to be. I like mnemonics, I don't make any bones about that. I tend, I've also told the team, I kind of like things in threes. You'll notice that a AETC is not three, it's actually four. But so I was looking, I was interested in something that would resonate, with every airman that's out there. And that could actually, the feedback that I'd gotten from our charges, even as I took command was, "Hey, Sir, what are the priorities? "We have a lot of priorities, "but can you tell us what exactly they are?" So the mnemonic aspect of that, in my previous commands, I've had various things, the last one I had three R's. And I actually did not direct the A, the E, the T and the C. It kind of bubbled up from working teams. And when I saw it though, I was, like, "Perfect." I mean, that actually works really well. So I know we'll get into the meat of it in a few minutes. But that's really kind of how that generated and when I was approached with, "Hey, Sir, we kind of like the AETC" I was like, "That's perfect." - Easy to roll over. - We like easy. - Plus it's on our splash page, so you cannot miss it every day. - It's on some t-shirts out there. - Yes it is, even at the gym. You can't miss it there when you're working out. - So let's start out with the A, and a lot of people, may think traditionally force development, "Oh, isn't that A1? "Doesn't A1 do force development?" I think that's maybe a question a lot of people will have is why the focus on the words force development, I thought we were education and training. So how do we advance force development come together? - Yeah, force development was actually, it's been a conversation at the highest levels of the senior leadership of the Air Force for probably two or three years now. And about a year and a half ago through the various AETC commanders that were briefing, it was General Robertson at the time. The decision was made that a single commander that could be in charge of what's really extremely important mission for our Air Force development needed to be out of staff and into a commander. So Air Education and Training Command Commander was nominated that person. And so that decision was made in April of 18. And yes, Air Staff, and specifically A1, still plays a vital role from an oversight from a policy directive standpoint, and certainly they own talent management still. But the force of development aspects and the critical pieces of this are, let's just take the new categories that have been recently unveiled for the new officer categories. We're going from a system of promotion where you have, everybody meets in one category, to the six categories. How do you develop the flow of a career, if you're in a category one, or you're in a category four, or you're in a category six, Really important, whereas command, and schools may be important for some career field, maybe a PhD, or maybe education with industry is important in another career. And so that needs to be mapped out so that everybody can understand that, especially if they sit in various categories. The last aspect of that, I think, is pretty important. It's not nearly as enticing when you say it, but it's actually critically important, is how do all these various IT programs that run our ability to do distance learning and every aspect of an airman's learning record? How can we ensure that they talk to each other, it's easy to say, it's much harder to do, and someone needed to take that on from a command role. And so Air Education and Training Command has that. So I'm actually dual hatted, as the Air Education and Training Command Commander and also the force development Commander. - That's a pretty big mission when, I mean, it's hard to eat one sandwich, right? You got to take that in small bites, because that is a huge sandwich to eat. But when you talk about scaling, enterprise force development as we start talking a little bit deeper into the force development as a focus area. Where do you see the command working in this area? - Well, I mean, that is really what I was just laying out. The many aspects of force development that have now, that have previously been applied in staffing is now at the command level. And so, I think the perfect example right now, is career development categories. And really scaling that and meaning to get that out to the whole force. What does appropriate, if you define a career, in the enlisted force as a master sergeant, or officer side, as a lieutenant colonel, what does that look like? What does it look like if you go beyond that? That's how you scale that out to the whole force. - And I think another key area that I know it's very important to you is expanding strategic relationships to advance force development and we have a lot of strategic relationship ties and potential possibilities moving forward. - Yeah, that is a specific area that I would tell you was a surprise to me. I knew that the Air Education and Training Command had international relationships and such, but it is way deeper than I gave it credit for, not just in Flying Training, but also in the myriad of command aspects that we have, for instance, at Lackland, as an example, with officer exchanges with the your professionalizing, and NCO Corps, language programs, that really play us, at the end the day, are very strategic ground for our Air Force, and frankly, for the Department of Defense. Air Education and Training Command is really deep in that. So I think we need to acknowledge that there are other obviously important strategic relationships that we pay attention to whether it's the civic leader type of program or with Congress as it applies to the number of bases that we have inside AETC. But from an international standpoint, that was an eye opener and frankly, it is a really, really critical aspect of AETC. - And I would like to jump on in here. So