CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
As many of you are aware, President Bush's Fiscal Year 2009 roll-out budget was recently announced. The budget reflects tough, thoughtful decisions to best carry out our mission within our resources. Aggressive measures have been taken to balance the FY 09 budget across limited resources, but we still face great challenges ... and that means sometimes we have unpleasant decisions to make.
However, that does not mean our priorities have changed. One of the Air Force's top priorities is to "Take Care of Our People." Taking care of Airmen and their families still remains a major focus area for both the Air Force and for me as your commander.
The Air Force ensures our Airmen are properly equipped to accomplish the mission. And when Airmen know their families are taken care of, they can better accomplish the mission.
Part of taking care of Airmen and their families includes high quality of life standards, and we take that seriously, from the Air Staff all the way down to the wing commander.
"Quality of life is key to success," said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley during recent testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs about quality of life issues in the Air Force. "Air Force leaders understand we recruit Airmen, but we retain families. The quality of life we provide our Airmen and their families is a distinct determining factor in how long many of our warriors will serve."
Also, many of you are aware that we recently restricted carryout service at the Gaylor Dining Facility to mission essential personnel only. This was because we expended our entire year's supply of Styrofoam containers in the first five months of the year ... and we were attempting to balance accomplishing the mission with taking care of Airmen.
At nearly the same time, I was informed that we were faced with closing an infant care room at the child development center because of a lack of diapers and formula. Thus, we had to make a difficult decision between two unfunded areas: baby formula and diapers at the CDC or Styrofoam take-out containers at the dining facility. We chose to fund the CDC so we can continue our full level of child care services.
There will likely be more and even tougher budgetary decisions in our future. I remain committed to provide 100 percent of what you need and the maximum amount of what you want to maintain our quality of life, but there will likely be shortfalls. Regardless of what is given or taken away, we will always have our ingenuity. We will always have the ability to network with other bases. We will always have the ability to develop new and innovative ways to make things work.
Team Charleston, I am committed to continue to provide everything our Airmen need to accomplish our mission and most of what they want as well. That commitment goes hand-in-hand with taking care of the families which is key to the successful accomplishment of our mission.
Team Charleston - Take the Fight to the Enemy!