Air Force Town Hall, Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, Gen. David Goldfein, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright.
Transcript
[Announcer] Welcome to the stage AFA’s, chairman of the board, the honorable Whit Peters. (uplifting orchestral music) (audience applauding)
Well, welcome, welcome back. I would’ve brought my band but I don’t have one. Thank you, on behalf of the Air Force Association, again, for your attendance here. The Air Force is 72 years old tomorrow. It is now, a much younger and more diverse military service than, perhaps, it has been, since World War II. It is a service, which is, really, defined by its culture and by the strength of its character and the constant evolution and striving to be innovative and modern and (murmurs) think about where we’re supposed to be in 2030. But, I’m confident, as I was 20 years ago, when I served, that nothing is useful in the Air Force, nothing will be done if our airmen and our families aren’t supported and cared for, in a way that recognizes them as the most important element of our Air Force. So, I’m particularly excited, to be able to MC this session, where we’re going to talk about airmen and their needs and take questions from the audience. We have on the stage, the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, Kaleth Wright, and his wife Tonya. (audience applauding) The Chief of Staff of the mightiest Air Force on earth, David Goldfein and his wife Dawn. (audience applauding) And, the acting secretary of the Air Force, Matt Donovan. (audience applauding) So, we are here today to have some engagement. We wanna answer your questions, I think… Normally, we have something that says, up there, where to text them (murmurs) will shortly. If you have questions for the panel, please send them to the number displayed on the screens and I will do my best to get through, as many as I can. I’m going to get things started with a couple of questions, which, we’ve already gotten. And, with this, I’m going to violate protocol order and turn to Dawn Goldfein, and answer this question. Every time, I PCS the household goods process gives me anxiety. (audience laughing) (laughs) Probably, more than than that, right? (Whit laughing) (audience applauding)
Yes, it does.
(laughs) Last year, the media reported challenges with contracting household goods, pickups and moving companies. What has been done to address this problem?
This is a great question, I get it a lot when my husband and I are on the road. It’s been an issue but I’ve really, got some great news today. So, the Air Force has partnered with the US Transportation Command, in an effort to improve our PCS move, so, right now, there’s an effort for our TMO to issue PCS orders, quickly, so that our airmen and their families can initiate their moves on a better timeline. The Air Force has directed in-person counseling by our TMO professionals. Instead of doing it online, this is now done face to face. This way, our airmen and their families understand their entitlements, their responsibilities and their roles. And, we’re holding our commercial carriers accountable. So, the DOD has instructed that we inspect all of our… 50% of all moves. The Air Force has elevated it to 80% of all moves. And if fact… Yes, applause. (audience applauding) Even better, they’re striving for 100%. So, the bottom line, the Air Force is working hard to ensure that all our airmen get a quality move, that they deserve. In fact, this last season, we had over 145,000 shipments. And, if you do the math, so, about 80% of that… So, about 116, over 116,000 were inspected. We had 19,000 thousand letters of warning and over 1100 letters of suspension. So, the Air Force is serious about holding the carriers accountable. But, there’s a couple of things, I think, that we can do as families, to help ourselves. First, after you PCS, fill out the survey forms. Your feedback is critical, for us to help, get this even better. And, secondly, if I could change lanes a little, you know, there’s three stressors in life, the three top, death, divorce and moving, right? So, we can help each others, ’cause we’re one big Air Force family, so, sign up to be a sponsor. I remember when, Dave and I had a move to a location that was considered, rather, undesirable. This, is about 15, 16 years ago. In fact, I remember one of his friends… We actually, had an assignment here to the pentagon and overnight, his assignment changed. And, his friend looked at him and said, “Whoa, “what you do, you made somebody mad, that you have to “go to this place”, (laughs). (Whit and audience laughing) So, we were pretty frightened about the move but we did it. Here’s what made all the difference in the world, our sponsors, their names were, Guy and Judy. When, we arrived, and it was an overseas location, when we arrived, they took us to dinner, they had three houses for us to look at, to live in, they took us to the school ’cause our daughters were in kindergarten and second grade. They welcomed us with open arms and that made all the difference. In fact, that particular assignment, is now one of our most favorite because, it was so memorable. But, our sponsors set the tone. And, secondly, if you see a moving van in your neighborhood on base, take over a box of donuts or a cup of coffee or something and just, say, “Man, I know what you’re going through, “here’s some banana bread.” (audience laughing) Or, a bottle of wine, maybe, I don’t know (laughs). (audience laughing) Right, we can help each other because we’re one bug Air Force family but good news on holding our commercial carriers accountable, thank you.
