(radio static) - Roger, Flight A07 approaching Runway Seven Bravo. - The Air Force has announced the creation of a new information operations technical training school. - First demand simply must arm our airmen to outtake, outperform, outpartner, outinnovate any potential adversary. - Air Force basic military training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and lethality. - The First Command, the Air Force Starts Here. - Hey hey everybody, welcome in to this edition of the Air Force Starts Here and today a little bit different. Kind of like we did last time when Lieutenant General Brad Webb and Chief Master Sergeant Julie Gudgel our command team here in AETC held a town hall. We went ahead and posted the audio version online and this town hall was on Friday, April 3rd, just a couple of days ago, and General Webb spent a lot of time as well as Chief Gudgel talking about the why, the strategic importance of why we do what we do here, recruiting, training and educating exceptional airman in the first command. And so you're definitely gonna wanna spend some time and listen in. We also left all the questions and answers in unedited. So excuse me up front, I may have had a few gasps. I'm sorry, Belinda. I didn't know the answer to your question but I will say that there were a lot of great questions asked during the town hall. So we hope that you enjoy listening to those as well. So thanks for tuning in. I know it's been awhile since we had an edition of the Air Force Starts Here so thanks for the subscribe, stream or download, however you might be listening in. So I'm not gonna take any words away from the command team. Let's get right to it. The Air Force Starts Here kicks off right now. Good evening, everybody and welcome in to the AETC command team virtual town hall. I'm Dan Hawkins from the Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs Team and I'm joined by the Commander of Air Education and Training Command, Lieutenant General Brad Webb and our Command Chief, Chief Master Sergeant Julie Gudgel and truly, these are unprecedented times as we fight through this invisible enemy called COVID-19. And we know you have a lot of concerns and a lot of questions about the efforts being taken to protect our airman here in the First Command and also their families, as well as helping support the community and how we also execute our mission of recruiting, training and educating exceptional airman. And we're gonna talk about all of that tonight. And sir, before we get started, there's a lot to talk about but right off the bat, I know we really have to answer probably the most important question is the why. The why are we doing this training? The strategic nature of it? Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper has been on several forums over the last couple of weeks talking in depth about the strategic nature of what we do as a military and why it's important. And the fact that our near peer adversaries are watching what we do. So I'd like to start off tonight really talking about the why, because a lot of people have that question. - Yeah, Dan, thanks. And I'll get a right to that. However, before I do, I really want to take the opportunity to thank the airman of AETC, thank the families and thank leadership. As you said in your opening, this is absolutely extraordinary times. Highly unusual times and disruptive. And it's in these kinds of crucibles that you see the real true nature of airman and of service members and we're seeing that come through in spades. I would tell you just today I was watching the Facebook Live feed from Sheppard Air Force Base. Colonel Bell and his team were talking. I just was watching the Laughlin one. There's articles from the Kirtland leadership, Holloman leadership, I mean, across the enterprise. Leadership is engaged and of course, the bottom line is there is an importance to the training aspect to our national readiness. So if I was to sum it up and you heard Secretary Esper talk about this two days ago at his press conference, he has three priorities that he's laid out for the Department of Defense. And that is basically people, a mission and partners. So people is about protecting members and their families but mission is about safeguarding our national security capability. And I think we'll go really deeply into that over the course of this timeframe, this hour or so, but the national security capabilities of course track directly to training and readiness. Readiness is the direct correlate of training, and so this becomes important. And of course the partnership aspect is about the whole of nation approach to taking on this challenge called COVID-19. And you're seeing that play out across all of the Air Force to include even in AETC. You see a number of missions that are directly supportive of whether it's medical evacuation, medical capabilities, transportation in general, that AETC's participating in. Chief Staff of the Air Force, General Goldfein, gave a press conference yesterday and he talked about adversaries' ill intentions. There are, of course, we're not going to be able to go into it in any kind of deep detail right here, other than from an information warfare perspective, it's alive, it's alive and kicking. We need to be cognizant of that. Not to mention them watching how America responds and in particularly our military. So from that aspect, I would say, and General Goldfein kind of summed it up, it's really not business as usual but it's business as required. And so what we've been doing in AETC is looking at our tasks. What are those mission essential tasks that we ought to continue to do? And what are those that can be shelved? And I have a bevy of lists from every one of the numbered Air Forces or their equivalents that we're not doing but bottom line, training and key components of education, recruitment, that needs to stay. We'll get into it I think a little bit later with some of the statistics but it is amazing to watch the precipitous drop off of Air Force readiness by shutting down a training pipeline. And I'm glad to go into more detail as we go. And I mean that to apply not just to BMT, which of course is taking a lot of bandwidth currently but tech training and flying training as well. The other thing I would just say is the United States Air Force nor AETC, we are not alone in this. First responders of course, across our nation are heavily involved. You have Amazon that's providing key and essential goods and services. The truckers of course, grocery stores are ensuring that those key and essential services are available. The essential service that the United States Air Force and AETC brings from training to readiness, to national security capabilities I think is directly linked. And to really kind of anticipate a question that'll probably come from this is, you know, what are the triggers or how do you kind of gauge this? This is about risk to force and risk to mission. And so at this level of leadership, and it will continue through the nath level of leadership to wing commander, we will be assessing and we will be assessing constantly. Right now, and it has been for a few weeks, more of a kind of a gut commander's intuition feel. We at all levels of leadership to include at our national level, are working on the kind of the science. To add some of that science to the art. There are modeling and scientific kind of data that's available that we need to get on top of and distribute that can kind of kind of show where plumes are developing, where whether it's a bow wave, whether it's a plume, what's kind of happened. That really kind of informs what missions we can continue and what missions we're going to have to shut down when the time is right. It'll be a constantly evaluating. I know that was a very long question to a simple question but that is a key question, why we're doing it. And I hope that kind of leads the foundation. - And Chief, you've talked about it, it's a contingency at home, those are your words. You've used that, and you know, the airmen out there understandably are anxious and they're impacted. And not only that, but their families. So can you talk to how important their ability to both take care of their families and execute the mission is why that's so important to us here in AETC. - Yes, Dan, and it really is. It's a contingency but it's the first time we're doing a contingency here from our home, and I will hear it over and over, Dan. Airmen are concerned about their families. And the number one thing I get is my family didn't sign up for this. No one signed up for COVID-19, no one anticipated we'd be at where we're at today, but we can take steps to mitigate the risk. I sympathize with you. I have a son and a husband at home as well and I'm always concerned about the wellbeing of my family, but what I can do is I can physically distance myself when I'm out and about. I can