expanding strategic relationships is also with our fellow match COMMs, and one of the things that I don't think we've done well in the past was to have that the messaging out of here's what we're working on, and here's who we want to partner with. So our HR match COMMs has such unique mission sets. And through building those relationships and continuing to foster different topics that are important to them. We can now add those to the education and training. But it's important that we have that relationship with them off the bat as well from a strategic relationship aspect. - And one other area that you have in advancing force development is strengthening airmen in squadrons. What's the meat of that? What's the heart of that? - So Well, you listen to the Chief of Staff, the beating heart of the, is that squadron, and that's where, that's the sausages being made, right. So when you talk about advancing or strengthening airmen in the squadrons, first we have to be able to provide airmen who are well trained, who are ready for the fight, to those squadrons, ensuring that they're getting the proper textual training, that they're getting the advanced training they need, and that their leaders are also continuing to get the education they need to be better leaders. But it all starts here. Everything continues to be a foundational process. And as we continue to refine our processes through their feedback to us, we're going to be able to enhance this, to continue to make squadrons better for our airmen and I really think too, operationally relevant, for what their request is from us and AETC. - And that's a nice bow on advancing force development. And seems like we talked a while, we only got through one, seriously, so we need to roll to the second letter here. We're gonna roll right into enhancing lethality and readiness. And I think that's such a perfect nest underneath the Air Force line of effort when it comes to lethality and readiness, as well as the OSD as a whole. But what does enhancing lethality and readiness mean for a AETC? - Well, you probably said now, I don't know, three or four times, you've heard the word lethal. And that's absolutely intentional. The warrior ethic is absolutely a must inside our Air Force, obviously starts here in AETC, so we want to acknowledge that right up front. So when you talk about, how do you have a warrior ethos, or how do you ensure you have lethality? What do we mean when we say that? And so there's a couple of key initiatives that we own, frankly, inside the Air Education and Training Command, a family that we need to properly address, recruiting, Air Force recruiting services are part of the AETC obviously, and believe it or not, for the first time, since the founding of the Air Force, we're approaching recruiting holistically. We are looking at active duty, we're looking at reserve, National Guard with a certain civilian capacity. We want all that to be addressed in kind of a one stop shop. In other words, if a person were to come off the street, and come into a recruiting office, the question should be, "How do you want to serve? "Do you want to serve in a full-time capacity? "Do you want to serve as a part-time capacity? "Do you want to be a uniform wearer? "Would you like to be a civilian?" And that ask or that need, can be addressed right there, instead of sending them down the street to, "You're gonna have to go talk to a reserve component." Or something like that. That's again, another one that's very easy to say, much, much harder to pull off. But I think that Air Force recruiting service is doing a fantastic job in that account. Another aspect that's really vital to this lethality piece is diversity. You hear the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Goldfein, all the time, talk about diversity is a war-fighting imperative. And we have, frankly, a lot of room for improvement, to move the needle, so to speak, on the scale. Whether it's ethnic makeup that looks like America, or the gender aspect of that as well. So there are a number of programs, in fact, we participate in routine battle events with the headquarters Air Force, on rated diversity, diversity in cyber, diversity in space, diversity in a number of key areas that, at the end of the day, the point is, in given this national defense strategy and the challenges that we have, as a nation, we need problem solvers that can come at all angles of approach. And that doesn't come from one slice of America that comes from all slices of America. At the end of the day, America was founded, as a very diverse nation, that needs to be reflected in the service. And that is a key a bit of enhancing lethality and readiness that we cannot be understated, it can't be overstated. - And the other area in enhancing lethality and readiness is valuing force generation, and I think on paper, somebody might go, "I don't even really know what that means." But Chief, I think this is an area that's definitely near and dear to your heart. And there's a lot of things that we're doing as a command to value our instructor Corps and assignments at the AETC. - We can't do what we do without having the proper instructors coming here to AETC. It starts off with, first of all, the best recruiters in the world that we have out there. And they are, well, they're outnumbered. But we get the best recruiters out there to bring these airmen in. And for those crew fill managers out there for releasing that kind of quality NCO to us, is very important. We will never have the numbers. And then moving on to basic military training with your MTIs and then on to tech training with your MTLs. If we don't have the right workforce, the right NCOs, the right leadership in place to bring these airmen through whether, it's BMT or OTS. We're never making it past the 1st Command. So when you