[Whit] Thank you. (audience applauding)
So, when I was secretary, 20, some odd years ago, we started privatized housing. We thought, that was going to be the solution, forever, for housing problems but as I read in the paper, that doesn’t seem to be the case and so, Mr Secretary, what are you doing to fix the housing? (audience laughing)
Well, first, Secretary Peters, thank you, for that. (Whit and audience laughing)
[Whit] You know, I wanted to make sure you had a hard problem before you go back to your regular role, here.
You know, our overarching concern is the health and a safety of all our airmen and their families in privatized housing and I think, what had evolved, over the years was, our airmen weren’t being listened to. And, for various reasons. And, misunderstandings with some wing commanders and the other leadership, on how privatized housing worked because it was very well advertised back when we first converted to it. In fact, before I retired, I was in housing on base that converted and the way they sold me was, they said, you didn’t have to mow your lawn anymore. So, (laughs) I’m like, “I’m in!” (audience laughing) But, you know, it had some growing pains and as it turns out, some of our airmen were unhappy with some of the work that needed to be done. They didn’t feel like they were listened to and so, they continued asking, until somebody started listening. So, what we ended up doing was, the Secretary Wilson and Chief Goldfein, at the time, ordered a 100%, safety and health review. That was back in February, so, make sure that there was 100% contact with everybody that lived in privatized housing. And, another thing that we discovered was, in the housing management offices, remember, we were in a period of budget decline and we thought that the privatized housing concept would, sort of, take care of itself. And, we realized that, you know, maybe we need a little bit more oversight in the housing management offices, so. And, working with congress and the chief, actually, put it in his, unfunded priorities list for the FY 20 budget, was to add more people, back into the housing management offices, so, we can have more oversight over the contractors and what they’re doing. A couple of other things came out of it, working with congress as well, too. One is a tenant bill of rights. We’re just about ready to release a tenant bill of rights. We’ve been working closely with the project owners and the privatized housing managers and with congress because they’re very interested in this, as well, too. So, once a quarter, the service secretaries, now, all meet with the project owners and our next one’s coming up early in October and we’ll get together. We’ll, kind of, go over what we feel they should be doing, in order to fulfill their obligations on their side of it and then, we’ll make sure that we provide the appropriate oversight at the housing management offices. And, there’s been some pockets of excellence, I would say, where some wing commanders have taken upon themselves. We’re rolling out new apps now, where, instead of calling somebody on the telephone at a housing management office and putting in a work order, you can actually, go to your phone and open an app and you can take a picture of what ever the problem is. Whether, it’s mold or something broken or something like that, you can send it in and then you can be continuously, updated on the status of that work order and then make sure that someone, comes out from the management office, after the project owner says that it’s closed down and then, to make sure that the tenant and the airmen or their family member is actually, satisfied with the way that the work order is. So, we’ve heard you, we’re putting a lot of emphasis on it and it’s not a one-and-done, we’re gonna continue to put emphasis on it, as well, to make sure that again, the number one objective is the health and safety of all our airmen in privatized housing.
Could I follow with one related question, which, I’ve gotten from the audience, which is, will BAH rates be increased to match, what current rent rates, currently are and to allow the housing to be kept in good repair?
Well, I think, that the OSV controller, actually, controls the controls the DAH housing rate, for all the regions around the country but one of the things that we’re looking at, in the tenant bill of rights, is the ability to withhold payment from the project owner if a work order or a house has not been remediated to the satisfaction of the tenant, as well, too. So, we’re working through the process on how that works. Is that the question that you…
Yeah, yeah, good, I guess this one’s for the chief. How would you recruit more women? Our branch has the most, at 20% but women make up more than 50% of the US population.