also take precautions when I get home. Many of you are getting home and you're changing your uniform in your garage. You're taking showers, washing your hands, washing your face before you even have contact with your families. And so you need to do what makes you feel comfortable when you get home. And then for some of our personnel, our MTIs, many of them are staying on base for the first couple weeks to mitigate the risk from their family. And then some of our medics as well. So we want to work with you and commanders want to work with you to ensure that you are in a good place when it comes to the safety of your family. We're also looking at those mission essential tasks daily. So if you go across any of our wings, every day there's a battle rhythm. What is mission essential? Who do we actually need to bring into work? And if you are not required to be there your commanders are sending you home. And I think that's one of the most important things we can do is may not be what everyone wants. Everyone wants to come to work and get at it. But some of you are safer just performing teleworking from your homes. But I really would say is how can you, the question I get is how can we help you flatten this curve? And I would ask you to utilize your leadership, your chain of command. Everything is different at every wing we have. There is no cookie cutter approach to this situation. So please stay tuned, contact your chief, your supervisor, your first sergeant if you have a question or you have a concern. Something needs to be brought up to leadership and also rumors and miscommunication can cause mass panic and can also hurt people. So we had asked is when you see these rumors or this miscommunication happening on Facebook, social media platforms, work within your chain of command so that we can get after this information so that we can calm the panic and really get you the accurate answers and the accurate facts. Again, you are our great leaders that were out there and we need you to help us move this forward. You know, being a leader always, but also means taking care of yourself, Dan, and we have a lot of airmen out there that are tired. They've been working the gates. They've been working as medics, MTIs, IDMTs, you name it across AETC, our IPs. So are you getting enough rest? Are you eating? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you feeling ill? You shouldn't be coming to work. Are you getting a good workout in 'cause you know rule number one in zombieland is cardio, right? So we should get after that now. But Dan, we have to take care of one another and ensure that self-care is also taking place. - And General Webb, I wanted to kind of dive a little bit deeper into the trust in the chain of command. - Yeah. - Because we talked about that a little bit yesterday but ultimately, you know, every commander at every level has our airman's best interests at heart. - Yeah, that's right. And I would kind of want to double down on what the Chief was saying there that there's kind of that hashtag banner that we've adopted here in AETC, calm is contagious. And there's a lot to that. But you know, that emanates from the top and goes throughout the organization. So trust in your leadership is I think a key theme that I kind of want to drive home. I was mentioning the the amount of engagement I'm seeing at the nath level, at the wing level, and I can only presume the same kind of things happening at the group level and the squadron level and below as well. Really, really critical. So trust in that chain of command, understand that this is a highly volatile time. The decisions that we're at today aren't gonna be the decisions that we'll arrive at in a couple of weeks due to, or sooner depending on conditions of change, but the leader, your chain of command is involved and that is a key piece. I would tell you, Chief and I've been out to Lackland probably four or five times in the last two weeks. And the whole, to watch the mood or the attitude of the airman is something to be impressive about. Two weeks ago, when I was talking to the MTIs about how it was going with our first ROM writer, Restriction of Movement trainees that were entering basic training, there's a lot of unknowns. Hey, you know, I understand that the military's told me to do this but what about my family? How's this going to play out? We were out there yesterday. We were talking with the medical folks that are out in the field to provide the care for any of those that may or may not become persons under investigation you know for sickness. We talked with the same NTIs that we'd been out there before. There's a level of understanding. Okay, we got this, we understand what's going on. Calm communication is flowing and we understand where we can navigate and where we can't. That is gonna be key, and that is something that I can tell you, leadership at all levels is gonna be constantly involved with. - And you bring up a great point because we've had a lot of questions come in on various different social media platforms and other avenues from instructors and families who are concerned that the two way risk, right? You go to work and you potentially are taking that to the trainees and then vice versa taking it home to your families. What would you say to all those on the front lines who have to deal with that? And you touched on it, but I think it's important to really address those family concerns that all airman have. - Right, and as a mom, it's my number one concern. Heck, when I go to the grocery store, I change my shirt when I get home. Right now there are so many unknowns out there and each family has a different dynamic. So we worked with families. One, maybe they have children or family members who at-risk. Those chain of commands are working with those families to ensure that they're teleworking. We have a few families who they are expecting children. They're at home teleworking as well. And then we talk about, again, changing your clothes, changing your habits, making sure that you're safe when you get home to change your clothes before you are with your family. You have to do what makes you feel comfortable when you're there. The risk is going to be out there no matter where you're at and so we just have to practice those good social distancing and then also follow our CDC guidelines to ensure that we're being safe for ourselves. And we take a look at our groups that we have in BMT. And so we get those folks in, we get our new trainees in and they become restricted of movement flights. So for the first 14 days, our TIs are spending time with them, making sure they're doing okay but they're keeping their physical distance from them. And they're also physically distancing one another. As they get into the BMT pipeline, they become a control group, a control group of people who are now have been amongst each other for the last eight and a half weeks. They've not been exposed to the outside except for our TIs and our instructors, and then we're ensuring when we ship them and fly them to their tech training platforms, or they walk to their tech training platforms at Lackland that we are getting our tech training instructors healthy airmen. We are not sending any unhealthy airmen out of BMT. We're ensuring that if they are sick or they're symptomatic we're going to keep them in a status of quarantine or PUI status until those symptoms subside so that we are not gonna, we're not going to put your husband or your wife at-risk who is out there teaching our airmen. We have to make sure that we're safe. - And I think it's also important to note, I'm sorry sir, but it's really vital, if you have a certain circumstance you absolutely have to bring it to your chain of command. You cannot just kind of sit in silence here, right? - Correct, yes. - I kind of wanted to add on this the concept of social distancing. The Secretary of the Air Force addressed this a couple, I think it was earlier this week and we've heard it bubble up really from the bottom up and I absolutely would like to foot stomp it. It's not so much about social distancing, it's about physical distancing. Like we're sitting here right now for instance, but the social aspect is socially connected. You know, the Air Force has worked really hard on this as you know, the connection being a key with some of the challenges the service has had in the past. And if that, it's kind of an unfortunate phrasing if it's misconstrued. So, you know it runs the gamut from social media, staying connected, checking in on your wing man, checking in on those that have a diagnosis, that are in quarantine or isolation. Being connected socially is absolutely warranted, in fact, encouraged. It's the physical part that we really want to drive home. So the Secretary is trying to kind of navigate that term to, hey, that's really physical distancing is what we're talking about. - And a reminder, if