look at force generation, it's continuing to build on those great special duties, not only to do them while you are in AETC, but to take the expertise and the skills that you've learned from here, take it back to the field, vice versa. To bring the skills that you learned in an operational unit and teach these airmen at AETC that are coming through under under your guidance. - And one of the steps that was recently taken was reducing tour length for MTIs and MTLs. - Yes, take a look back is what happens if you are out of your job for four years. So Dan, if you weren't able to do public affairs for four years, you get that skill atrophy happening, you're sort of out of the loop, technology, training here is changing. Whether you're a defender, or your supply, or you're a medic, you're going to miss out on a lot. The other piece of it is, critical managers do not want to give all of their airmen up for four years at a pop. So you have some of the best airmen we want to be instructors. If we tell them we're going to take them for four plus years, they're never going to give them up. So what this has done is provided us an opportunity for three year tours with our MTIs and MTLs. It has also provide crew fill managers the opportunity to push people towards these special duties that they wouldn't have done in the past, knowing that they're going to get 'em back after three years. And I think the one element that we don't talk a lot about is the family. The families impacted. These are long hours, these are stressful jobs, and obviously these airmen love what they do, but it takes a toll on a family. So we need to ensure that we also get them back to that operational unit where they can share what they've learned, and then also get the family back to another battle rhythm as well. - So obviously, and you guys see it all the time, you're on the road, but our instructor corps our MTIs, our MTLs. I mean, it's such a professional workforce, and you mentioned the hours, man, it's just incredible what our team does on a daily basis. I mean, the workload is is huge. - It is but you'll see, everyone's like, "Didn't they cut the hours at basic military training?" Well, they work a normal day, but it's the preparation. It's the practice. You see some of them coming in over the holidays to check on their folks. And so it's a caring group of professionals, who will always put more than the duty day in, whether they're at home prepping or they're at the squadron practicing with other TIs. So, yeah, it is a professional bunch. I'm in awe every time and I do jump to attention every time they start screaming and hollering. Yeah, they haven't lost their touch on me. - It's always so interesting, whenever I get a chance to go to basic military training, or even to some of our tech schools, and I talk to the instructors. They really do love what they're doing. It's very rewarding to be an instructor. - It is, and actually, last Friday, they just named Tech Sargent Rebecca Maturan the 2019 MTI of the year, in front of her peers, and speaking with her afterwards, this was huge. This is something that she has been working towards her entire career and as an MTI. I can tell you that, never seen such a caring individual out there, well they're all individuals, but again, just the work she puts into every day to practice and be the best TI she can be. Congratulations, Rebecca. - The chief uses the word professional. You heard it several times and that is the natural word that would come out, in my experience. I haven't had a lot of experience prior to this job with BMT, but the MTI the MTL, for sure. I mean, that is the word that would just leap out of your mouth. It's also important to probably acknowledge on this force generator aspect, it isn't just MTI, MTL, of course, that's critically important. It's instructor pilots, instructor career enlisted aviators, That, frankly, General Goldfein is giving you a charge of "Hey, keep me honest." That we're getting and taking care of this high quality product that we have. That is the instructor coterie, whether it's platform instructors, whoever else we have inside of AETC. So we're intent on doing that. And that's why it's listed as a priority for us. - And so we'll move on, we have got a few questions, and we're going to get to those after we wrap up the priorities. So I wanted again, if you have a question, please feel free to drop it in the comments. And we'll definitely work it into the broadcast. And if we can't get to it, we'll follow up with them, and answer those questions. But I wanted to move into the T of your mission, vision, priorities, and that's transforming the way we learn, and the first one right out the gate is aggressively and cost effectively modernizing education and training. And I think that's where you're learning next falls in to. Sir, can you talk to learning next, and what that means. - Yeah, probably a real plum, if you will, that when people from outside of AETC talk about Air Education and Training Command, it's that whole, what you could call learning next is really, and that is how are we taking the skills that we have, the teaching methods that we've had for a number of years, and really developing that into a 21st century style. And so the flagship program for us the last couple of years has been one that we call pilot training next. That's that unique blend of taking technology, specifically artificial intelligence, virtual reality, big data analytics, and applying education methods that really make it student centered. That are focused on competency as opposed to a timeline that we can reap efficiency and effectiveness out of it. That's that's been a program that's been off the ground now for a few years, in the experimental phase, and we're looking to scale that in the near future, broadly across all of