So, what we’re looking at and I know, General Major Leavitt is here somewhere, Jeannie, are you here, in the room? Oh, hey Jeannie, thanks. So, Commander of Air Force Recruiting Command. So, what we’re doing is, looking at, all of knowing, all the markets but how do we influence young women, young girls to want to see themselves in us, right? How do they look at the United States Air Force and actually, envision themselves in their future and their aspirations and look into the United States Air Force and how do we then, have that culture, that environment that embraces them, so that, they fell part of us, right? And, I had significant experience, as a dad, you know, early, when our two daughters were about 10 and 12. And, I was at Luke Air Force base, I was going through a recall on the F-16 and we were in line at a Schlotzsky’s, I remember, if those of you, who know that, right? Really, healthy restaurant, it’s a really good one, right?
[Woman] Did you have dinner that night?
I, yeah. And, in line with me, ’cause we were at Luke Air Force Base, were several women who were training in the F-16. I remember, oldest daughter looked at me, she was staring at them, then she looked at me and she stared at me, then she looked at me and she says, “Dad, what are they doing?” I said, “Well they’re getting a Shlotzky’s burger or something”, and she says, “No, no, what are they doing “in a flight suit?”. I said, “Well, they’re training to fly the F-16.” And, she looked at me and she says… My 12 year old daughter, (murmurs) “Girls can fly F-16s?” I says, “Honey, I’ve told you, there’s nothing you can’t do, “you can do anything”, right? So, here was the big lesson Dad, I could have said that until I was blue in the face, she had to see it, to believe it, right? She had to see herself, in a flight suit, to be a able to believe that there was a place for her in our Air Force, right? So, this is more than her flying, this is space, this is cyber, this is maintenance, this is defender, this is everything, how do we ensure that we’re a place, that women and young girls, see themselves joining? And, I’m pretty excited about some of the work that we’re doing, right now and it may sound, fairly tactical but I’ll tell ya, women have been wearing men’s equipment and uniforms for far too long, in our Air Force. (audience applauding) And, so, we have a full-time team, that’s working and designing gear. And, this is vests, this is uniforms, this is gear… I mean, we are an Air Force that 30%, every combat position is open to women, 30% of our Force is women, we need to grow that and so, everything we do to ensure that we are a place that women see themselves in, is work I think, that’s a absolutely, essential to our future. (audience applauding)
Let me go to Mrs. Wright for a moment. What are doing to better, prepare key spouse volunteers to bridge the communication gap between our units and our families.
Oh, big question, Don and I, both, are very passionate about the Key Spouse Program and we’re very thankful to the Key Spouse volunteers, who are out there, taking care of our airmen and their families. As a matter of fact, this morning we got to sit on a family resilience panel and hear from some key spouses and some of the wonderful things that they’re doing in their units so, I think, it was Natasha, Caitlin and Chelsea, if you’re here, thank you very much for sharing your stories and thank you for everything that you’re doing for our families out there. The Key Spouse Program has undergone a couple of different changes in the last few years. One of the most current changes, that we’re very excited about is the online key spouse training. So, key spouse volunteers can now, take the initial training online. I think, it consists of two webinars and eight self-paced modules, which is, very important for our key spouses, who, you know, need to take the training at their own pace. So, we’re very excited about this online training because it also, increases accessibility to key spouses that are geographically separated units, Air Force Reserve units and International Guard units and so, I feel like this is a big win for the Key Spouse Program. So, if there’s any key spouses for sergeants, commanders in the room, that have any questions about the online training you can reach out to your local AFRC. (audience applauding)
For a Chief Wright, now, I know you are working this but the question is, what are we doing to reduce the suicide rates?