you're tuning in tonight you can drop us a question in the comments section we're gonna get to it. I've got them here teed up so we're definitely going to get to all the questions and some of your questions, of course we hope we're answering for you right now but we're talking about physical and social distancing General Webb, but we've had a lot of concern from parents, loved ones, instructors about the physical and social distancing environment in BMT, technical training, flying training, basically any training that we do here in the First Command. And, you know, it's hard to put a pin on it but Secretary Esper talked to it a couple days ago in terms of there's not a perfect solution in place because of the nature of our business. - That's right. Well, it's, you know, if the Chief is saying it's business as usual, it's not business as usual but business as acquired. That kind of applies on this physical distancing. We have taken great lengths at all our training venues and all of our bases, regardless of whether it's training or education or recruitment to be physically distanced where we can. We cannot continue to do our mission and be physically distanced 100%. So it's that assessment of what should we not be doing or what do we assume some physical closeness on? BMT, we got it down pretty well. It's spaced out dormitories, it's spaced out the number of, for instance instructors that are required. There are courses in tech training that you simply cannot get six feet away and be able to do your job. Leadership at all levels is assessing what needs to stop or if it has to continue, how are we gonna mitigate that? Again, it's about risk to force and risk to mission. Flying, Secretary Esper in his comments brought up flying is one of those things, hey if you're in a bomber, there may or may not be six feet of separation. Do we need to continue to fly bombers? Yes we do. So it is about mitigation where you can and having really informed knowledge when you have to make a risk assessment or risk acceptance of what needs to continue. - And so from a production perspective because that's part of balancing that mission readiness part, what does it look like if we stop training for a month? - Let me just take BMT because BMT is really getting a lot of scrutiny. In fact, remind me to come back and talk about kind of the some of the next week stuff. BMT, in round numbers, 3000. We produce 3000 airman a month, round numbers. If you stand down that capability for a month it takes a full year, 12 months to recover. And that recovery, the definition of that is the normal load, which is 800, your 800 plus. Add another 200 to that. If you want to recover that 3000, you're 200 above. In other words, you're in surge operations for 12 months for a one month stand down. You can imagine what that looks like if we end up standing down through September or something like that. And even on the far side of that pipeline, if you take 3000 down a month and you continue that several months, and you can see this in the statistics that the Headquarters Air Force has the numbers of Air Force, if we're in round numbers today of 330, we could drop below 300,000. And if you don't think that has an impact on readiness you're fooling yourself. So this is why, in that area, based only in basic military training, you see why it's important. Now having said that we're not at full production in BMT and we have a plan to not be. When you start taking into account what we think we can do from a social, or from sorry from a physical distancing perspective and what the load can be, what the infrastructure can handle, we're not gonna be on full. We will constantly be assessing that. So you take that kind of model of impact of drop-off of readiness, you apply that from the steps beyond, you know, BMT is one of the first steps. You apply that to tech training, you apply that to flying training and it doesn't take very long for you see... If you didn't think the First Command was relevant to the readiness of the United States Air Force you're seeing it in spades right now. AETC is absolutely critical to the readiness of the United States Air Force. - So when you talk about, you know, the technical flying training enterprises, there's a ripple down effect starting at the very beginning like you talked about. We have a question in about what the contingency plan is if large numbers of mission essential airman do get sick. Is there a plan and how do we continue if the virus spreads? - I'll let you jump in here if you got to add stuff for this chief, but here in San Antonio, which of course is a big city, we are already seeing a kind of a big increase but also at Keesler Air Force Base. In both of those areas which are kind of key hubs from a training perspective, we are blessed to have dense and immense medical capability. So with the 59th Wing and all of their capabilities that they bring to bear, the medical capabilities allow us to stay in front and they are doing some of the best modeling on what is happening over time, what is happening in the very areas that we have available. So we are constantly assessing. It's not a secret that we've had several COVID positives pop in BMT, for instance, but it has been very manageable. And we just need to constantly assess that. By and large those have been the positives that we have seen are in those ROM, restriction of movement flights, or I should say squadrons. And so of course that begets a number of isolation but it's limited, it's limited number because we've limited the amount of interaction that's already occurring. If that starts to change, that immediately changes the calculus. And I'm not gonna sit here and be Pollyannas and say that we are not going to see something that blooms larger or not. I'm very confident, like I said, I've been walking the terrain with our medics on how we have kind of set up for that. We're organized very well for it. Once they're at Lackland and once they're at their tech training bases, they're in a really good and secure environment. As the chief said, we don't control all the variables, and this is an insidious invisible enemy that we're fighting, you know, this virus. So I can't emphasize enough to constantly evaluate and reevaluating the stance will be key. - Yes, sir, and it's not just basic training. We have phenomenal leadership across AETC when it comes to flying training or the education piece or officer training school currently at Air University. So we are ensuring that we're looking at the variables every day. Those commanders are in direct contact with General Webb daily to ensure that we are assessing and mitigating risk. And it's changing. I don't think we come to work any day knowing what's gonna happen. It is a fluid situation but we're rolling with it. - It's changing today. - And it goes back to leadership and we had a question from Stephanie and I wanted to really ask this and give you the opportunity, sir, 'cause I think it's important. She says, "What would you say to those who feel that leaders are not being transparent enough in this situation and I've maybe lost faith with their leadership?" - I would hope that they're not losing faith with our leadership. What I am witnessing and what I am gathering from my walkabouts, which have been plenty here. You know, albeit here locally in the San Antonio area, leadership is engaged, leadership is involved. I just mentioned in my opening comments, I don't believe that there is any installation commander within AETC that isn't out actively talking to their, their charges on social media and in person. I mean, you can see it, all you gotta do is dial it up on Facebook. If it isn't, I'd sure like to know about it. I don't think that's the case but if there is a perception that leadership is holding cards close to their vest and that we're not really providing them the data, I think that's a misperception. And I think it's a misperception because this is constantly changing. You know, we're working on a talking points for the secretary who's meeting together with all the secretaries to include the secretary of defense on Monday, on some of the very basics of military readiness. These fundamentally changed the equation and it may be so it's certainly been that way in the last two or three weeks. It may be so again next week and that may be being perceived as leaders aren't involved or holding cards close to their vests. The fact of the matter is the truth is changing. - And, you know, we talk about mitigation and commanders are doing the best they can with the resources they have in terms of guidelines from the CDC and local health authorities. And that's what Secretary Esper talked to making sure that everyone knows that our commanders are balancing that risk of force health protection and the mission, but can you talk to some of the preventative measures? We have a couple of questions