OCR Text |
Show 3 Habop Tones May 30, 1996 Air Force's highest ranking officer, Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman talks about issues, concerns, future directions by Frances Kosafcowsky Hrtttop Times odtor 1 Air Force Chief of Stiff Gen. Ronald R. Fogteman is an expert on the - ir Force. He's been and there, done that bought the la his career he 33-ye- ar has accumulated more than 6300 flight hours, flown 12 different types of c aircraft, taught history at the Air Force Academy, commanded squadrons, wings and air forces, and then moved on to air staff jobs in Washington, D.C. No doubt about it, when it comes to knowing the U.S. Air Force he's the man to ask. The Air Force Chief of Staff came to Northern Utah Thursday to speak at the National Image, I tv military ball and banquet in Salt. Lake City which gave the Hilltop Times and local media an opportunity to interview him. He answered questions covering a broad range of topics: privatization of Air Force jobs, the 60-4- 0 rule, base closures, the "one-mista- Air ke Force," decreasing budg- ets and deployment scheduling. Privatization Fogleman said the Air Force will contimie to pursue privatization across the board: it wiQ not be limited to the Kelly and McdeHan depots which are on the closure list-H- e said privatization and outsourcing are basically the sasae things, the only difference being the location of the activity. "Fundamentally, what we 're looking at when we say we're going to priva- tize something is that we are looking to the private sector to perform a func-taat that we hare traditionally performed in hause enier with bkie suit or fm"" iittwit employees. " ferratirJiTAnn ir place is a case where industry is irrited to come into a ry and bid an the work that b being performed in tVmt $wt!i: Newark AF3 is an CTtrmpVg of rrivt jje said. "And we anticipate that there wiE be prim:.'rHrr.inr is place K irtt EsCy ant &aOJifrr. " The that it .I I of e prsseTTOS cgimbat readiness because: First, the Air Force does sol sesd to divert res nurses to build the facilities and the capuhih-tis- s whpt.hf it's an a Tnun tv 1 jn5taHation or saraewhere eise Sacnnd. privwr.ha-uo- e wans the wry the Ap- - Force bapes Tr.Hfi jBrmrt wk currentv punses Bt a w2L who are innuiii 'f' e3D- - nTnwfTT instaLatinE wiE bscame employees of the private industry taking over the which would workload mean that the Air Force would mi1'"'" their expertise. The other form of privatization is known as outsourcing. In this instance, if the Air Force has no specific requirement for unique facilities, industry is invited to bid on the work which can be done anywhere. 60-4- 0 rule changes Fogleman said the Air Force is hopeful that Congress will in fact give law (60 relief in the 60-4- 0 percent of DOD workload kept in house and a maximum of 40 percent performed by civilian industry). "As you know, the House at this point has not seen fit to move in that direction. The Senate has offered a 50-5- 0 kind of proposal which I think is good and is a first step," Fogleman said. "An ar- bitrary limitation like is not good government and, eventually, I 60-4-0 think that good government will win out and we win see this particular restriction removed. 'I think this would allow us to keep the truly core workloads in house and allow the other workload to be done elsewhere." The general told media representatives that core workload cannot be defined or described by dollar value alone He said core workload is something that is unique and must be done in government facilities. As an example, he said that at Hill AFB a core workload was the work done in its landing gear facility. "There is no other facility like it in America and there is not other industry that is interested in TnaiTitjining C-- 5 landing gear." On the other hand, he said there are many engine shops in America that are capable of maintaining military aircraft engines. "So unless there are some really unique engine requirements, engine work by and large could be classified as non-cor- e workload.' Fogleman said San Antonio Sacramento trork loads ALC Foglemas said some of the workloads currently done by Sen .Antonio and Sacramento Air Logistics Centers wiD migrate to the remaTTriTig depots, but some of the work w2 be prrratized in plane "Ton wiE not see a flurry of actrrjry of KnTH-.r-farriittp? ta replace fadb-t- s that arerat ajreadvis rrwynnr uc the other S depots! Ix this era of very tiT,trr duuiarv this is one of the dsosiass thai plrv$ ia privatization," he said. 'One mistake' Air Force "In a recent article I explained that this is not a Air Force, but it is more and more becoming a Air Force. That is, the difference between a mistake and a crime is one of intention," Fogleman said. one-mista- 'one-crim- e' "What we are trying to do though is have everybody understand that this is an institution that has values and standards and that it is an institution," he said. While the Air Force isn't on any kind of crusade, Fogleman believes that Air Force personnel should be accountable for their actions. "Accountability concerns everyone, but we spend an awful lot time working on the problems of 5 percent of our people when I'd like to see a lot more emphasis placed on the 95 percent of our people who don't have to worry about a crime or a mistake they're doing a magnificent job for us," he said. The general thinks members need to be reminded that it is privilege to serve in the United States Air Force. It is not a right. "We're not a social actions agency; we're not an we employment agency exist for a very specific purpose and we have got to stay focused on having the highest quality of people and we've got to have standards and values to ensure that as an institution we can live up to our obligations," he said. "We need to come back every now and then and remind ourselves that the United States Air Force exists for one reason and one reason only and that's to fight and win America's wars." Deployments Answering criticism that Air Force personnel were deployed too often and for too long a time, the general said, "I tninfc the operations tempo of our fighter force is probably about stabilized. "Concurrent with the overall drawdown of the military beginning in the late "SOs. we were moving into the post-Col- d War environment where we discovered that there was greater world instability than there had been during the Cold War." This created a situation where the operations tempo was building while force size was actually diminishing and the remaining troops had to take up the slack. "Now we've gotten the force stabilized at 20 tactical fighter wings 13 active, 7 Reserve and the ops tempo is fairly constant. That gives us the opportunity to work the ops tempo problem." Fogleman said the Air Force started working the deployment issue very hard last year in several ways: Using fighter forces worldwide instead of limiting their use to specific theaters reduces the tempo somewhat. The Air Force has turned to the Air National Guard and Reserve to help keep the tempo down. The number of crises and contingencies may be dropping. "Right now in Bosnia we find that our fighter tempo is dropping con- siderably because the deployment has been successful. The former warring factions are not fighting, so while we have continued to keep a fighter presence there to enforce United Nations resolutions, the number of fighter units and pace is decreasing tremendously. "But, the fact of the matter is, the U.S. Air Force exists to fight and win wars in response to the nation's tasking and so you can expect, if you are going to be in our Air Force, to be deployed every now and then," Fogleman said. Shrinking budgets For the 11th straight year the defense budget has declined relative to several things, Fogleman said: 1. It has declined as a relation of the reduced force structure and it is an appropriate reduction. 2. It has also declined dramatically procurement in the area which Trnpatg modernization. Fogleman said the Air Force has tried to protect the operations and maintenance budget throughout the cutback years. He said they have also worked hard to maintain the quality of life for military members. "We've made sure that our people have received pay raises and we've protected the money we need to spend on military family housing, barracks and dorms," be said. "I would be more concerned about budget decreases if I didn't know that we have the management tools in place to go to Capitol Hill and to the American public and demonstrate to them that we do the job we've been and the assigned American public and the Congress has been pretty good about supporting us," Fogleman said. Photos by Bill Orndorff |