On a visit to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, Air National Guard leaders—enlisted and officers—saw firsthand how the Pacific Air Forces base has tackled Total Force Integration, deciding it is a program to emulate. Brig. Gen. Mike Edwards, chairman of the Air Directorate Field Advisory Council, said, “Hawaii happens to be the leading edge in my opinion for all of the total force initiatives.” The ADFAC and its enlisted counterpart, the Enlisted Field Advisory Council, meet quarterly to discuss Air Guard issues. At Hickam, they got to see active and Air Guard working the beddown of the new C-17 airlifter and see how Hickam is applying the same sort of structure to its next acquisition, the F-22A stealth fighter.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