So, obviously, suicide is a tough issue for us, right now. General Goldfein and I, asked each of the wing commanders to do, what we considered a resilience tactical pause, to just, stop for a minute, take a day and have some much needed dialogue. Let’s talk, let’s try to better, understand why our airmen, at such a extreme rate, this year, are choosing to take their own lives. Now, we didn’t believe that this one day pause, most people, probably, saw it as as stand-down. We do stand-downs quite often, safety stand-downs and other things, like that. We didn’t believe that, one day was going to be enough to solve this problem. Nor, do we believe that the answer to this problem, resides in the Pentagon, to be honest. Now, part of the responsibility does belong to us. To myself, General Goldfein, Brigadier General Tudor, Chief Barbee and the A1Z Integrated Resilience team to gather some of the data. Certainly, it belongs to us here on the stage, to remove some of the barriers and sometimes, some of barriers include, various parts of the mission. Some of the feedback that we’ve gotten, is people are overworked, people are tired, people are undermanned and under resourced, so, we understand that part. But, I believe the greatest impact that we all can have as a force on keeping our airmen from choosing to take their own lives is the culture that we create within the squadrons or the organizations where they reside. And, that’s a leadership issue and that’s a team and wing men issue and so, we have to continue to figure out better ways to connect and really, to listen. So, when we decided to do this pause, pretty quickly, maybe a day or two afterwards, a Facebook page popped up. And, this page is called, Air Force Wingmen Outreach. Anybody, familiar? (audience members murmuring) So, it was probably, two weeks ago, last I checked, 30,000 airmen have become a part of this community and they are giving their testimonials and telling their stories about this topic. It’s mostly about suicides and why. And, there’s some concerns about our mental health system and people have reached out and the system… Our own Air Force mental health system as well as, Military’s OneSource, has not been responsive or has not met their needs. Some, actually, pretty appalling stories. There’s been some concerns over the stigma that still exists around suicide. Some of it from the Air Force in fear of losing a clearance or being DNF’d or DNG’d or DNA’D if you are a defender and then, some of it from the social stigma that exists. Not, what the Air Force thinks but what my team mates might think if I have to take knee, if I’m unable to go. But, frankly, if you’ve been paying attention to what airmen are saying, they’re mostly talking about us. They’re talking about leadership and leadership being toxic and leadership not being able to connect and leadership not caring or being concerned. So, this is a real opportunity for us to listen. To not, necessarily, be judgemental about how they feel but really, to listen and see how we can best meet the needs of some of our airmen that are… This is not all about grit and resilience and some of those things, I mean, we have some airmen that are struggling and suffering with some real tough issues. Depression, anxiety and some of the other ills in life. So, I think, that we have a real opportunity here to listen and be responsive, right now and in the future, figure out how we can prevent airmen from getting to the point, you know, you hear General Goldfein talk about it all the time. They leave basic training, very hopeful and then pretty quickly, they get to being hopeless. And, really, that’s us, that’s on us to figure out what things we should be doing better. I have an opportunity to interact with quite a few airmen, who thought about taking their own lives and they didn’t. And, I can tell you, I can count on my pinky, the number of airmen who said, “The reason I didn’t was, “some program or some process or some “video or some training.” Every single one of them, said “It was because of “this person, this supervisor, this commander, this person, “that I connected with, that showed some interest in me “and my well-being and that was why “I made the decision that I made.” So, you know, we have to do this together. Leadership, myself, Joan Goldfein, all of our match com and senior level officials, yep, we have to make sure that we clear out as much of the chaff as we can, to allow airmen the space to be able to do their jobs and have a little downtime and be resilient. But, the folks who are out there on the front lines needing… You know, people don’t wake up every morning thinking about us, up here at this table. They think about the folks that they have to go into work with every single day, first-line supervisors, team mates and that’s where. I think, we’ll make the greatest difference.
Chief, let me follow up for one question (mumbles) the audience on the standard form, 86 question 21. (murmurs) about being treated for mental problems, presents a barrier, seeking mental health care. Is it worth it or can that question, go away? Has anybody, looked at that?
I didn’t hear the question?
[Whit] Is standard form 86, security clearance, according to this questioner, question 21, asks about, have you ever been treated for mental illness and asks, “Can something be done about that?” I mean, if you have a security clearance, which, certainly don’t want to admit that you’ve been treated for mental illness, if you’re… Somebody, thinking about this, might not seek treatment if they’re worried about it.