AETC. But that's also begat a number of other efforts, maintenance next, tech school training next, RPA training, and frankly, any area where it is obvious that you can use that beautiful nexus of technology and new learning methods. Because of that we have a Chief of Learning officers and all kinds of educators that are helping us with this program. It holds a lot of promise and is really kind of a flagship program for us. And obviously, we're going to pay attention to that going forward. - The greatest part about this is commanders and chiefs are not afraid to take risk, Trying new things, and I think that our NAF commanders within AETC have really empowered their Squadron commanders and senior enlisted to take that kind of risk, try new things, branch out. Maybe go out and try some new technology that someone hadn't thought about previously. And if it fails, let's try something a little bit different. It's been exciting to watch and then our airmen are really reaping the benefits, whether they're pilots or they're enlisted, or they're our civilian airmen. We're learning in new and different ways. And the best part about this is we've been able to look at tech training on the enlisted side as well and say, what is relevant? Do we really need to teach our airmen to this level? Or do we need to teach them the basic skills they need to know and allow them to go off their match COMMs and then receive the match COMM as training that they'll receive when they arrive. So it's also about their time. - And General Webb, when you talk about space war-fighting, training, and education and that shift in our in our mindset. Now, obviously, with all the talk about space force, and a huge focus on space right now. Where do you see the 1st Command trending to in that department? - Yeah, well, actually, that's a huge topic and it has huge implications for AETC. The space war-fighting training and education are both fundamental to making this successful in our Air Force and in whatever shape that the space force is developed. Training is I think, well done, and probably will sustain and very much in like fashion going forward in AETC. Education, we will be needing to work very, very closely with General Raymond and his charges to ensure that we educate our airmen with the proper space knowledge and skills that they need to be property educated. Certainly for the space-force so that we have them at the absolute zenith of their professional capability and also to ensure that we are educating a space coterie that really can lead the way. So that'll be a big lift for us. And I'll tell you, the other thing is, there's a huge nugget that I got from watching the army Secretary, Secretary Barrett, and her testimony is that she's expecting the Air Force to be able to develop space war-fighters, as an ethos. Have that proper war-fighting ethos. That is going to fall square in the Air Education and Training Command. And it'll be a big charged with, not only us, but Air university as well. So that's a biggie, that'll be a biggie for us. So a lot going on in obviously the transforming the way we learn, obviously we have a lot of tales with working with APWorks. We have our technology integration detachment at Austin. It's really exciting times in AETC. I mean, if you can't be excited about that, I mean, it's just the way people learn now, we have to adjust and adapt with the times. - Exactly. - I agree. - So we'll get to the last letter here, and gosh, it's only the fourth letter, but we've talked about a lot. We still have a lot to talk about. Cultivating an environment of excellence, and Chief and General Webb, I know this is a topic that's really near and dear to your heart, because taking care of airmen and their families is probably the most important job that our commanders and leaders have, and our command chiefs. But it all starts with that culture of the core values in the Air Force. And I know I've heard you talk about it before General Webb. But there's some that probably haven't. So what's your take on the Air Force core values? And why was it important enough that you felt like it needed to be a focus area for us in AETC? - Yeah, they, I guess, kind of briefly, because I could easily go too long on this. But the values aspect, in previous commands, I kind of had taken for granted. Obviously, we have a blue book, everybody knows the Air Force core values, and I made that assumption and leapt right ahead to priorities. And you can do that to the detriment, and we have some cases around our military. where if you reflect on some of the headlines where you can see a slip in values. And why is that? It's because sometimes we have a high operations tempo, we have a lack of resources. And if we're not talking and if we're not building that firm foundation of core values, and I think the Air Force core values in our case are perfectly legitimate and perfect. But if we're not reinforcing that, and certainly, as the 1st Command at Air Education and Training Command, if we're not addressing values as fundamental, you can go to a dark place. And so I just double down on myself and said, "Hey, when we articulate the priorities for this command, "up front, certainly in the 1st Command, "it's going to be that we're addressing in every forum, core values as being fundamental to us. - Chief, you can probably talk to the quality of life. - Well how do we embody and cultivate an environment of excellence? And it starts with those values. But it also continues with each and every one of us. And so as we work on, this last year, and in the year previous, is we've had an uptick in suicides. One suicide is too many. So far, we have 77 in our Air Force, and I believe but 304 across DOD. And so, we have to look beyond programs because you are the program, we are the program that the Air Force has