Not Telling the Story

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

Not Telling the Story: The Air Force isn’t doing a good job of telling its story and getting people in the defense community, Congress, and the nation to understand what it does and why that’s so important, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference outside Washington D.C. In his first major AFA address, Welsh said even he doesn’t understand “what all the terminology means;” that the jargon and doctrine keeps changing and that makes the service’s missions impenetrable to those outside the community. “And we do it for good reasons, but I’m telling you, everybody doesn’t understand what we’re doing,” he said. Partners in other services count on the Air Force but don’t know how it does its mission, and don’t appreciate the vast investment needed to keep it functioning, Welsh said. Without air superiority, for example, “everything” about how the other services structure, operate, and even recruit “would have to change,” Welsh said. “The Air Force matters; it’s important that we tell that story,” he asserted. The Air Force isn’t more important than any other service, Welsh argued, “but we’re just as critical.”

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org