Airline Stocks – DVIDS – News – PACAF leadership conducts JBER immersion tour

U.S. Air Force Gen. Ken Wilsbach, Pacific Air Forces commander, and Chief Master Sgt. David Wolfe, PACAF command chief, visited Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, for an immersion tour Feb. 12-18, 2021.

The tour, which marked the first since both Wilsbach and Wolfe took their positions, informed PACAF leadership about the installation’s role in readiness and defense in the Arctic through visiting facilities, receiving briefing on projects, meeting Airmen from various units and recognizing outstanding performers.

One stop was at the Joint Arctic Spark Lab, an innovation initiative which allows the base to posture itself for the future through new creative solutions to problems.

“I’m big on innovation and I think Airmen of all ranks have some fantastic ideas,” Wilsbach said. “I got a chance to stop by the Spark Lab and it really encouraged me. Some fantastic things are already done, but they’re working on some new innovations. I encourage the young members of our team here at JBER to continue to forward your ideas up your chain of command. I want to see those innovations take place, especially in ways that improve quality of life, our capability to project air power and save resources.”

Throughout the visit, Wilsbach and Wolfe spoke about the installation’s importance regarding training capabilities and its relation to real-world missions.

“Alaska, and the base here specifically, is such a strategically important location because of the access to the world-class training ranges that exist here in the state,” Wolfe said. “Nowhere else can we bring together the kind of resources and assets in a close proximity where we have the ability to train with allies and partners, which is a huge part of our national defense strategy.”

Wilsbach also credits the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex for part of the state’s training importance.

“The training capability here in Alaska is second to none,” Wilsbach said.

The JPARC is enormous, Wilsbach continued. The 5th-generation forces PACAF has at JBER and Eielson Air Force Base need that training space, and partner nations come to the JPARC frequently from other parts of the Indo-Pacific to train with our forces which allows JBER units to be interoperable.

“We need that interoperability with our allies and partners, and the ranges in Alaska allow us to do that,” Wilsbach said.

Both Wilsbach and Wolfe have completed multiple assignments at JBER which gave them an in-depth perspective into the strategic importance of the base in regards to the changing Arctic.

Part of the tour highlighted the steps the Eleventh Air Force is taking to train its Airmen on the Arctic and their role in maintaining a free and open domain.

“Over the next decade what I hope to see is an expansion and further refinement of the 11th Air Force’s new Arctic Leader Qualification Program,” Wolfe said. “The Air Force recently released their first ever Arctic Strategy and the 11th Air Force jumped on board and created an initiative called ‘Professionalizing Arctic Service.’ What this does is gives us credit for things that we are already doing, and kind of expands the aperture to get some of those strategic-level thought processes down to the junior-enlisted Airmen as they come into Alaska for the first time. They start to understand what being an Arctic Airman is about. There will be opportunities for them to have training that they didn’t have before, and really solidify our position as one of the leaders here in the Arctic.”

Overall, Wilsbach stressed that the strategic importance of JBER cannot be understated.

“[U.S. Army Gen.] Billy Mitchell said way back in the early 1900s that whoever controls Alaska controls the world,” Wilsbach said. “If you look at the globe and you see where Alaska is situated, you can see that in about nine hours [you can] fly to just about every capital city in the northern hemisphere. That’s important from a standpoint of projecting power – we are Airmen and we employ airpower – we can get there fast. That’s why Alaska is strategically important.”

After the tour, PACAF leadership remarked on what impressed them about the base since their assignments here.

“What I am impressed with the most is even though we are now starting the first quarter of year two of COVID-19, is this base and the Airmen assigned here are ready to execute the mission,” Wolfe said. “We have fought through a very challenging year. It was a different way to operate, we had to figure out a lot of different ways to do business but at the end of the day we are still ready to go. There is a great deal of satisfaction that comes from being able to do our jobs even though we had a lot of challenges placed in our way.”