OCR Text |
Show Page 6 Air HILL TOP TIMES December I. 1978 CEifeff'off Sffoffff Pfgg "Members of the Air Force military, civilian, active, of staff to be a principal chief the retired reserve, expect Air for Force people. spokesman "When a medical benefit is cut, a housing program deleted, commissaries threatened, or the retirement system jeopardized, Air Force people and their families are concerned. They expect understandably and rightly their leaders to speak out for them, to advance their causes and defend their interests. "In this context, the chief of staff is expected by the service community to act as their representative and as an advocate for people programs. "This role is one that every chief of staff has been obliged to accept with his ap- pointment. This obligation must be fulfilled by leadership with constructive vigor and success equal to or greater than that which would be achieved by a union. And our people should believe that to be so. "The Air Force demands the commitment of its people to their jobs and mission. But the coin of commitment has two sides, and the other is that of the institution to its members. Our senior leadership bears a major responsibility tc issure that both sides of the coin of commitment are honored. We will fight for the assets we need to ensure the security of the United States and as part of that effort, we will fight for our people. "Today's Air Force men and women have a good reputation for quality, morale, discipline, and dedication. We set high standards of potential and performance, and fully expect those standards to be met. The advantages of that insistence on high standards are obvious. With the force at its lowest strength levels since 1950, with a mission which remains global in scope and continues to be increasingly technical in nature, quality is not a luxury. It is an imperative. "There is no slack to accommodate those who cannot or will not measure up. The Air Force, faced with constraints on the size and cost of the force, needs to recruit and retain the most productive people possible. "The work must be done; the mission must be accomplished. Each person not pulling a full load adds to the demands on a coworker. Nor is it just a matter of what happens today or this year. Today's recruits will be tomorrow's supervisors. Because we have a closed personnel system in the military, we must groom our managers and leaders. Relaxing our quality standards at the outset will ultimately, inevitably, force a decline in the quality of supervisors in the career force. "Important though it is, then, to attract quality people in the first place, the emphasis does not end there. The quality of life we are able to offer must be sufficiently appealing that capable people who could compete handily in the civilian job elect to pursue a military career. Positive attitudes market toward the service must be fostered early and reinforced throughout a career. "We are taking steps toward those ends. For example, the Air Force has made significant progress toward its objective of being able to extend full travel entitlements to all its junior enlisted personnel. These entitlements will help to ease the burdens imposed on our junior members, particularly those who are married and selected for an accompanied tour in an overseas area. kept on currency exchange rates, particularly the relationship of the dollar to the yen and "A close watch is being (oJD'ijWDe 0 era. Het7 Allen Jr. specie the mark. Fast reaction mechanisms are available to adjust housing allowances (HA) and cost of living allowances (COLA) to protect Air Force families against rapid, unfavorable fluctuations in the relative value of the dollar. "An 'Air Force takes care of its own' action group is also examining a long list of possible initiatives to provide additional relief and improve the quality of life for members serving overseas. Some of these measures point to improvements we can make internally within available resources and existing authority; others may require that we seek additional funds or authority. "Over the past year, we have, for example, adjusted the seven times in Germany and nine times in Japan. At HA Yokota, we have established a carefully measured five-tie- r to actual to allowances the more system precisely align average costs. We hope to be able to implement similar procedures in other overseas locations. HA-COL- A "We are continuing to work with OSD, the Congress, and members of the medical profession to maintain the quality and extent of medical care vailable to service members and their families. This is among the most important issues facing our people. "Traditionally, medical care had been one of the most valuable benefits provided the military community. With the consecutive recent shortfalls in physician recruiting and the problems encountered in the CHAMPUS alternative care program, the service members' perceptions are that the level of medical care has fallen alarmingly. Correcting these perceptions is a top priority. "One of the most rigorous tests of our Air Force leadership, in a personnel context, began a few months ago and will continue for the next couple of years. That test is posed by our response to the proposals made by the President's Commission on Military Compensation. "As managers, we must deal with economic realities and the need to minimize the amount of the nation's wrealth (and the Federal Treasury) which must be allocated to maintain an adequate national defense. As representatives of our people, we must protect the economic of service members. well-bein- g "On the surface, these goals may appear to be conflicting. However, they are consistent and mutually