CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Good morning Team Charleston.
We're honored this weekend to have so many distinguished retired and active-duty Air Force leaders here with us to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the Air Force's first C-17 delivery and all we've accomplished with the Globemaster III.
There's no doubt the C-17 has changed the way we go to war, deploy our warfighters and resupply our forces in theater. The general officers visiting us this week led the charge in redefining the way the world thinks about strategic and tactical airlift. Please take advantage of every opportunity to hear their stories about the early days of the C-17 program and where they think we're headed next.
It seemed like only yesterday when we were still in the proof of concept phase with our C-17s. At that time in the mid-1990s, Congress and the Department of Defense were telling the Air Force 40 airplanes and no more until we could prove ourselves.
I remember flying down to Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Ga., to pick up an M1 Abrams tank, a couple of humvees and a half-ton pickup truck. We took about 160,000 pounds up to 30,000 feet, completed a high-speed tactical descent and rattled and shook all the way down to a low level into North Field. There, we flew a short field assault landing and full stopped in about 2,500 feet. To this day, when flying a descent or low level, I think about that mission and how far we've come.
As we look back at these C-17 milestones, I'm also reminded of a mission in 1995 when Charleston was called upon to move a fighter unit from Langley AFB, Va., to Kuwait. At the time, we were not even operational yet. However, we deployed two airplanes from here to Virginia to Kuwait City with two air refuelings - the farthest from home C-17s had been at that time.
We've made a quantum leap since those days and what's most amazing to me isn't the C-17, but the Airmen who operate and support the airframe. Our Airmen continue to find new and better ways to use airlift. From airdropping forces into Iraq to open the northern front for Operation Iraqi Freedom to flying evacuees from hurricane-devastated New Orleans, our Airmen have done amazing things for our Nation and the world.
Now as we stand less than 60 days from our Operational Readiness Inspection, we're again asked to prove ourselves. While most Airmen here have experience in typical C-17 deployment operations, we'll be tested with things we don't practice every day ... but are still very much a part of our mission. We will stand up a deployed emergency operations center and demonstrate our ability to survive and operate in a chemical warfare environment.
No longer do we have the luxury of a six-month notice for a deployment. We have to answer our Nation's call and respond to any contingency at a moment's notice. We have to be READY when the phone rings.
As we prepare for the ORI, I encourage you to read General Lichte's guidance on "Return to Basics." This is precisely what the IG will look for and frankly it's great advice every day. We need to focus on careful, deliberate execution, following tech orders and AFIs and accomplishing the mission safely. High opstempo is not an excuse to cut corners. Don't walk past a problem and elevate issues you cannot solve up the chain of command.
Team Charleston -- Take the Fight to the Enemy!