Air Force Chief of Staff visits Tyndall

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Alex Fox Echols III
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III visited Tyndall May 5 to 7 to say thank you to the men and women who ensure mission success every day.

 

While at Tyndall, Welsh hosted an all-call for Team Tyndall members to discuss the current state of the Air Force and thank them for their tireless work.

 

 “I’m just here to say thanks,” Welsh said during the all-call. “I don’t think you have any idea how cool you are. The things you do, the way you do them, how well you do the job and the missions that you accomplish are just spectacular. So thank you for being the people who make that happen.”

 

Welsh touched on the importance of family before talking about big issues the Air Force is facing and will be dealing with in the near future.

 

“The biggest thing that is concerning the Air Force right now is manpower,” Welsh said. “It’s the biggest problem we’ve got. We’ve been downsizing for 25 years now and we’ve cut 40 percent of the Air Force in that time. At the same time our operations tempo has gone up not down, and that’s a problem.”

 

Welsh also spoke about budgets, the importance of communication, and using common sense in all situations. After his initial comments, he fielded questions from the audience on professional military education, tattoo policies, aircraft intercepts and the relevance of exercises such as Red Flag.

 

After the all-call, Welsh had several roundtables and meetings with Tyndall Airmen and leadership.

 

The Air Force Chief of Staff is the senior uniformed Air Force officer responsible for the organization, training and equipping of 660,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the U.S. and overseas.