Kirtland AFB impresses AETC command chief

  • Published
  • By Danny Monahan
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Kirtland Air Force Base --  The command chief from Air Education and Training Command, Chief Master Sgt. James A. Cody, accompanied Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr., AETC commander, during their visit here July 13 and 14.

During an all-call, Chief Cody provided Kirtland Airmen some advice.

"There is a lot of opportunity in our Air Force today," said Cody. "There is no better time than right now for Airmen to take advantage of what our Air Force has to offer. Not only are there opportunities for career progression, but also for personal progression, including offduty education. There is great potential for Airmen to do things that will benefit them long after their Air Force career, as well as benefit our Air Force today."

Chief Cody said he is very impressed with the men and women of Kirtland AFB, but there is always room for improvement.

"You can always improve," said Cody. "It's hard to sit there and say 'nothing else to do.' You have to look at areas that can be improved upon. We have great examples of Airmen taking the initiative to improve working environments, training environments and the combat readiness crews we produce. Many are realizing that the way we did business yesterday may not work tomorrow. It's this attitude toward improving our Air Force that is going to keep making it the best in the world."

With the Air Force involved in several conflicts across the globe, Cody said training is vital to developing capable warfighters.

"It all star ts with training," said Cody. "We are the first command for a reason. Nobody gets to the AOR [area of responsibility] without coming through AETC. Look at the 58th SOW [58th Special Operations Wing] and the criticality of their mission. They are creating combat aviators who are recovering aircraft, putting equipment on the ground and inserting combat forces in the AOR. I don't know if you can say one thing is more important than the other, but there is just no doubt that the training our aircrew members receive is the catalyst for their success on countless missions. It's critical that we maintain our current level of training, to ensure AETC's cadre are delivering the best and most capable Airmen to the fight. If we don't have good training, it will all fall apart."