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Readiness in today’s Air Force

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Richard Brackett
  • 305th Operations Group superintendent
McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. --  When I enlisted in the United States Air Force, back in 1985, we had more than 600,000 Airmen on active duty. Today, we have 320,000 Airmen. Despite having half as many people today, we are operating at a much higher operations tempo. If we are to ensure mission success, we must maintain a high state of readiness. 

Readiness involves both personal and professional involvement. Personal readiness can be broken down into physical and mental readiness. Professional readiness can be broken down into mission readiness and being an involved wingman. Now let us look at each area separately. 

Physical readiness is ensuring you are physically fit. The Air Force has made fitness a major part of our culture. Our commanders have given us time during our duty day to participate in fitness activities. To underscore how serious the Air Force is about your fitness, there is now a block on each of our performance reports to address your ability to pass an annual fitness test. As an American Airmen, you will eventually deploy. In the extreme temperature zones and high operations tempo at these forward deployed locations, it is imperative that you are physically fit. If you do not have a current physical fitness program, you need to start one now. 

Mental readiness involves how you cope with stress. We all deal with varying degrees of stress everyday in both our personal and professional lives. There are many ways of dealing with stress and there is no one way that works for everyone. The key to surviving is to know your limits, and if you reach it, to not be afraid to ask for help. Your supervisors, first sergeants and commanders are there to help. If they don't know the answer, they know where to get it. The mission will suffer if you cannot concentrate on your part because of stresses you are dealing with. 

Mission readiness is about knowing your job. Our aircraft could not deliver there cargo to other bases without qualified aircrew to operate the aircraft. The cargo would not have gotten on the aircraft without an aerial porter to load it. The aircraft would not have flown if a maintainer had not ensured the aircraft was flyable. We need our security forces to ensure our bases are kept secure. The list goes on and on. The bottom line is we all contribute in some way to mission accomplishment. However, we are only as strong as our weakest link. If you strive to do the best job you can every day, you will not be that weakest link. 

Our Airmen's Creed states that "I am a wingman." As wingmen, we are responsible for looking out for each other both on and off duty. Bad things do not just happen. There is always a chain of events leading up to any situation. The vast majority of the time it would have only taken one involved Airman to step up and break the chain of events. Be that involved wingman. 

Readiness in today's Air Force is paramount to mission accomplishment. In order to maintain a high state of readiness, we must be both physically and mentally ready, as well as ensure mission readiness and an involved wingman culture. When we add all these together, we get the world's best Airmen ready to take us into the future.