supporting. "The Air Force is firmly committed to the principle that a military career should offer economic rewards approximately equivalent to those available to comparable workers in the private sector. "A military career involves exposure to risks and acceptance of personal hardships and inconveniences well beyond those common to civilian employment. Simple equity demands that these conditions not be compounded by the imposition of undue economic sacrifice. "Both as managers and as spokesmen for our personnel, Air in issues such as comand retirement, and must support an equitable plan. pensation Compensation for Air Force people has been' eroded by inflation despite adjustments. We must strive for an adjustment to compensation for this erosion. Force leaders have a strong interest cost-of-livin- g "We want a retirement system which provides a reasonable economic foundation to cover a retiree's transition from military to civilian life, compensate for second career income loss, and offer security and dignity in old age. These are expectations service members and their families have of their retirement system. The Hill Top Times is an unofficial newspaper published every Friday in the interest of personnel at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, of Air Force Logistics Command. It is published by MorMedia Sales, Inc., 1150 West Riverdale Road, Ogden, Utah 81103, a private firm in no way connected with the Department of the Air Force. Opinions expressed by publisher and writers if, tfir poepSo "To qualify for this earned deferred, income, they willingly accept the sacrifices that characterize a military career. They relinquish control over what they will do, where they wili do it when they will move. They accept certain abridgements of meir Da sic ireeaoms oi speecn, assemDiy and political activity even while dedicating their lives to assuring these freedoms for their fellow citizens. "The emphasis on readiness in recent years has brought a new peacetime intensity to our styles and patterns of work. We place heavy stresses and demands on our people. When we say that we fly and exercise as we would fight, we mean it and that realism in training, with risks, alerts and surges of acinvolves tivity that would have been unusual in the past pressure and the kind of sacrifice that comes with plain hard work. "These heavier workloads associated with readiness moreover, have been compounded by workload changes brought about by the many years of force reductions just behind us. Our people are spread thinner, and are asked to produce more, than ever before. "It speaks well of our society that we can find hundreds of thousands of capable people who are willing to commit themselves to these responsibilities and burdens for a considerable portion of their lives for twenty years, or thirty, or in some cases even longer. The Air Force seeks a continuation of incentives that attract qualified people to military careers. "We want a personnel structure that has a balance of youth and experience, that retains adequate numbers of middle level supervisors and m'anagers, yet isn't plagued by stagnation or superannuation. attract and retain adequate numbers of quality people, an Air Force career must provide suitable op"To portunities for professional and personal advancement and acceptable levels of compensation. "Anything less would inevitably result in lower quality and-o- r an inability to achieve desired manning objectives, reduced readiness, and diminished capability to accomplish the missions assigned us. "In sum, the best way to provide the most capability for the least cost is to provide a quality of life which appeals to quality people. The surest way to do right by the taxpayers is to do right by our people. I am obligated, as are other Air Force leaders, to work vigorously toward that goal. "In pursuing these objectives, it is comforting to know we do not stand alone. Military associations, such as the National Association for Uniformed Services, provide a constructive and strongly supportive adjunct. Telling our story to a broader segment of the public than we could reach with our own resources, and helping us to recognize publicly the achievements of our people and the importance of their service, the associations help us to sustain a strong military institution and a strong defense. "These associations also provide a channel for communicating the attitudes and interests of service members to the military and civilian leadership as well as to Congress and the public. This relationship contributes to 'mutual understanding, helping the services avoid the adversary position of 'us versus them' which too often characterizes the relations in the private sector. union-manageme- nt "In conclusion, it is my judgment that in speaking out for people programs, our Air Force leadership and organizations like the National Association for Uniformed Services are also speaking out for sound management and a sound defense. "The Air Force mission, with the sophisticated equipment and the emphasis on readiness it entails, requires high personnel quality. Quality comes at a price, and we must obbut the fight to viously maintain a balanced viewpoint a maintain reasonable and equitable quality of life for our people is ultimately a fight to serve the public interest in national security through an efficient defense establishment." are their own and are not to be considered an official expression by the Department of the Air Force. The appearance of advertisements, including supplements and inserts, in this publication does not constitute an endorsement by the Department of the Air Force of products or services advertised. |