put into place, the leadership, the peers, we need to ensure that we are having those kind of talks and relationships with our airmen to connect and understand what they're going through. And I think when we look at the core values, and then we look at cultivating environment of excellence, it starts the day that that Lieutenant, or that airman arrives from training. And we bring him into our Air Force. And we understand a little bit more about them. We get to know them, their families, We get to know a little bit about what they're struggling with, what is important to them. And also understanding where they come from, Because when we start digging further into these suicides. The one thing that we identify is, we didn't truly understand that airman. We didn't understand that they were dealing with financial issues. We didn't understand that they were having relationship problems, because when an airman asked, "How are you doing, what's going on?" and they say, "Just leave me alone." It's so easy to walk away, because no one wants to be intrusive in other people's business. So we're asking you to be intrusive leaders, to get in to their business, to ask that airman what's going on. And if you have a strong spidey sense that something isn't right, I'd rather take the hit of someone saying that I'm being too pushy, versus do a next of kin notification. - Yeah, and you, and I know we've talked a little bit about it, but those four pillars around the comprehensive airmen fitness. Every one of those pillars is important to an airman's mental health and fitness. So we've got, these four pillars have sort of gone away a little bit. We haven't heard a lot about mental, physical, social and spiritual. But the one thing that we've noticed is when we talk about these four pillars, is people, they get to spiritual and they're like, "Spiritual." It's, they're afraid to talk about spiritual, Spiritual is your values that you grew up on, It might be your religion, it might be your beliefs, it might be nature, it might be what's your family found important? And so as an Air Force, we can't shy away from the spiritual peace Because that's what people turn to when they're facing a hardship. No matter what it is, it's that guiding light for them. And so I would encourage those commanders and senior leaders out there is don't shy away from the four components of airmen fitness pillar, get after all of them, because you need to be a well balanced airman. So the mental, physical, social and spiritual create you as that whole person, I guess, concept. - Yeah, and when you do have airmen that are experiencing tough times, and you know that there's a lot of great programs at all of our AETC bases, when it comes to our IDS agencies and the different options, the chaplain Corps, as you mentioned, from the spiritual side. A lot of great programs, like the 21 days of positivity advanced that we saw, what a great message. So what would be your message to airmen, when it comes to figuring out the right way to connect with one another? - Know each other, be kind. Get to know that airman in your office. We hear all the time that that person was disconnected, they're the weakest link in our chain. Well they're only the weakest link in your chain is because you've not gotten to know them and you don't know what they're struggling with. And through your support, and your guidance and your friendships, they don't have to be the weakest link anymore. So go out there. We hear so many great stories of supervisors and fellow airmen who pushed the boundaries hard to ensure that that airman was taken care of. So again, if you are concerned don't walk away from it, continue to take care of your fellow airman. And I think another issue that we struggle with is the stigma of going to mental health. It is if I get to mental health, what's going to happen to my career. And what we're finding out, is less than 1% would ever be in jeopardy of losing their clearance or their do not arm. But the most important thing right then and there is you get the help that you need we will figure out the do not arm and we'll figure out the clearance stuff later but we need to get you there. You shouldn't shy away from it. We see a lot of great Airmen returned back to to arming up and getting their top secret clearances back. The other piece about it is, if you go to the BHOP, and you're concerned, and you're not getting the appointment you need, because right now that's an issue and when we get our resiliency tactical pause, we heard a lot of airman say, "I can't get a mental health appointment." Well, there is an issue, there's a nationwide shortage of mental health professionals. And so we don't want you to stop, there's a BHOP process where you can go and get screened. And there's also walking right into mental health to ask for that assistance. Airman Family Readiness Center usually has an MFLC on standby. We have different lines you can call through Military OneSource, your 1st sergeants, so if you ever feel like you're being turned away and you can't get that appointment to mental health, please don't just walk away. There are so many of us that want to help you. We want to be that guiding light to walk you through the process and get you the appointment and the help you need. - And we did get a question actually, that's one of the questions was, has the tactical pause been seen as helpful overall? And I'm guessing without context for leadership. Did that help you? And will there be more pauses? That was one of the questions we got? - I think it was just tactical pause wasn't supposed to fix it. It was supposed to start that conversation back up. And so I know that General Webb and I was surprised. We sat down with quite a few of our civilians, here on the staff, to learn that, it is even hard on the civilian