related to preventative measures, such as PPE on the flight line for the flying training wings, and also a question about the CDC and president's announcement of the use of face masks and how that will be addressed in the Air Force. - You got the memo Sir. - I'll follow up after you hit some of the other. - So depending on where our individuals are working at, so on the flight line, we're trying to spread people out as much as we possibly can, and PPE is already very relevant on the flight line, but we talk about masks or face shields, we have to take those things into account. We have goggles, we have various things that our airman can put on and commanders really are assessing those in the field. The same thing, we take a look at our medics. They're stilted up, ready to go. They need those masks. We look across AETC with someone who's working by themselves in the office, maybe PPE isn't gonna be necessary. But I think we talk about this whole physical distancing thing, we have to continue that. There is not enough PPE that our medics have to go around to the entire Air Force. So the question I think you're getting at is can our individuals wear PPE, additional PPE if they desire? Is that the question? - Well, I think there, the question, the one question came from Laughlin and saying what are you doing to ensure the flying training wings have the proper resources such as the PPE on the flight line. - So I would say that 19th Air Force, again, you talk about a chain of command that is very engaged with their bases. This really needs to work its way up. The threat? What is the threat? What are we trying to protect against? What can 19th Air Force provide? And so I really think we have to start with asking those questions up the chain because we have a lot of we never ask and we assume kind of things going on, so ask the question, ask your unit, your base what you're doing, tell them what your concerns are. Because if you're concerned that you are in an environment where you're unsafe then we have to stop and reassess. And those commanders may not be aware of how you're feeling. So work through that chain of command to identify what PPE you believe you need to have and then we can work through 19th Air Force up to AETC to assess how we provide that PPE. - Yeah and we're talking about physical distancing and Tammy has a question and she says "How are trainees supposed to practice physical distancing when that is basically impossible in the dorms?" And so I'm guessing maybe she's referring to basic military training where right now they have reduced the number of trainees in those large base to 40. - Of course we're two cohorts worth of what we call restriction of movement trainees that have entered basic training. And this week, of course, is a reschedule week for us. We've just completed that. Next week, we'll go to a reduced workload, still in that restriction of movement. We're looking to accelerate some of the graduation to get some of our, you know, chunks of trainees that are ready to graduate to go out, and then that population has been sequestered. I use that term intentionally as opposed to isolated or quarantined, but they've been sequestered during their training, it's a pretty healthy lot. And the training that needs to get done is one of those risk assessment aspects. There's some combative training that has to occur. There's field training that has to occur. There are those aspects that right now as we look at the data, we look at the mitigation efforts that we have in place. We're comfortable with that. - And BMT is definitely made a lot of changes to their normal protocols and I'll just answer this question because I see it here on the screen as we move on, but BMT airman, the question is, "are BMT airman being allowed to call home?" And the answer is yes. Right now, last I knew it was at least once a week. I don't know if that's changed. Again it's a fast moving train and the dynamics are always changing but I wanted to make sure that we, that we also get there. - Hey Dan, on that phone call thing too is if we have any airmen who are COVID positive, they have their cell phones, so they're able to call their family at any time and then airmen that are in isolation waiting for their tests, they have access to a telephone so they can call their family 'cause it's a scary time and we want to make sure they're still connected. - And we've got a lot more questions and we're definitely gonna get to all of your questions that we get here. - If you don't mind can I circle back to the PPE thing for a second? - Yes, sir. - I kind of equate this discussion to the relaxing of the grooming standards, with haircuts in particular that we talked about earlier this week or maybe it was late last week. Where we started as an Air Force and where we are right now is a different situation. You know, we wanted to continue doing haircuts. We, the leadership of the United States Air Force. As more information was made known to us, and as we started to understand the depth and the breadth of the challenge, barbers and as most installations have cut away from, no pun intended, from the barbers and the barbershops even being open. And we now have a policy that's on the relaxation of grooming. On this PPE and I just wanna, Chief kind of mentioned it so we left it kind of hanging, this is a memo that'll come out of AETC headquarters when we're done here. The DICOM is getting ready to sign it. I want to just read a couple of the pieces are with respect to masks and here's the deal. We, the United States, not the United States Air Force, we kind of have been all over the map on at least our understanding of the effectiveness of a mask or whether you're not from necessarily for the sick. I mean, I think that's pretty well-documented but for those that aren't sick that may think that that's protection. So the policy in AETC is gonna be to wear a mask is optional. It needs to be conservative. You know, we don't want a bunch of pink and purple polka dot kind of things but a conservative type of style. Needs to cover both the mouth and the nose at all times during where it doesn't alleviate physical distancing. So the point is, if we, as service members and the installation commander, this is directed at the installation commanders, to be able to apply as they see fit, when authorized aware of this, I'm on board. Because we understand that there are gonna be tasks that are mission essential that need to continue. If this is a type of piece that is in conjunction, let me just foot stomp with physical distancing and all those other things where we can be and be appropriate, I'm on board with it. And that will be a policy you'll see come out of AETC tonight. - Thank you, Sir. Chief I kind of wanted to transition and again keep your questions coming, we certainly appreciate all of your questions tonight. Great questions coming in and we're happy to answer them, but I wanted to transition Chief to kind of the resiliency aspect of this. And we talked a little bit about the physical and social distancing, but we didn't really hit the hammer on the resiliency part. Like this is really hard in a lot of ways. We have sometimes across our younger population that isolation, anxiety, and they're used to getting out. I mean, if anybody knows you, they know you love to go to the gym, you love to jump out of perfectly safe aircraft just about every weekend. You're a very social person. So having to go home and maybe telework on a regular basis when you're not used to doing that, or really, you know, kind of sequester yourself to use General Webb's word, it's hard but there are a lot of resources and different creative ways out at Altus Air Force Base, the Security Forces Squadron held an outdoor Zoomba class in base housing. I saw the pictures on Instagram. And so we shared them on our AETC Instagram page but there's a lot of ways as a team and to be connected to get through this. - It's difficult and you mentioned the two things I count on unwinding with, jumping out of airplanes. Ah, it's gone. It was even more stressful to think that I couldn't do it but just like all of you I had to find other ways to relieve stress, whether it's finding new workout routines, getting out there and doing family walks, spending some time socially distanced and talking to our folks, whether it's across the room from my coworkers, but really we take a look at this whole physical distance social connection piece. So we are doing Zoom meetings. And actually one of my friends the other day, they have a, every time they have a Zoom meeting, they have to dress up differently and they have a different theme to every Zoom meeting. But guess what? They got eyes on each other. And the meeting may not be important and they may have not covered anything but what they did cover was they got to see each other. They got to have a conversation because