So, I don’t know that it’s the right answer for the question to go away because it probably is, in terms of whether someone should have a clearance, depending on what role they’re in. I’m not sure it’s prudent to just get rid of the question and pretend like it doesn’t exist. There probably, need to be some reform in the review portion of what the question is really, trying to get after and how we might use that information to determine what someone’s clearance should be.
Right, another one for Mrs. Goldfein. I was pleasantly surprised the other day, as (murmurs) help a spouse returning from Europe, get a law job in Washington, where you need to be a member (mumbles) and she said, “Well, that’s not really a problem because the Air Force is going to pay for it.” And, I thought, wow, that’s pretty good. So, what is happening with professional licensing for military spouses?
Actually, as you might know that, the National Defense Authorization Act, authorizes all the services to now, reimburse spouses, up to $500 for relicensing or re-certification and the Air Force, actually, signed on this on the 13th of May, 2019. Yes, and so, yeah. (audience applauding) So far, we’ve had about 80 spouses file a claim and get reimbursed but the good news is it’s a total force initiative. So, it’s regular Air Force, it’s Air Force Reserve and Air Force National Guard, on Title 10 orders. The program, pays up to, like I said, $500 for every qualifying move, from state to state. And, additionally, this is really good news. So, spouses, you can actually, file a claim for reimbursement, dating back to 12 December 2017, for a qualifying change of duty station. So, if you want more information about this, you can go to your Airmen and Family Readiness centers. And, I am so glad that this is taking place. I bet there are a lot of spouses out there. I’m a certified school teacher and my certification’s from the state of Texas. There were many places I couldn’t teach because I couldn’t… Well, first of all, my husband didn’t stay in one place for very long and I never met the requirements to get a new certification at any other state but it really, limited my career as a school teacher and like many spouses, my career is pretty spotty. So, I’m very excited about this new program and I hope a lot of spouses, take advantage of it.
Thank you, so, I think, this is probably for Chief Goldfein, as the Air Force is looking at redesigning the Officer Promotion System, is something being done to try and weed out toxic leaders?
Everyday. (audience applauding) Yeah, absolutely, everyday. So, again, it goes to, what do we value, right? What we value and I’ve talked about that, earlier but just a quick repeat, right, so, what do we value? We value how you accomplish your mission. How you lead the airmen that’s entrusted to your care. Sacred, sacred duty. How do you manage the resources that are required to do the mission and have you improved your unit, all riding on a foundation of impeccable character? Now, that’s the frame work for which, we are moving forward. The substance of your question is, what do we do when we find someone that’s not up to standards? And, we’re looking across. This is the discussion, I’m gonna have with the wing commanders at the end of this week, right? Is, to ensure that we understand that we’re all in the launch business, every one of us, as leaders, is in the launch business and the question is, who are we launching? Do we launch those who just, look and sound like us, in the key leadership position or do we truly value diversity as a joint war fighting imperative? And, as we launch folks, everyone of us in the launch business, actually, has a red guarded switch on the console, that’s the destruct button. And, when someone we launch like a rocket or missile starts going of course and looks like it may damage a population it’s time for us to pull the red guarded switch. That’s on all of us, to make sure that we don’t allow toxic leaders to get into position of authority. Do they sometimes exist? Yes. Are we doing somewhat better at weeding them out? I certainly, hope so. And, now (mumbles) ready to declare victory, I can just tell you, it’s a point of significant focus and yes, by the way, we are looking at 360’s and how we use those in a positive manner, to ensure that every leader that we’re focused on and developing is also aware of their own limitations and that the self-improvement that’s going on, is taking place.
The… Go back to Mrs Wright for a minute if I could. I heard that there were changes to respite care, can you tell me more about that?
