Pentagon leader visits Columbus AFB

  • Published
  • By Sonic Johnson
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss --  The year of the Air Force Family; what does it mean? Columbus Air Force Base received a two-day visit from a Pentagon leader to help us understand the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff's year long initiative.
Mr. Horace "H.L." Larry, a member of the Senior Executive Service and is the Deputy Director of Air Force Services, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel, Headquarters U.S. Air Force visited the men and women of Columbus AFB Oct 22-23.
In his brief presentation to the leaders of the 14th Flying Training Wing, Mr. Larry succinctly outlined the goals of the initiative and its timeline. Mr. Larry noted that, while taking care of our people is nothing new to the Air Force or its leaders, our overarching goal for the Year of the Air Force Family (July 2009 - July 2010) is to: Strengthen partnerships to meet the changing needs and expectations of our Airmen, their families, and the larger Air Force family.
To assist in this effort, Mr. Larry met with three focus groups. He met with a group of spouses, senior noncommissioned officers and then met with single airmen to round out his first day.
Mr. Larry met with 13 spouses of both officers and enlisted base personnel. Spouses shared "war stories" of issues they have been encountering from deployment related Tri-Care problems, to information flow to identity theft. The spouse's issues and example were real, his sincerity at addressing/solving them was equally genuine. The 11 Sr. NCO's had come similarly prepared to discuss quality of life issues running from no dining facility to manpower shortages.
His last meeting of the day was in the Montgomery Village at the enlisted dorms where he met with nearly a dozen single Airmen to listen to their challenges of being a single Airmen on a small base in a small town.
Mr. Larry listened to them all and even shared some mentoring moments of things he had learned during his "one tour" in the Air Force. His 30 year "one tour" had taught him a lot of good lessons about focus and goals. He challenged them all to sit down and think of where and what they want to be in one year, five years and 20 years down the road and then to keep the focus to get there.
Mr. Larry spent the second day at an off-site with the Force Support Squadron providing them with leadership and career field information and insights from the Headquarters.
"Today's Airmen are highly motivated young men and women and they and their families deserve all we can do for them," said the West Point, Miss native. "We are all truly blessed to be in the best Air Force on the planet."
In addition to the off-site, Mr. Larry attended the formal graduation ceremony for Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training class 10-01, to see first-hand the results of the 14th Flying Training Wing mission.
"What a tremendous visit...my thanks to Colonel Ross and the entire team for their great hospitality!" concluded Mr. Larry.