when you're only hearing a voice on the phone, you really can't, it's hard to measure that. So physical distance or that social connection. So Zoom parties, FaceTime. Heck even our very own Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, number five, Chief Galer, is now on Facebook, doing Facebook Live for us as well. Find your niche, there are concerts out there on Facebook but you have to find a way to stay connected. And Chief Victor, our Command First Sergeant, you know, we talk about this all the time. This is one of our biggest concerns. We have a lot of single airman who are out there by themselves. For the longest time we have stressed we need that physical interaction. We need to have those conversations, that face-to-face moment. And now we're telling you to be physically distant from them. Find a way to connect, make those phone calls, mentor them. You could still do mentoring through FaceTime and have a great conversation. Don't shy away from it. You need to be consistent. And to our younger airmen, you need to be consistent with your leadership as well. Your supervisor's making sure that they're doing okay as well, it goes both ways. And then take a look at this: virtual promotion ceremonies. I had never seen virtual promotion ceremonies till now. So we are still celebrating your accomplishments and come Monday, Dan, we're gonna have our AETC annual awards on a live broadcast on Monday so that we can announce and celebrate our winners because we know we can't get together for a banquet anytime soon so we have to find ways to do this. But also within all that, Dan, is our resiliency toolbox. We have been emailing your first sergeants and across AETC with different things you can use. And we're gonna post this after our Facebook Live but there are so many places you can go and I'm gonna look as I list them out is we have an Air Force resiliency website, we have Military One source, we have the nurse advice line, the military crisis hotline. The key spouses. Our key spouses have stepped up. We have some very strong programs out there. Utilize those key spouse programs. For our civilians, we have the Employee Assistance Program. It is still out there and it is still functioning. And don't forget our chaplains, our military chaplains are still here. Some of them are doing FaceTime as well as telehealth and some of the other resources, but you have all these resources at your fingertips and they are free and most of them can be done through your smart device. So don't shy away from that. We have so many things that we can help you with. So Dan, the resources are out there, we just have to be engaged. - It's so important now more than ever to check up on your wing man and not assume that they're doing okay. Right, we all need a wing man. - Yeah. - So thanks Chief for that. Before we dive really deep into the Q and A's and to finish it out and we'll roll right through all of your Q's and A's so we certainly appreciate you guys continuing to send in your questions. I did quickly want to talk to that whole of nation response that you've talked about and Vice Chief of Staff Wilson, General Wilson sent out a note and Secretary Barrett has talked about how airmen at Ramstein have helped transport hospital beds to Italy. And we evacuated US citizens out of South America and our National Guard partners in all of the services have really stepped up to the plate across this great country to do their part. But airmen and AETC are also stepping up and helping their communities. And so what are some of the things that our airmen now are doing to help our local communities in this fight against COVID-19? - I think that within the first week we were seeing it out of our medical wing. Airmen were creating dividers for ventilators using their 3D printers to try to come up with a standard breakaway so that we can utilize one ventilator for several patients. And then just yesterday, I was looking at Goodfellow and they're using their 3D printer to print out face masks because some of their tech school requirements, you're going to be close up because you're over each other's shoulders. So they're finding ways to help us mitigate this risk. - You got Altus which is already been helping with some of the transportation pieces going on. That was an article that we did on them a little earlier in the week. The 59th Med Wing, as we've kind of, you know, look, we're living in this. This is a frontline war. This is a frontline war for the medical community. They're frontline warriors on this thing. And you know, they've signed up for a job that's kind of in the shadows. They're not in the shadows right now. They are front and center, they're on the front lines. So whether it's the e-med capability, whether it's the expertise, that's, you know, that plays out in any installation that we have medics that are part of the AETC formation, they're contributing mightily. It's everywhere you look, ETCs contributions and that kind of third priority for the sect, for the whole of government approach is playing out. - Absolutely, and I'm really proud of them. - I wanted to touch base, 'cause you've talked about Operation Blue Hero that Altus participated in and that's transporting BMT graduates to technical training and we saw various ways to do that but can you tell us a little bit more about one of the questions that we have is how you plan to protect airmen as they transit to technical training. And then even on the flip side, you know, we have some parents who are concerned that their airman is being, you know, sent to their first duty station and what's the plan for them to travel and get there in a safe manner. - Well, you know, the challenge is when you make the decision as an Air Force that training continues and specifically basic training. That is the, a pipeline that can't get clogged at any juncture. And so we have a clog that we're gonna have to battle through and that is overseas assignments. We're in a situation where we're not, at least currently, we're not allowed to push airmen forward. We need to still get them to tech school training. But there may, you're gonna see this in every base. It's certainly going to be in AETC, but it's gonna be beyond AETC and the rest of the Air Force bases as well where folks that would otherwise be out in overseas locations are now on the base. That is something we're gonna have to wrastle with and it will come in the calculus of what we do with basic training as well. The fact that we've taken the real stat down a little bit on that should help to a degree but we're gonna have to take all that into account. How do you keep physical distancing on the populations that are now building on bases and still get the mission done? That is why we are meeting at the senior levels of the Air Force many times a week on all of these things as they play out. Right now the assessment is that we can continue to do this. We are gonna take some short-term pain and it's already starting to play out until we can get kind of the overseas locations services as well. We're gonna just have to take this one day at a time. - Yeah, another question in from, this one from Sheppard Air Force Base, "When permanent party PCS restrictions are lifted, how is AETC gonna deal with adjusting report not later than dates to avoid an experience gap with the instructors because there might've been people who have been ready to go, but they're held up and now all of a sudden a whole bunch of people are going to leave, but maybe not all, coming in at the same time to basically offset one another." And, and I think that kind of goes under that evolving situation category. - It does Dan. And so what we have is a great partnership with General Toth and Chief Hoglund over at AFPC and Ms. Toney. And so we are looking at those things right now. So one on the families, and when we're gonna PCS them. We had a lot of DSD assignments that will be pending. So we're gonna continue to work those individually because again there is not one recipe to fit all of these situations. And then on the flip side is we're also working with them to try to figure out what the calculus looks like when it's time to PCS airman back over to PACAF and USAFE. So they're running those numbers, they're looking at the data because eventually we have to figure out how we turn that back on and flooding both PACF and USAFE with hundreds and hundreds of three levels is not the answer. So there is a planning process and we're continuing to stay engaged with them daily. - And this one also Chief probably for you here but it talks to that resiliency piece we talked about and a question came in from Sheppard again as well. "Airmen are completing BMT, going to tech school and then basically go into their first base. Before that there was a leave process built into that. But now, for some of the students in the pipeline, some of them are really