Command Chief's Challenge

  • Published
  • By Command Chief Master Sgt. James Loper
  • 10th Air Force

As we enter the November UTA, I want to challenge everyone to take a look at their readiness and make sure they are taking care of everything within their control to accomplish the Tenth Air Force Mission to organize, train and equip mission-ready Tenth Air Force Reserve Citizen Airmen to fly, fight and win in air, space and cyberspace.

In order to accomplish our mission everyone must take personal responsibility for the things they can control when it comes to readiness. Please work with your chain of command to fix the things within your unit, and if you find things you can’t fix, elevate it to the next level so we can help remove obstacles to readiness.

As the Tenth Air Force Command Chief, I am here to advocate for our units to ensure the tools are available to maintain readiness and help our Airmen grow to their fullest potential.

Traditionally the Reserve brings next level expertise to any mission set we're involved in, but we sometimes fail to develop the whole Airmen. We need to make sure we take the time to not only grow within our respective specialties, but develop and stand ready to lead in total force and joint environments. I believe we can do this and maintain our Reserve culture if we plan ahead.

My goal is for every Airmen to have a choice when opportunities present themselves rather than "I wish I would have known". I want you to be able to make the choices that allow you to serve in a way that keeps your life in balance.

On the few visits I’ve made to our units so far, it is great to see how hard everyone is working to make their unit’s mission happen. It is inspiring to see everyone, no matter what AFSC, come together to help their unit succeed. This teamwork is critical not only to our reserve force readiness, but to our total force. As we continue to integrate reserve, guard and active components, in deployed locations as well as state-side, our ability to maintain readiness and mission expertise are critical to our success.

I am looking forward to working with all of our units and our vast mission sets during my time as the command chief. We are truly an exceptional NAF, with some of the most outstanding Reserve Citizen Airmen in the service, please take my challenge to heart and make sure you are doing everything you can to be “…Always There!”