Unleash the Fury

  • Published
  • By Col. Matthew Burger
  • 349th Air Mobility Wing commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Today, as you read this, both the Logistics Compliance Assessment Program and Aircrew Standardization and Evaluation Visit inspections are well underway.

Additionally, we are poised and ready to demonstrate Travis' ability to deploy and operate in a chemical environment in support of our Operational Readiness Inspection.

These inspections represent the culmination of months of training and preparation. Our active, Reserve and civilian personnel have put forth tremendous effort to be prepared for these critical Air Force inspections. A big thank you goes to the hundreds of people who have worked so hard to prepare Travis for these inspections. These preparations have occurred despite the ongoing efforts to support combat operations in the Central Command AOR, disaster relief as a result of Hurricane Sandy and hundreds of missions supporting our national military objectives around the globe.

At times, we've all questioned the importance and relevance of these inspections, with so many real-world, high-priority missions. Let me offer to you why these are important.

The American people invest heavily in the Department of Defense. This investment represents a commitment to support and defend our strategic interests. In supporting our strategic interests, we must be prepared to meet many challenges, including operating in an environment threatened by chemical weapons.

This is a one of the toughest challenges to meet. You'll recall that Airmen have been called to fight, despite the threat of chemical weapons, during Desert Storm I and II. Just watch the nightly news to see that the threat of chemical weapons persists even today.

Our ORI is the way DoD validates our readiness to meet this challenging mission. Operating in contaminated battle space is not the only challenge. During the last 10 years of conflict, we've demonstrated that Airmen must be and in fact are expeditionary.

Expeditionary is the ability to move our forces from home base forward to the fight. These forces are then able to operate and execute a spectrum of missions from a forward operating base. The challenge of transforming a patch of concrete, handful of buildings, and a few dozen vehicles into a fully functional Air Mobility Command base which generates missions to support the mobility enterprise cannot be overstated.

In only a few days, Airmen from Travis will do just that. We are the most capable mobility force on the planet. The men and women of Travis represent the best of the best. This ORI is our chance to demonstrate our capability. I'm excited to watch as Travis unleashes the fury of our mobility forces.