side to get an appointment with a psychiatrist here in San Antonio. So I don't think it's that you solve anything yet. I think it's got the conversation going. I think it's varied across our Air Force in how the RTP went forward. But it's supposed to start that conversation. So there's anything that you can get out of that, resiliency tactical pause, this is now to open your eyes, and not be afraid to look around and get to know and connect with the people with you. - I think from a leadership standpoint, if the question is, Did leadership learn something from this? Because obviously tactical pauses is not a one and done. This was absolutely to get a conversation started that needs to continue. And there's an attitude, there's an engagement aspect that has to continue. But the answer is yes. And Chief is bringing up one that was particularly surprising and of interest to us here in AETC, about the length of time it takes to be seen, potentially, in in our command, on base, and even more. So the time frame, it takes off base. And that was absolutely elevated and that is something substantive the leadership can now dive in and on and go, "Okay, we can apply resources "to try to alleviate some of that." The bottom line take from that, and connectedness is kind of the buzzword that you hear that comes out of that. In many ways, you envision this as an iPhone, were as connected as we've ever been, but we're not engaged. And so if you're a supervisor, if you're a subordinate, if you're an airman, we need to be engaged, not just connected. And that is a key. It's easy, again another one that's easy to say, hard to do. But will there be another tactical pause? I hope not. I hope that this has opened our eyes inside our Air Force that this is routine. This is an everyday occurrence, frankly, and we don't have to take a pause to get ourselves reoriented. We may have to, but I certainly hope not. But I think there has been a lot of positivity to come out of this resiliency pause. - And there was another question. It's really a two part, but the question is, What does your vision look like for the key spouse program, and enhancing the residences of our families. And we know infrastructure has been a hot topic for a little while now. - So I'll start with the spouses. I know that many of our spouses across our wings are very engaged right now, and they're also doing a lot more education, especially like an MRT kind of education as well. We found this in some of our cases where we had suicides, we actually had spouses out there, that were very aware, but afraid because the other spouse is, "You're going to ruin my career "if we mentioned anything about this." So what we're doing right now is trying to train some spouses out there as MRTs, so that they can assist and they can step in when somebody needs help. The other piece about it is, it's connecting those spouse lines, we have so much going on whether or not it's at a wing, it's at a group, or at a squadron, and many times, they're the eyes and ears of what is actually happening out there. And I think it's important to have programs in place for the Key Spouse program. We cannot function, without having those Key Spouse programs in our squadrons. They move mountains. And in every squadron, every group, or every wing, I've ever been in, it's back to that key spouse who is helping those other spouses, not only come into the unit, but to adapt and overcome issues that they're experiencing as well. - So we didn't really cover as we're going through the priorities, but the C in cultivating an environment of excellence, I wanted some sort of quality of life. We've hit many aspects of it. Another piece of it, I think, by residences, you're talking about just infrastructure, housing, dorms, dining facilities, et cetera, that we incorporate in our priority piece as well. And there is plenty of work that needs to be done in AETC to this stead. Frankly, it's become very clear to me as I took the flag at AETC in the midst of a mold crisis, if you will, across our command, that I need to be kind of a what we're now terming, maligator, in terms of, kind of a nod to the 2nd Air Force and the training of their military working dogs, but to really be that voice and articulate that, listen, we're aware of the challenges that we've had as we moved into this privatized housing environment Ensuring that wing commanders and leadership stayed engaged with privatized housing companies, but it also applies on the dorms, and it applies in our DFACs as well. We need to do our part to be sure inside AETC, to ensure that we're doing what we can do to help ourselves. Now that helps some, that's certainly not the hundred percent, in fact, that's probably maybe 10 or 20 percent of it, but we need to do what we can on that standpoint. But some of this simply has to be investment by the Air Force on some of this critical infrastructure. Frankly, my talking point has become in Air Education and Training Command, our dorm rooms, our DFACs are our weapon system. I mean, that is the weapon system when you talk about basic military training in this, and we have to treat it as such. And we're just going to have to be dogged about it, the pursuit of ensuring that we're properly paying attention that resourcing and doing what we can for ourselves as well. - So we have we have some other questions that I don't, they're not necessarily in any order. So it's the rapid fire, right. - All right. - All right, so we're going to transition to rapid fire. (laughing) How about that, Sir? That's right up your alley, Sir. - Yeah, all right. I'm going to give you a rapid fire answer, and we'll see. (laughing) - I'm going to admit, this first question, it has a couple of terms in here that I'm not familiar with as a PA, but you might, So we'll see what we can do. We're going