stressed out because they're not getting a chance to see their families and having to go straight to their duty stations. And it's causing some strain and stress in the classroom environment. And even for the instructors. And the question really is, you know what advice do you have for them and for the instructors and the airman who are in that situation?" - So when this is where we need to get back into that strong sponsorship program because these airmen are gonna be coming, so it's exciting when you graduate from basic, they can get to see their family. When they graduate from tech training they're still not being able to go home or do a recruiter assistance program but for their safety and the safety of their family we have to send them to their first duty station. But on the flip side of this is with travel restrictions that are out there, with cities right now that have a lot of disease, this probably might not be the ample time to go home because parents or family members may be quarantined off. And you may not be able to get that valuable time with them. You know, it sounds like a PR kind of answer but at the end of the day we have to be there at those bases to receive those airmen in. They need to understand where we're at 'cause they're coming out of tech school and we're blasting them with here's where our base is at. Here's, you know, take a look at force protection to here's what you're gonna be in the dormitory. Here's the defact. And so with our sponsorship programs, we need to amp those up. We need to be there to catch those airmen when they arrive at that first duty station. And then next we have to be great wing men. We have to continue to follow up with them. Of course, keeping physical distance but taking them where they need to go, ensuring they have what they need. And then continuing that social interaction, whether it be through Zoom meetings or bringing them into the office because showing up at a new location without your family, without your friends is scary. And we can help lessen the burden by just being there for our airmen. So I would say to all our airmen out there that are at the bases that we'll be receiving these new airmen and be intrusive leaders, get in there, make sure your airmen have what they need when they arrive and then after they arrive and continue to check on them as we make our way through this crisis. And when it's time for them to be able to take that lead, ensure that you're giving them the proper time to go home and celebrate these accomplishments with their families. - And a follow on question to that is from a family member of an Air National Guard member. "But is there any change to how tech school graduates who are national guard members? Will they, they can just go back to their home units, correct?" - That is correct. Unless they have training immediately after BMT, yes sir. - Okay, thank you. So a question on VPN and teleworking, there's been you know, some measure of complaining about the VPN. Do you have an update on VPN and teleworking at all? - (laughs) So VPN has become more of a three letter word anymore but VPN is hard. So what we are asking is there is not enough bandwidth to go around on VPN. So many people are teleworking and they're trying to stay on VPN continuously. So what we're asking you to do is do what you need to do on email, upload it, do what you need to do on VPN, whatever the network requires. Get off, take a break from it, work on your computer and then sign back in when it's time to send or when you need to access. Because again, more people are gonna begin teleworking and we're going to continue to bring down this network. So the best thing you can do is practice judgment, you don't have to be on there 24/7. - Let me just say that General Hawk at 16th Air Force and his cyber warriors are literally moving mountains, bandwidth mountains, to make, you can only imagine the demand signal that is across our Air Force with respect to how much we're teleworking at this point. So there is some good success stories in here. The other piece is, and you know, if you listen to our Chief of Staff, he says this all the time with every challenge an opportunity. And so we're in an environment right now where we are breaking ground on, hey we've always been stuck in these old ways of doing business and we wish we could do it a different way. We're having this opportunity. You're seeing it play out with some of the initiatives that General Hawk has. It is rife in AETC with what we've been championing for years now, with early access to content, the distance learning kind of initiatives that we can get some traction on this. We're kind of a proving ground right now with what we're doing with some of these initiatives, along the, especially along the teleworking and that. General Hawk and his team has done really well with this. Of course it's not gonna measure up to everybody being allowed to be online all the time, doing it. But I can tell you, you know, with the number of VTCs and the number of both classified and unclassified and the ability to work email and all this kind of stuff, that's a tall order and they've come through for us in spades. - So this is a really great question and it concerns health, and I'm not sure who asked the question, but the question is "will stay in place orders for communities influence stay in place situations for our bases?" The answer to that is it depends. The installation commanders, to a person, have done a fantastic job of, this is a balance of this risk to force and risk to mission. This is another kind of equation on that. What is local guidance in the various states and what is part of our national charge which is preserved national security capability. And so where we can elegantly balance that, that's what our installation commanders all the way up through the chain are trying to do. There may be some deviations from that but there's a reason if the state leadership has, you know given a charge of a stay at home, or these kinds of things where we can apply it, we absolutely need to. It isn't gonna apply in every field across the military. And in fact, in most of these you see some exemptions with exceptions of the military 'cause they understand military is in a unique circumstance. - So Stephanie asks and I'm kind of just rolling down at these, there's no particular order here, sir. The question or I'll read the comment first and then the question. The comment is "you say it's a frontline war but the instructors are unarmed. What about issuing them PPE because we know that they cannot buy it anywhere and also can decontamination stations be set up for them so they can be sanitized before they go home to their families." - Yeah, those are some good suggestions. You know, the, as we just, we talked about the PPE already, we'll have that at installation level for them to grapple with. I mean, there's the challenge of supply and all this kind of stuff that, you know we're gonna have to battle through. But I understand that that's, that may, if it's additive and it's not distracting from the mission we'll have the flexibility to adapt to that. The decontamination thing is a good, good point. I mean, I've kind of seen what it looks like if you're starting to have symptoms. I mean our medical community has already kind of, it looks exactly like the old school training ATSO, ability to survive and operate, where you kind of go through, you learn how to get the gloves off so that you don't contaminate yourself. You may have done a great job staying out of the contamination, then you take off your gloves wrong, or you take off your mask wrong and you just contaminated yourself. That's that very principle being applied. We will probably need to see some bolster up in those areas. I would expect that we'll get more mature with our processes. Hopefully in a hurry on that over time, quickly on that is what I'm trying to say. - So next question. It's anonymous. "Any discussion on giving MTIs hazard pay?" - She has a great question and General Tullis and I were talking about it yesterday. So we are currently checking with our A1 and we'll get some more information on that and we'll get back with our MTIs and their leadership as soon as possible. - And General Webb, this question kind of goes back to when you were talking about the science. It says, "can you explain why we continue to train while we're assessing the science?" - Well, yeah, the reason for continuing training is about readiness and readiness is about our national security capabilities. There is a direct that you, you know, I, I kind of you know, walk the direct lineage of that in the beginning. And so again, the constant assessment, the constant evaluation and the constant balancing of risk to force and risk to mission, that's the key. And if a calculation were to change and believe me we're looking at it constantly, we will