Missed the CC Call Friday? Published Feb. 23, 2016 By SSgt Jeremy McGuffin 19AW 23 Feb 2016 -- Did you miss the Commander's Call Friday? If so, here is your chance to catch up on the questions and answers from all three of the commanders call sessions, paraphrased for your convenience. Q: What is our Black Knight's name? A: Our mascot, the mighty Black Knight, is named Rodney. Q: What is the most important thing you hope to achieve in your time as 19 AW Commander? A: If we can have individual unit pride and individual unit connection with the combat airlift mission, I'll feel successful. If I leave here and I know that you felt appreciated, that you knew your relevance; that you knew your role when times got tough and things weren't great, but you understood why you were doing what you were doing, that it was worth it to you and you were still allowed to take leave, finish your degree and continued to personally and professionally develop yourselves, I will call that successful. I see deliberate action for the future development of our future Air Force leaders happening within our wing. That is what I call successful. Q: What is the progress with the runway construction? A: Right now the assault runway demolition is complete and the construction is beginning. There is the sequencing of subcontracts that we are working through that is affecting the timing of construction and there have been some challenges, but we will continue to train for and execute combat airlift. This is a massive project, but the leadership team is working to minimize impact. Q: If the network is shut down because of a CCRI failure, how do bases accomplish the mission? Is it a form of punishment or an AF policy? A: Just as if there was a power outage, we keep fighting, we keep accomplishing our mission. We will do what we have done in the past to accomplish our mission and go back to doing things by hand. The mission doesn't stop, but the main goal is to not be shut down during this CCRI. Take care of the items we can control for the CCRI and we should not have this problem. It is incumbent on every individual to do their part whether it is completing CBTs, safeguarding your CAC, or keeping your system updated. Q: What will you do to ensure people take their CACs out of their machines during the CCRI? A: As the base commander, I trust each and every unit to make sure they are following the rules and regulations. So, instead of saying what I will do, I ask you: what will you do? I hope the answer is that you will be a Wingman and that you will help uphold our rules and regulations. I ask that you will execute diligence and increase your situational awareness. This is something that units can change. If you see a CAC card left in the computer, go ahead and pull it out. Help keep each other at the top of our game and together we will succeed! Q: Will the base receive any new mission sets and is there a chance for mission growth at LRAFB? A: There is absolutely a chance for mission growth! During the Secretary of the Air Force visit, the Air National Guard highlighted their ability to host a cyber mission and this growth could potentially open the doors for more opportunities for the Active Duty side of the house. While the decision if we will receive a new mission set is out of our hands, I believe that we are capable and more than ready. With our partnerships, Team Little Rock is changing how LRAFB is seen. We continually highlight that although we have had twelve different missions in our history, we always provide excellence and we work with our community partners to complete our mission with the utmost professionalism. Q: How is Little Rock and AMC intending to address the continuous drain of talent and resources to RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) requirements? A: I've asked AMC to stop taking our young pilots who don't have a chance to develop. I don't like losing talent, but we are not alone in this fight. I've asked that they take a strategic look into how they acquire pilots across the Air Force and through the pipeline. Our goal should always be the purposeful development of individuals, but we must always balance our ideal course of action with the needs of the Air Force. Q: Will we be able to open carry or allow personal weapons in personal vehicles on base? A: No. There are no immediate plans to change the current policy. Safety of all personnel on base is my utmost concern, and we must allow our highly-trained Defenders to effectively complete their mission. It is difficult to come up with a comprehensive policy concerning conceal-carry on base that ensures our Defenders are able to keep everyone safe in an active shooter scenario. With multiple individuals on base with weapons who are not on the radios with our Security Forces, it can be difficult for our Defenders to differentiate between the active shooter and a legal conceal-carry license holder responding to that threat. This makes it extremely difficult for our outstanding Defenders to accomplish their mission of keeping our base community safe and it places those individuals who are attempting to help in more danger. I have faith in our Defenders and based on how they handled our recent active shooter incident, they deserve your faith in them too. Q: What can be done with the traffic congestion in the morning and will the traffic policy change to have staggered report times? A: I don't think we are at the point to mandate staggered arrival or departure times. In fact, within the last 10 days the time to get on base has decreased significantly during peak rush times. We believe that with acclimation to the two-lane policy, things will continue to get better and we will improve not only the flow of traffic on base but the safety of those driving to and from work as well. We will continue to revisit and adjust the new system with small tweaks, including continuing the two-lane operations during those peak times. Additionally, we are in discussion with our community partners for continued growth in the local area. There is talk that the highway between Mayflower and Cabot will change to facilitate higher volumes of traffic more efficiently. But even the City of Jacksonville is working in partnership with us to better facilitate traffic near our base. Jacksonville officials are looking at new ways of constructing the on and off-ramps to the highways to ensure safety of all drivers. Our partnerships allow us to solve a larger puzzle within the community instead of individually focusing on the puzzle, each with only a portion of the pieces. Q: Can the flight line ball park lighting be turned up? A: The ball park lighting can be turned up; however, it is purposeful action that the ball park lighting is turned down. The guidance for the ball park lighting comes from security requirements; it was turned down with SFS consent in order to support NVG operations after multiple requests from all of the base's flying organizations. The current configuration meets all base requirement and aircrew need. We believe that we have found the balance between ideal ramp lighting for ground personnel and the darkness required for aircrew training, but if we are missing something and there is still a safety concern, I ask you to feed that information to your unit leadership. There are better lighting capabilities available that are taller and reflect down but the challenge is funding. Q: What is status of base theater? A: The base theater is currently under construction due to a roofing leak and it is estimated to be completed this May. How the theater will be utilized once completed is currently under discussion to ensure it meets contractual agreements and local demand. Q: Is there an end game to the deployments to the sandbox or will we be trading on and off with Dyess for eternity? A: Regardless of our mission's location, we will continue to partner with Dyess to provide combat airlift. Our mission requires us to constantly and consistently provide that airlift and partnering with Dyess has been the way we have operated and will likely be the way we continue to operate. We will always be in sync with each other to support the combatant commanders and manage the impact on our personnel. Q: What are you doing to promote spouse involvement? A: We have an active key spouse program now that has grown in leaps and bounds. We are asking in the Newcomers' briefings for spouses to get involved and to help strengthen our Air Force family. But it is also on you to pass on the information to spouses and to bring our bigger TLR family closer together. Q: Will any DoD flying teams (I.e. Blue Angels) be participating in the Open House? A: Unfortunately, due to the runway construction we are unable to support DoD flying teams but we will be sure to highlight the great things each of you contributes to the mission. We are hoping to showcase not only the outstanding airpower of LRAFB, but also the military power that resides in Arkansas. By pairing with our military partners for all branches and functions, we can host a first-class event despite our limitations. Our Open House will be an excellent chance to further develop our strong partnerships with the community. We would not have been able to complete the 12 missions LRAFB has had since its inception without our community, and inviting them onto LRAFB will allow us to show them what they support on a daily basis. Q: Are the rumors of the 314 MXG closing true? A: This is pretty new, and there is little definitive information yet. This has just come out and I've asked the chain of command for more information. The current information is that there will be some sort of contract maintenance changes for day-to-day operations and this should begin late summer and per the Pentagon's vision, will be fully enacted by the end of 2017. The exact impact on the Little Rock team is still being determined. However, our team is strong and made up of a variety of individuals. We will continue to function as a team that shows high standards of excellence as we continue to complete our mission of combat airlift, anywhere, anytime. As we get more information, we will be sure to share it with you.