to do our best to please. - The hard ones I flip to the Chief, so you'll be able to tell - I'll make up something good. - So this question is. What are your thoughts for flying training as the 60 W and MH 139 come closer to fruition? I was really hoping you knew what that meant. - The 60, oh, the new helicopters. Yeah, these are the new helicopters. Of course I know what that is. I did not, I'm not gonna lie. One of the initiatives that we briefly skimmed across with respect to transforming the way we learn is PTN or pilot training next. UHT, undergraduate helicopter training has their own next going as well. In fact, that unit just graduated a class several significant weeks early, using some of these methods. I think that as we get into these out years and we still have a couple of years before we'll be full fledged in some of these new helicopters, it's going to be a way of life. It'll be the new normal, we won't even think about the aspect of applying artificial intelligence, big Data analytics, virtual reality into the training and so that these programs for sure, we will probably have already scaled into that definitely by when those helicopters are on board. - That's a great answer, you did good. We're one for one so far, Sir. All right, so here we go. The next thought. Are there thoughts on introducing Air Force doctrine and basic training as a building block to build upon through PME as experienced in rank progress. - I believe there are small pockets of doctrine already in our BMT curriculum. However, eight and a half weeks is a small amount of time to try to get in that depth of doctrine. And so what we're hoping to do is build upon that in our TME and in our other training, But to go so deep down into that BMT I think would be counterproductive, because right now, they're just learning how to be airman. But we're introducing the core values, we're introducing the various, what it means to be an airman to them, through what now airman videos, as they go through the eight and a half weeks and becoming connected with one another. I think as we progress further in their Air Force careers, we're digging more into doctrine at that time. - One of the questions we got as a follow up, here where you talked about the big six and Joint Base San Antonio is a unique installation. And the 502nd Air Base wing has a monster job. General Lenderman and her team they do a wonderful job. Do you see any changes coming to JBSA? I think a lot of times people wonder, "Oh, well joint base, and go away." Do you have any thought on that? - Yeah, I do. I don't think it's practical. That we'll see a change in the way JBSA is setup. Have there been some challenges? Of course, there's challenges in every kind of construct, I think we're in year 12, or something like that, of the JBSA experience. There is maturity that comes along with having those years under our belt, we engage absolutely routinely with all our joint partners. And there is Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines in town as part of Joint Base San Antonio. But we got to come at this together. You hear the scuttlebutt, rumor mill piece about, that you will be split up, and that. But at the end of the day, this is about resourcing, that we the military, the Department of Defense, have the resources that we have, I don't think it's practical, I think we need to be able to lean this out to the best that we can of our abilities to move together as a Joint Base team, and I think we will. - And so as we get ready to wrap it up, and we're going to talk a little bit about social media right at the close, but I wanted to give you an opportunity. If there's something we hadn't talked about and you really wanted to talk about it, but this has been a lot of fun. We've covered a lot of ground today. These are exciting times in AETC. - Oh, they are and I tell you what, it's been great. So we have a Command Team page out there now, so General Webb and I can go back and forth on Facebook and tell you a little bit about us and we want it to be very personable. We want you to understand who we are as leaders. And then also we want you to feed us information. What do we need to know here at AETC? I know we just opened a can of worms there. But we're also asking you to get after it. But find those ways to find your outlet, relax as well when you're off duty. What is your balance? But I think we talked a little bit about the big six. And I just want to clear up what the big six here in AETC is. And so those are our NAFs and our DRUs. So we have the 502nd Air Base Wing, we have the 59th Medical Wing, 19th Air Force, 2nd Air Force, AFRS and Air University, and that makes up our big six team. And I will let you know that we can't do anything up here at headquarters without working with these teams. And that's both the commanders and the chiefs. All of them provide a lot of significant feedback to what we're doing and how we're moving forward in AETC. AETC, this top ward doesn't drive anything. The Air Force is telling our NAFs and our DRUs where we need to go and they're being very quick to adapt and move towards those directions. And one area we didn't cover was the big changes that happened here in BMT in this last year. So a few years ago, we had actually had the SEAC come visit us, and I think it was a little disappointing after he saw airmen fire, because they weren't qualified. They were just firing at targets. And a lot of them were clean sheets when they got down there to check it out. You also described I think the beast as more of a power fight. And so taking a look at what airmen need to be, we actually traveled around the world with our chiefs, some NAFs and out DRUs, and saw the airmen that we are producing and talking with folks in Osan, and Kunsan, and USAFE to ask really, "Are you getting the airmen