make different decisions. Right now, this is the right decision for us to continue training at the levels we're at. And we aren't at the hundred percent level in any area, but we need to constantly evaluate that. - The next question comes from Adrian and Adrian wants to know, "has AETC looked at utilizing past instructors to teach supplementary or advanced training to meet UTC training requirements?" - So yes we have. I have just a Second Air Force General Tullis and her team have been all over this. So we are looking at past instructors and those AFSCs to see where we need to bring them in. And they're currently working that objective right now. - This question talks to mission essential specifically as it comes to OTS and why is it important to keep that mission going? - Why is OTS important to keep going? Same reason as we talked about on BMT. We just started a new class this week. OTS, they've had a great vantage point of watching what we've been trying to do is we modify both basic military training and tech school training as well, and be able to apply that to their unique circumstances, but so far so good. And for all the same reasons that we've kind of laid out before, OTS is absolutely critical. - And this one comes from Sarah Jo, and she says "for maintainer supporting AETC training the student pilot there's not a practical way to social distance nor is there a practical ways to mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19." She's basically asking if the exposure risk to instructors' family and friends is not worth pausing the training. I know we've talked about it but I wanted to ask her question because she took the time to ask it. - Yeah, sure. Again, in the kind of, the chief has laid this out as well. His direction has always been to allow decision-making at each unique area. Every installation has unique circumstances and he wants his installation commanders empowered to make their decisions for their unique circumstances. It may be that we're at some, we get to some point at some area where it isn't practical. It isn't within the risk to force, risk to mission calculus. It's too great on the force. But I'm confident that our installation commanders are doing a top notch job at every one of our installations on air in those precise eventualities. - And General Goldfien even said it, he said every base has a unique dynamic and a one size fits all approach simply doomed to fail. And so those commanders at each of those installations and in wings has to make the best possible decision. This question comes in talking about new recruits at BMT. Are they given a COVID-19 test when they arrive? - That's negative, they don't unless they are showing signs or symptoms towards COVID-19. So when they arrive it's they come to the airport, we used to put them all on this bus and, you know, smash them all in there and now they are separated on the bus. They're not sitting next to each other. The bus is wiped down after every pickup, once they arrive at the Pfingston Reception Center, they are asked again, they're still physically distanced and they're asked questions about their health. Have you been sick in the last two weeks? We continue to ask those questions at MEPS prior to coming as well. If they are, then we need to move them right over to our medic so they can assess to ensure that they're safe to continue in BMT. If not, they'll be quarantined off into the isolation area until we can have the test results back. - And remember, we are putting all our new trainees and have been for three weeks now in what's called restriction of movement. And so they are isolated from the rest of the population and for 14 days to go through that. And frankly, the decision has been made to, as we've gotten through the 14 days on this first traunch we're gonna continue. I would call it, I'm not sure that the team over there at Lackland calls it that but I call it kind of a modified rom. So we're adhering to most, if not all of the rom standards continually and probably will through their duration of their BMT training experience. - And there was news last week about a proof of concept BMT at Keesler and Irvin wants to know when that proof of concept plan is gonna go live. - Yeah, the next week. And you know, that's a General Tullis initiative. This is an example of every challenge and opportunity. It occurs to her first off, first of all that we need to have some redundancy. We need to have a backup plan. We need to be prepared for an eventuality. Keesler has some capacity, she's shown it. We're gonna execute it. Now it's proof of concept. We're certainly gonna learn some, hopefully mostly good. There might be some bad from it, but yeah, we're going hot with that next week. - And Dan did, we've never moved BMT except in the sixties when we moved it to Amarillo only because of meningitis breakouts and in our history we've never stopped BMT. To have two locations like our other services do to look at this proof of concept is a genius plan. 'Cause we, I know since I've been enlisted we have been asking this question is why do we have one location versus two? And I tell you what General Tullis and her team have been digging into that from the day she got there. And now with this proof of concept, we will learn so much. This is gonna be an excellent opportunity. - Brandon, this is a recruiting-based question. Brandon Taylor wants to know if there's a plan in place to reopen MEPS in areas affected and shipping to BMT sooner rather than later. - If I understood the question correctly there are a few MEPS that are down and have been shut down. I mean, eventually at some point they're gonna reopen. One of them's New York. I mean, that I think is going to be effective. New Orleans, I believe is one. Let me take this opportunity though to kind of perry to recruiting. Recruiting, you want to talk about every challenge and opportunity. We have gone through this almost fully virtual recruitment scenario where everything is done, policies that we couldn't get past for years of being able to do signatures online and get through a lot of the, you know, the bureaucratic processes online. We're breaking through right now. I've asked General Levitt today. Hey, do you have a sense yet of the feedback on how, you know, how has this affected recruitment either positive or negative? And, yeah, it's a little bit early in the process. We've only done this for about a week and a half or so, and she's gonna get back to me with some of the kind of the feedback but there are, if for nothing else, we've got a lot of good processes that will be able to sustain through this. The MEPS piece, specifically, to the question, they may be affected for a while. I mean, that's gonna be very locality dependent. - So we appreciate all your questions. Adam wants to know, well he actually says, "I've heard that initial flight training may be changing for CSO combat systems officer pipeline students. Do you offer any insight to initial flight training?" - I know General Wills is looking closely at that. There are gonna be some effects to that. I don't want to get ahead of the analysis that he's doing but yes, I mean, I think there will be specifically, I think maybe it was specifically with some of the CSO training. There will be some effects and we'll let, when General Wills has gotten the appropriate analysis on that, it will be forthcoming. - And Jack, kind of tagging on with flying wants to know if just regular flying training will continue as normal but I wanted to make sure he knew we saw his question. Belinda has a question. She says, "I'm a civilian retiring at the end of April. I was told that retirees are exempt from the two week telework which started on March 30th. I have a health risk with, I won't tell her personal business online here, but it says I thought I'd be on the first two weeks because of my condition with plenty of time to prepare for the retirement process." I'm trying to understand your question here, Belinda, I'm sorry, but are there exemptions from telework that for people who need to out-process, are they on our telework status at all? I'm not sure I understand the question. - Without understanding the full gist of the question she's going to, common sense needs to prevail on our processes. And so if she is concerned that she's not gonna be able to continue out-processing, this is the chain of command, allow the chain of command to evaluate the circumstances. I think by now, everyone in this command understands extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and there may be some modification to whatever the locality of the policy is there that needs to be looked at for her to continue to get done what she needs to get done. - A couple of questions, I can kind of pair them together, but it really asks what are trainees in ROM status at BMT actually doing, and will they be extended there