Change remains only constant in Air Force

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Thomas Fredericks
  • 60th Mission Support Squadron commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  "The only constant is change." This saying, which you have probably heard a lot lately, is credited to Greek Philosopher Heraclitus who lived more than 2,000 years ago. Of course, when he said it, he said literally "Nothing endures but change." I guess even his quote has changed. I found this quote on Wikipedia, an on-line encyclopedia to which readers can add content; now there is a change!

In order to continue to be the dominant air power in the world, our United States Air Force must continually change to prepare for and meet the challenges of an increasingly sophisticated and technologically savvy world. The Air Force needs every team member willing and able to change gears to confront these challenges.

We recently held some courses called Adapting to Change and Leading Change here at Travis. The very fact that our Air Force is willing to expend thousands of man-hours on such training shows just how important our leadership sees this to be. In addition, the Air Force and the entire Department of Defense is focusing our assets on developing technology to allow us to thrive in the future. Technology has been our decisive edge for decades, and it is vital we maintain that edge.

It's sometimes hard to understand why we must operate in such constrained environments, but limited assets must be allocated to best prepare us for the future. This is the path our leadership has chosen and our job is to support it.

What can you do to support Air Force leadership? You can focus on the positive and continue to find ways to succeed despite a constrained environment. In addition, you can use tools such as Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century to identify even more savings so those assets can be better utilized to meet Air Force goals. Jack Welch, the retired Chief Executive Officer of General Electric and one of the great business leaders of our time, wrote in his recent book Winning that organizations need people who are willing to effectively deal with change. He calls them "Get it done-ers" and believes they are the keys to any successful change.

That is what your Air Force needs from you. There is a time and place to discuss pros and cons and to voice concerns. However, once a change is made, it is all our jobs to implement it with 100 percent effort and clarity of purpose.

The bottom line is that change isn't new. It wasn't new for Heraclitus in ancient Greece, and it isn't new for our Air Force. As I think about it, the Air Force has been changing throughout my entire career. Some changes have been harder than others to adapt to and implement. Either way, those changes in our rear view mirror brought us to where we are today: the preeminent air power on Earth. We need everyone on the team to support our evolution to ensure that we stay on top.