you need?" and what we're finding is they were retraining them on several things once they got there that we weren't giving them in BMT. So thanks to the genius folks at 2nd Air Force they started running with it. They took a lot of feedback very quickly and that was in June, July time period. By September they had taken BMT and transformed it to add in qualification on weapons. They also added TCCC, and then they also were taking a look at what do we need to do with this airman's week that wasn't so popular. And so we ended up doing was taking that airman's week and embedding it through the eight and a half weeks of basic military training, allowing them to become acclimated to the Air Force, and then for their teammates to understand who they are. That was huge. Then also understanding who their TIs are as people as well. And then as you move through those eight and a half weeks you become a stronger airman, and then when you are struggling, your teammates are going to be able to help you out. So by the time we were done and then also taking a look at the readiness aspects, between the firing, we went to M4s, now we're M16 down there, and then also, more time for them to understand see burning, self-aid, buddy care, and TCCC, is we are producing airmen who are actually ready for the fights, versus having to repeat training once they got Osan or Kunsan, or anywhere, and UsAFE as well. This was huge, so a big thanks goes out to our 2nd Air Force family who made that happen. - Sir any last? - Did you want me to comment on social media or AETC? I got lost in the question. - I was gonna get to social media at the end. I just didn't know if you have any last closing comments before we talk social media and closed up. - Well I think from a closing comment respective of AETC, the role that Air Education and Training Command and the 1st Command I mean, I think that is a perfect moniker for our organization is absolutely crucial for our United States Air force. The foundation is absolutely laid. The fundamental of that, of course, will be core values. Which is why I spent so much time harping on that. But we, as the saying goes, the Air Force starts here. So that the role that everyone plays in this command on ensuring that our Air Force is absolutely ready and lethal to provide a combat ready force, with the right war-fighting ethos, should our nation call upon us again. It starts right here. So I'm proud of each and every one of our airmen that makes up AETC. I could not be more pleased to be in command at this point in time. - This was a lot of fun today and we promised social media. You can follow the AETC Command Team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. handles all the same @AETCcommandteam and General Webb and Chief Gudgel are always thrilled when their posts get way more likes than the AETC. - We're killing you right now. - We're trying, we're trying, we're in competition here. - Since we're having a live stream, I' just going to make a plug. Please follow Air Education and Training Command on social media. - Hey, 19th Air Force are stepping up their game too. - And a lot of commanders and chiefs are out there on social media as well. So we hope you're following us, Obviously, you're following us on Facebook because we're live streaming from there today. But we also got a question and it leads into my last comment, was, What's your favorite song to play on the guitar? And there's a rumor going around that you might have a gig coming up and people can actually watch it. - Yeah, well, there's tons of songs that I enjoy playing. I'm a rocker, I make no bones about that. I like to play rock and roll. Gotta be careful, with watching the lyrics, with the songs that I can play publicly. But I've played with the band at Air Force Band of the West, here recently. I got to play Everlong by Foo Fighters. That's a great song. And we're going to do a holiday piece coming up here. I guess you're going to plug it here, but the Band of the West has asked me to play a little holiday medley with them. It happens to be a Foo Fighters piece as well, just it's coincidental, I guess. And yeah, that's, I think, the first week or so of December, 7th and 8th, something like that, yeah. And I'm going to play with the band, it'll be good. - So you can actually watch that live streaming on the Band of the West Facebook page. So hope you'll tune in. But Chief, General Webb, I really appreciate you taking time out and joining us. This is such a great medium, a great way to talk And I know you guys don't get to talk to everybody you'd really like to talk to you. So this was really a lot of fun. - Good. - Thank you, Dan. - Thanks, Dan. - So for Chief Gudgel and General Webb. I'm Dan Hawkins. We'll talk to you next time. And that's a wrap, just like that. Episode number 21 is in the book. So exciting to see how AETC is working hard to create a learning environment that postures us in the best way possible to provide war-fighters to those combatant commands across the globe and General Webb and Chief Gudgel's priorities keep us aligned with what we need to do to execute the National Defense strategy. So thank you of course to General Webb and Chief Gudgel for spending that time with us and helping tell the AETC story to all of our airmen. As a reminder, you can follow Air Education and Training Command via social media, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also follow us on the web at www.aetc.af.mil You can also follow General Webb and Chief Gudgel on social media, AETC Command Team across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks for checking out the podcast, as we dive into the world of recruiting, training and education, For our entire AETC Public Affairs team. I'm Dan Hawkins. So long, we'll talk to you next time on Developing Mach-21 Airmen.