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BULLSEYE
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ACC Commander paves way for RPA enterprise improvements
By Staff Sgt. Adawn Kelsey
432nd Wing/432nd Expeditionary Wing
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. —
Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air
Combat Command, and Command Chief
Master Sgt. Steve McDonald paid a visit to
the Airmen of the 432nd Wing/432nd Air
Expeditionary Wing at Creech Air Force
Base, Nev., Jan. 14 to address some of the
challenges and unique issues the remotely
piloted aircraft enterprise faces. One significant change coming to the
During the visit, Carlisle held an all-
call where he talked about the Culture
and Process Improvement Program and
the results that came from that initiative.
He also thanked the thousands of mem-
bers who attended the focus sessions and
responded to the surveys.
“I want to thank you all for your feed-
back,” Carlisle said. “We took what you
said and put them into about 140 action
items. These items are things we think we
need to do to make this enterprise right.
We want to build the force structure, and
build the capability to have a sustainable
enterprise that provides the warfighter
with what they need, while taking care
of the people who are doing the mission.”
Looking forward, Carlisle informed
the Airmen of the progress and changes
they can expect with the information
gathered during the CPIP. One of the key
issues he touched on was RPA manning
and the need to increase that number by
2,500-3,500 Airmen.
“First and foremost you have to have
people,” he said. “I need to take a por-
tion of this enterprise and put them in
dwell. I need to take those folks out of the
fight and let them do tactics, techniques
and procedures and let them figure out
WEPTAC, from page 1__________
where tactics, techniques and procedures are
improved upon using creative, cost-effective
solutions. A first, WEPTAC grew to involve
coalition partners this year.
“We are a much smaller fighting force
than what we used to be five to ten years ago,”
said Carroll. “What the coalition allows us to
do is leverage upon their additional capacity
in capability because we won’t fight another
MCO with just the U.S. Air Force. It will be
the U.S. Air Force, army, navy and coalition
partners. In order for us to levy on joint and
coalition capability and capacity we have to
integrate them in the planning process, so
there is no lag or gap in capability, and that’s of-sight, we’ve given legacy equipmentmo-
what we’re doing here.”
According to Carroll, there have been
cases where solutions developed at WEPTAC
were implemented into real-world operations
in a matter of 30 days or less.
Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of U.S.
Air Forces in Europe — Air Forces Africa
provided this year’s keynote address, where
he commended the participant’s fiscal and
News 3January 22, 2016
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U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Christian Clausen The ACC commander also talked about
other opportunities that can be made more
Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, briefs Airmen from the 432nd readily available to the RPA enterprise,
Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing Jan. 14 during his visit to Creech Air Force Base, Nev. such as education, promotion opportuni-
During the all-call, Carlisle recapped the findings of the Culture and Process Improvement ties, and alternative job opportunities to
Program, an initiative which studied challenges within the remotely piloted aircraft build up the career track including the RPA
enterprise. He also explained the measures the Air Force is taking to alleviate the problems. maintenance career fields.
how else we can take advantage of this will be able to take squadrons out of the “We are looking at career progression
weapons system, and how it can help the fight so they can do all of the other things and a career pyramid and how do we
warfighters.” squadrons do to keep themselves, healthy, get you all the opportunities that every
trained and capable.” single other enterprise in the United
States Air Force gets so you can move
RPA enterprise is the expansion of loca- Another project his group is working on forward,” he said. “There are several
tion options through the strategic basing is the force presentation and organization other things we are looking at when it
process. model, and building the RPA enterprise in comes to enlisted retention opportuni-
support of this mission. ties with respect to bonuses and air crew
“What we have here at Creech is huge,” incentive pay. We have lobbied hard
he said. “It’s a lot of squadrons within a “There are a couple of key things when with congress to make those changes
wing with a huge population. That is not we look at new bases because of the size and the potential of bonuses.”
average for a wing in our U.S. Air Force. We of this enterprise,” Carlisle said. “One of
need to build at least one more wing, build these is the flow of the information, does Carlisle said the members of Creech
more groups and more squadrons that are this place have an Air Operations Center, AFB and the future of the RPA enter-
standard with the right equipment to do do these bases have infrastructure for in- prise will continue to play a huge role in
‘X’ number of lines each day. With this we formation transfer.” furthering our national security inter-
ests through persistent ISR and combat
engagement when required.
“The men and women at the 432nd
Wing are dedicated professionals,
committed to the mission and every
day they are contributing to our na-
tion’s security today and maintaining
readiness for tomorrow’s fight,” he
said. “I’m extremely impressed not only
by their professionalism, but also by
their resiliency and the way the 432nd
Wing has ensured that we win today’s
fight but not lose sight of taking care
of people and preparing for the future.
I’ve been inspired by the innovation
and devotion these men and women
show seven days a week, 365 days a year
in executing one of our nation’s most
critical missions.”
technical innovation, along with their ability Annual luncheon celebrates Dr. King
to force multiply with partner services and
nations. “I am so excited to be here,” said U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Kleinholz
Gorenc, who’s served in the Air Force for 37
years.” To hear what you all came up with Claytee White, Director of the Oral History Research Center at the University
… I rely on the captains, majors and subject of Nevada, Las Vegas, speaks with Airmen during the 2016 Martin Luther King
matter experts in this room to inform me.” Junior Memorial Luncheon at the Sunrise Vista Golf Course club house Jan.
15 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. White’s presentation took audience members
“Since I have been in, these new capa- back to the roots of the civil rights movement, and explained its triumphs
bilities have been incredible; we turned through adversity through historical and modern examples.
short range into long range, long range into
unlimited. “Since I have been in, these new
capabilities have been incredible; we turned
short range into long range, long range into
unlimited. We’ve turned unguided bombs
into precision-guided or GPS weapons.
We’ve turned line-of-sight into beyond line-
difications and it works side by side with the
new,” said Gorenc. “I’ve seen a lot and know
what we’re capable of and I’m counting on
all of you to keep the world greatest power
strong.”
WEPTAC aligns with ACC’s priorities
including; delivering the greatest amount of
combat capability to meet our national se-
curity objectives and win our nation’s wars.