longer or will they just continue the eight and a half weeks?" - So they're gonna be, so first of all, basic training has not been extended. So basic training is still eight and a half weeks. So during the first two weeks are ROM. So one, they're put in PT gear. So they're not getting their first clothing issue except for their PTUs. So they'll be in PT gear for the first two weeks. Also during the second week is when we bring the barbers over so they can get the magic haircut. And so all of the haircuts are done outside and then APs brings over anything that they need to purchase. So again, limiting their contact, you'll see them out there. They're out there studying, they're out there, some of them are practicing facing movements. They're helping do different things around the squadron as well, but they're not in full active training yet. So it's more of a taking care of the admin sort of things at the beginning. - For the first two weeks. - For the first two weeks. And then we were there on day 14 and 15 and we saw the training happening (fingers snap) just like that. And I tell you what, they are marching now. And they are doing the facing movements. They've been studying their books. They know how to cut threads really fast. They're getting their OCPs now in their next clothing issue. So many of them are just anxious, just like our TIs and our TIs is tell us the only frustration they have is they're there to train and so the airmen are there to learn. So the first two weeks are very slow going but once we get into that, out of that ROM and we get into the more modified ROM status they are in full up training status. - A lot of comments online, but you know it's every instructor in AETC doing the mission. - It is. - And not just the instructors but all the support people that make the mission happen. I mean, the defacts having to feed everybody, our defenders on the gates, the medical teams. We've talked about it but I mean, and there's a couple more questions but I really wanted to get this in. I mean, it's really probably as a commander you have to be so proud, sir. - I am extremely proud. You know, we got into kind of a little bit of a rabbit hole yesterday with with a posting that actually is trending really well but we didn't call out every AFSC that is contributing to the AETC mission. And of course, every one of them do. But its MTIs, it's MTOs, it's instructor pilots, it's instructor platform instructors. It's the IDMTs, it's the defact workers. I mean, it's literally across the board. When we talk about calm is contagious and you go out there and you kind of get a sense, that's what I get the sense of. Sir, we're doing our mission. We understand when there are concerns we've been able to address them, some on the spot. Some of them very quickly. I couldn't be more proud of the airmen out of AETC and the job they're doing. - And the PAs. - And the PAs. (laughing) - So we're getting ready to close up, I see a few more questions so we'll get answered here. It says, "regarding testing for COVID-19 people can be asymptomatic or presymptomatic and still carry the virus. Is this concern being addressed?" And I think that we talked to when we're bringing them into the pipeline, yes, it is being addressed through restriction of movement. And then obviously as they go further along in the pipeline, if they do develop symptoms, our bases, wherever they may be, have those plans in place to take care of people who might have contracted the virus. - Yeah, that true, if the question was aimed at BMT. That's exactly what the process is. Or OTS for that matter. You know, some of the other things that we would kind of singularly focus on BMT. But this thing about COVID-19 and asymptomatic carriers that's every one of our responsibility, okay? You know, we're teleworking to a greatest extent and I continue to kind of ratchet it down, what it looks like even in the headquarters, but there are circumstances, here's one of them right here where we're not teleworking, we're here at work. It is incumbent on every one of us to be appropriate. Physical distancing, washing our hands, not interacting, you know kind of staying home to the maximum extent that you can. Obviously you're gonna need to go to the grocery store and some of these kinds of things, but that at the end of the day is coming on every one of us to contribute. - I think it's probably appropriate, sir, to ask this question last and thanks, Janet, for your comment about having your granddaughter in the United States Air Force and you're so proud. We're proud to have her. So that's really awesome, thanks for your comment, Janet. But the last question that I'll throw out here is do you feel that we are doing enough to keep everybody safe? - There is no doubt in my mind that everybody, every day in this command is doing their utmost to either identify problems or working to get solutions on them. And that is where I come back to, you know, kind of my overarching points on this, is one to thank you, the airmen of AETC and all that you're doing every day to get after what has been laid out as our three priorities: the people, the mission, and the partnerships in this whole government approach. And if I could leave you with the request is to continue to trust your chain of command, your installation commanders on down, and your leadership on up from the installation level is doing their level best to grapple with circumstances that are changing hourly. And that last phrasing, you know, the kind of the hashtag that we have out there, calm is contagious. I'm telling you, set that tone. That is what I've seen across our command. That's what we need to continue to set. That is key because it is contagious. If we keep our heads about it, if we keep our wits about us, if we continue to respond to contact, we gather, be proactive in our kind of data gathering to add to that kind of intuitive decision-making that we've been doing here to date, we're on the right course. - So something that General Webb said at the beginning of all of this, not the beginning session, but as we went into the COVID crisis, he said, "We don't back down, we rise up." And that's exactly what we're doing here at AETC and can't foot stomp that enough is get with your chain of command and tell us, tell us what right looks like so that we can continue to make things safe for you and your families and continue our training missions and just a big thank you for everything that you're doing. - So a couple of admin reminders before we sign off I want to let you know that General Goldfien and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, Kaleth O. Wright, are gonna have a town hall on the Air Force Facebook page on Monday that starts at 3:30 PM Eastern time. So please, if you have the time, tune in so you can hear what General Webb's boss and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force have to say. And then also don't forget Chief mentioned it but we are actually going to virtually announce the AETC annual award winners on Monday night and it's not the normal way we like to do this but obviously in this unprecedented time it's still the right thing to do to recognize people that have went above and beyond. - Yes, Dan, we're excited about Monday night. - So that's gonna wrap it up for our town hall tonight. You can continue to follow our AETC social media accounts, the AETC command team, they're on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well. So if you have questions or comments never feel shy. Chief Gudgel's on there on all hours of the night. I don't know what time she either goes to bed or wakes up in the morning, but it's pretty darn early. So from all of us here at AETC, thanks, so long, good night. - Good night. - Lots to unpack here on this edition of the Air Force Starts Here. The AETC command team really laying out the strategic why of what we do here in AETC so eloquently. So thanks to General Webb and Chief Gudgel. Reminder you can follow just about everybody on social media to include the command team. They're on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as AETC. We're on all three of those platforms as well. General Wills, the 19th Air Force Commander and his Command Chief, Chief Master Sergeant Eric Thompson, they're on Facebook and Instagram and Chief Bass the Second Air Force Command Chief, she is also on Facebook and Instagram as well. So a plug as well for all of those public affairs offices out there doing a great job, I would say an awesome job of keeping everybody informed. If you need information for your particular installation make sure you check out your base website and your base social media accounts. They're really your best source of localized information. And so we'll sign off on this edition of the Air Force Starts Here saying so long, stay safe, and we'll talk to you next time on the Air Force Starts Here.