What a difference a year makes

  • Published
  • By Col. Steve Arquiette
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Today and Saturday, we have the honor and pleasure of hosting the Airlift/Tanker Association National Chapter Board led by chairman, Gen. Ron Fogleman, our former commander of Air Mobility Command and Chief of Staff of the Air Force. This group of dedicated board members does a tremendous job in bolstering our Air Mobility effectiveness through education, networking and camaraderie building. We're blessed to have General Fogleman spend time with us addressing Airmen in the base theater at 2 p.m. At 4:15 p.m., Team Travis' A/TA Golden Bear Chapter will host General Fogleman and all of the other board members, both retired and those still serving, during a social at the Travis Museum. Many thanks to our local A/TA President, Lt. Col. Ray Ott, for pulling this fun-filled day together. We'll later transition to the Delta Breeze Club, so I hope to see you there. 

It's hard to believe that my first year of command has blitzed by. May 8 marked the one-year point from that windy day when my speech nearly got blown off the podium by that strong delta breeze. It's also hard to believe that my 7-year-old son Stevie has grown 8 inches in the past year, but when I look at the grocery bill, I know where it all went.
Just as my son experienced a huge growth spurt, we here at Travis are feeling "new legs" as well. A great deal has taken place in this past year and it's somewhat eye-opening to look back on the magnitude of effort and successes we've seen here with Team Travis. As the 85-year old World War II B-24 pilot Art Carder stated during his Distinguished Flying Cross ceremony May 7 the Travis Museum, nothing extremely challenging can be successfully achieved without a great deal of teamwork. We enjoy tremendous teamwork here at Travis, and I find myself feeling blessed and humbled to be a part of this during a time of such national significance. 

From the mission front over the past 12 months, our first C-17, the Spirit of Solano, was delivered on Aug. 8 and flew a mission into Iraq the very next day. The C-5 Avionics Modernization Program is well underway; the KC-10's new 8044 mission is up and running; the David Grant USAF Medical Center is expanding its medical care, research and residency program partnerships with the Veterans Affairs and local universities; $122 million in construction projects produced more capability for the base, and much, much more. All of this growth is taking place amidst PBD 720 manpower cuts and a 25 percent reduction in contract funding, a 25 percent cut in our vehicle fleet, the implementation of NSPS, and the transition to our new safety program Volunteer Personal Protection. Helping us balance our "growth" with the Air Force's realignment of resources will be our strong focus on continual process improvement via Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century. In fact, a team of four Travis members were invited with Dr. Ron Ritter to Google's corporate headquarters in San Francisco this week to brief their executives on how we, as a large organization, are implementing Lean and other continuous process improvements. That's quite a compliment to our program. 

Among other areas of improvement we've seen, our mandatory Fitness "Boot Camp" for all members failing the Fit Test has produced a 33 percent drop in poor and marginal scores wing-wide in just six months. We placed a strong SNCO to guide our dorm standards rebuilding effort, and Master Sgt. Don Lucy is improving the quality of life for all of our dorm Airmen. Our clubs have returned to profitability and are improving the quality of services provided. Attendance at our Deployed Spouses Dinners is 30 times greater. We've restored pride and high standards of base appearance and much more. 

The bottom line here is that despite the challenges we face of growing "new legs" in a changing environment and while supporting the high wartime ops tempo, teamwork has played and will continue to play a huge role in our personal and professional success. Be proud of your role on our great team, and thanks for your great efforts.

BE PROUD! BE SAFE!