Base makes airpower happen

  • Published
  • By Col. James Jacobson
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing vice commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE,Ca --  Hello Team Travis -- Airpower! It's great to be back in Northern California amongst friends and serving alongside of America's greatest Airmen. Nancy and I are honored to, again, be members of the Travis family, a team that continues to exude excellence at every turn.

With your recent Operational Readiness Inspection, Haiti support, Afghanistan surge efforts, AEF and flying squadron deployments, a slew of distinguished visitors and a resounding Year of the Air Force Family, you proved you do Airpower and family support better than any base we've ever seen. We look forward to working with and for you as Travis embarks upon its next set of accomplishments.

And what a six months we have in front of us:

Travis Week -- it's just six weeks away. This event will showcase you, your skills and the base to Solano County. It will take a total team effort as we participate in the Sacramento Air show, run for the Fisher House during Viking Challenge, conduct school visits, host distinguished visitors from Solano County and culminate the events with the Air Force Ball. What a great week it will be.

Compliance -- our focus in the next six months continues with our continued efforts to infuse a culture of compliance. The Air Mobility Command inspector general will visit us sometime between now and February to conduct a compliance inspection. Our responsibility is to be compliant with the Air Force Instructions every day, not just in time for inspections. I ask that you embrace compliance, know the Air Force Instructions and use your quarterly self-inspection checklists to ensure we are compliant and if not, chart a course to compliance. You are the current stewards of Travis' legacy of excellence. Help us improve how we do Airpower better than the rest.

Be ready to deploy -- AEF 7/8 is just around the corner and your individual mobility status matters. Ensure both you and your gear are ready, your personal life, including wills and finances, is in order and you remember your deployed skill sets. We'll get a chance in the coming months to re-hone our deployment skills via base exercises. We practice because skills degrade when unused and world events don't wait for just-in-time training. Remember, as America's first choice, Travis leads the way.

Supporting our partners -- We have two amazing partner wings in the 349th Air Mobility Wing and the 615th Contingency Response Wing (and their parent organization - the 15 Expeditionary Mobility Task Force) in delivering Airpower for America. In addition, we have more than another 50 partners here at Travis. We all combine to project Airpower from Travis. Our friends and foes do not differentiate between units when we arrive in far off places. If you are in the 60th AMW, you will often find your job is to support both our partners' Airmen with their missions and their families 24/7. It does not matter what patch our customers wear. We are a total global mobility team here at Travis.

You make Airpower happen for America. My job is to help you in any way I can. If there is something that keeps you from focusing on the mission, we, in the headquarters building, want to know. If we don't know about it, we can't fix it.

Again, Nancy and I are thrilled to be here at Travis. We are honored to serve with and for each of you and look forward to assisting you in delivering Airpower -- Team Travis style!