The majority of the force entered the Air Force after Sept. 11, 2001, which means they’ve never experienced an Air Force that wasn’t at war. As operations in Iraq draw to a close later this year, senior leaders are trying to come up with ways to ensure this highly capable, combat-proven force remains motivated, said CMSAF James Roy Wednesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. “We have a dilemma. We keep talking about drawing this force down in Iraq. We will be drawing down in Afghanistan. The challenge for us leaders is how do we keep drawing those innovative young airmen to us and how do we keep them?” said Roy. Today’s airmen “can tell you what they did on their first deployment and even their eighth deployment, but how are we going to replicate that in the future.” Exercises may be the key, whether they are joint, coalition, interagency, or service-specific. That’s “what we need to continue to take all that training and all that development and put it to use,” he said.
The Air Force plans to have its new Integrated Capabilities Command stood up by the end of 2024, Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said May 2, offering new details of one of the signature reforms announced by the service earlier this year. Allvin said around 500-800 Airmen will…