Another great question, thank you. I don’t have all of the details but the respite care program is a great program. This program means a lot to me because it assists with families of the EFMP, the Exceptional Family Care Program. And, so, the respite care program, what it does, is, it provides specialized child care, short term child care to those families but because we all know how difficult it is to be a care giver and the stressors that come along with being a care giver, so, the respite program provides child care relief to those families to help to relieve some of that stress. And, so, last year around this time, the respite care program increased from 12 hours to 40 hours, which, is a huge win for families. We’ve got a family that lives on Andrew’s, that’s friends with us, the Horns. The Horns has a child who needs round the clock care and so this increase in hours is a huge win for families, such as the Horns and other families out there, that has an exceptional family member.
Let me (mumbles) give another one to the Acting Secretary, (laughs) it’s a great question. To be successful, or make General, do I have to PCS 21 times like the chief and if so, why? (audience laughing)
Well, 21 times, I thought it was 20 (murmurs). You know, one of things that we try to do, especially, when you look at the general officers and I’ll let the chief look at this but, you know, what does the word general mean, right? I mean, we need to have leaders that have broad experiences across, so, one of the ways you do that, probably, is not by staying at one place for half your career, so. But, one the other hand , there is some value in continuity and being able to gain some depth and experience in your career, as well, too. I know, on the Enlisted Force, they tend to not move as much and you’d be able to gain some depth but we’ll… And, Chief Wright, I’m not sure, how many times you’ve PCS’d, 21?
[Chief Wright] Not 21.
No, not 21? So, but I’ll let the chief add on to that, as far as, developing general officers. (Whit laughing)
Sir, I’d like to clarify, we’ve had 19 assignments, not that I’m counting, we’ve had 19 assignments and 21 moves, so, two moves were self inflicted. Why wouldn’t you do two more, right? (laughs) (audience and panel laughing)
This is, actually, one of the benefits, as we close-out the summer discussion on development categories and moving from, sort of, a one size fits all, for competition for promotion and looking at each development category to identify, what is it that we value, as an institution within that category and then, how do we develop that office recur for what we need and more importantly, the nation needs. And, so, there may be, in certain categories, as we work through that, that PCSing is more more important for that particular category then others. The beauty of it is, now, we have the flexibility to define that, where, in the past, you know, everybody was being graded against, one size fits all metric and that’s not necessarily, in-line with what we value as an institution.
This one, I think, is for Chief Wright. I attended one of your town halls, where you spoke of changes in the PT test, what do expect to change and when?
So, where in a process with our A1 team of, kind of, reviewing some of the changes that we need with our fitness test and that includes, getting credit for a mock test, getting some separation between the time that you take the abdominal circumference and the time that you actually, take the other components. So, we’re looking at somewhere between seven days, anywhere, from seven to 30 days, in between that process. All things that’ll make the test itself more palatable but frankly, I wish that all of us as an Air Force would spend more time, throughout the year, talking about health, fitness, nutrition, sleep. The things that really matter, vice the amount of time and effort and energy that we spend on the test. The test is important for us to validate the basic level of health and fitness of our airmen but I think, we’d gain, much more… We’d become a much more, fit an healthy force if we spent more time focusing on those things, during your couching and counseling and feedback sessions. Putting programs in place and creating space for people to be able work out, educating them about health, fitness and nutrition. So, we’ll keep plugging away at the things that will help make the test more palatable but again, frankly, I think we’d be better off, if each of us, as individuals decide that, hey, I’m an Air Force, I’m an airman and fitness is part of my duty and responsibility and I understand that it’s challenging for some and certainly, if all of us, as leaders decided that, hey, just like I need to make sure, my airmen are mission ready and they understand how to do their jobs, I’m also going to make sure that they are fit and healthy with whatever, that means and by whatever, means I’m able to make that happen, as a leader. And, then I think, again we’ll all improve from a readiness standpoint and all the things that we use for fitness, as an indicator.
