Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David Flosi visited Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Oct. 17.
During their visit they met with Airmen and joint force partners to discuss the strategic importance of the Arctic mission, as well as JB Elemdorf-Richardson's unique makeup with three total-force wings, an Army brigade, Alaskan Command, Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force.
Allvin made it clear upfront to the team how vital the base and the state of Alaska are today.
"Alaska is a hotbed for Great Power Competition because it is where the Arctic and Indo-Pacific regions intersect," he said. "It is imperative that we can rapidly and effectively project power into both these (areas of responsibility). Our reoptimization efforts will increase our ability to do just that."
Allvin and Flosi kicked off the visit in earnest by addressing the 673rd ABW and 3rd Wing at an all call for Airmen across the base. Allvin discussed how the Air Force is changing the ways it generates readiness, projects power and develops its people and capabilities for complex security environments. He also expressed his pride seeing the 3rd Wing and 673rd ABW working together to exercise the formation of the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing in support of the force's Reoptimization for Great Power Competition.
"Despite challenging Arctic conditions, these Airmen are moving out to shape the strategic environment and reoptimize how we generate readiness and project power," Allvin said. "The team here has been deeply involved in several ACE-focused exercises, including Agile Reaper, Polar Force and Bamboo Eagle, allowing us to define and refine our ACE model for distributed operations, contested communication environments and logistics under attack."
During the question-and-answer portion of the all call, Flosi answered Airmen's questions on the prioritization of mission over functions, the impact of individual readiness, and enabling total force Airmen and civilians across specialties and at all levels to fly, fight and win.
"There are functions we perform that are similar in (all Air Force specialty codes) where we see an opportunity to provide more agility," Flosi said. "To take somebody with similar skills and move them across those functions will allow us to focus on the mission first."
After the all call, JB Elemendorf-Richardson leaders provided Allvin and Flosi updates on the challenges of aging infrastructure, construction projects, and readiness all complicated by the winters in Alaska.
Allvin and Flosi were also accompanied on the visit by Allvin's wife, Gina Allvin. Gina Allvin met with spouses and Airmen at the 673rd Medical Group to discuss challenges and initiatives for families and veterans who use the services at the Joint Venture Hospital. They also discussed local housing availability issues and how state legislature has improved spouse licensure portability, education, and childcare support for local military families.