I said that, so far tonight, after the wing commanders conference, I’ll jump on an airplane, fly to (mumbles), join General Bunch and we’ll get up in the morning and run the Air Force half marathon together. Now, I’ve been training for three months. You can clock me with a calendar. (audience laughing) I do not intent to turn in, like a really, really, great time but point is, I’m gonna use that to kick off a campaign on setting the expectations for commander fitness. It will be the expectation, it is the expectations. My expectation as your chief to tell you that, if you are a commander in the United States Air Force, you are fit, there’s no other discussion, right? (audience applauding) Because, I don’t know when I’m gonna task you, as a commander, to deploy to Djibouti or Estonia or somewhere in the Pacific and expect you to perform the functions of a expeditionary commander in a 120 degrees heat or a 30 below zero. I just, know this, that’s not the time to start your fitness program. (audience laughing) And, I expect to lead this, top down. I’m not gonna ask you to do, what I’m not willing to do and I’m expecting you not to ask your airmen what you’re not willing to do. And, so, if you’re a commander in the United States Air Force, hear me loud and clear, you’re on a fitness program and then if you’re a squadron commander in the United States Air Force, unit fitness, is part of the five elements of how you’re graded on a successful command tour. Mission… (audience applauding) Here’s the five elements, it’s mission, it’s culture, it’s fitness, it’s family and it’s fun. Those are the five elements of a command tour and fitness is key and we’ll lead this from the top down. (audience applauding)
This is a question, I think, for either Mrs Goldfein or Mrs wright. What’s your assessment of, how well the Air Force is educating military children and if it’s not great, what’s gonna be done about it?
We’re just… She might chime in, so, this is a team effort. So, the quality of education for our children is very important to all of us. How many mothers and fathers are out there, I mean, this… Go ahead, raise your hands high. This is something that’s important to most of us. So, one of things that we’ve done lately, is, we’ve realigned our school liaison officers. From the Airmen and Family Readiness centers, to the child and youth services and the reason for that is, that we’re trying to ensure that all sloughs or the school liaison officers are receiving the same quality training. We now, have, let’s see, 85 locations with school liaison officers, right now. We’ve also… And by the way, school liaison officers are there to help our children during the PCS season and also, to assist families and provide resources for them. Another thing, that the Air Force has done is, we’ve partnered with the Military Child Education Coalition, MCEC and we have over 50, excuse me, training sessions in the Air Force, where MCEC will go out an train the educators and the parents in Air Force communities to talk about some important issues and discuss education with them and to help educators understand what our military children go through. Especially, during deployments. We’ve, also have a pilot program, right now, called, Anchored for Life. So, it’s in four schools, I think, most of them are in the San Antonio, Texas area and so, we’re anxious to see, how this program comes about. And, we have 200 child and youth behavioral, military life counselors embedded in the schools, right now. And, these counselors are there to help our children with some heavy issues, like bullying. Also, to talk about self esteem, talk about divorce and of course deployments. So, I think we’re making great strides to help our children. Thank you for the question.
So, I’m going to combine three or four questions, I got from the floors, as we’re about, out of time. And, the question starts with a statement. The Goldfeins and the Wrights are the gold standard. They are the dream team, how do we make sure, the next team is just as good? (audience laughing) (audience applauding) I actually, have an answer and that is, we’re going to offer the next team up here, the exclusive AFA socks, which, we’ve offered to everybody on this panel. (laughs) Chief, I didn’t mean to cut you off.
Yeah, so, real quick, I feel pretty confident that the leadership team that we’ve both built around us, so, the match com and combatant commanders, as well as, the match com and combatant command senior enlisted leaders is chock full of super-sharp, focused, passionate leaders, who actually, care about our Air Force, just as much as we do. And, so, the pool that we will have to choose from, for the next chief and the next chief (murmurs) Air Force, I think, is filled with people who are just like us, just as passionate as us and I think because both of us… And, I get an opportunity to watch the boss, pretty regularly, both of us, we have a style that’s very collaborative and so, when we move on things, we’re pretty certain that everybody in the room are, at least, on the same page, so, I don’t think, there would be a drop off, a huge drop off with either one of us, unless, they don’t like social media and then… (audience and panel laughing) It might be a challenge.
Well, with that, let’s thank the panel. (audience and Whit applauding) And, wear those socks proudly, I’m told they’re gonna become a uniform item soon (laughs). (audience laughing) Thank you, very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we now, invite you to go to the exhibit hall and enjoy afternoon coffee. The sessions will resume…