The Global Strike Journey

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

Air Force Global Strike Command is on a journey to change its culture, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, who oversees the major command. What started out as the Force Improvement Program—an ad hoc initiative launched to improve issues in the missileer force following a cheating scandal at Malmstrom AFB, Mont.—has morphed into what Wilson is calling the “Continuous Force Improvement Philosophy,” which he said is intended to empower airmen every day. “Our job, whether it be at 20th Air Force or headquarters, is to remove the barriers to our airmen’s success” and then “let them do their job,” Wilson told Air Force Magazine in a Jan. 9 interview. “That may be policy, procedure, [or] people that are encumbering them from mission accomplishment,” he said. He used the example of a squadron lieutenant who suggests a way to improve training and then later sees his suggestion come to fruition. Suddenly, said Wilson, that lieutenant has a personal buy-in. “That’s why I believe this program will live on,” said Wilson. “This isn’t my program, or [20th AF Commander Maj. Gen. Jack] Weinstein’s program. This is a program owned by airmen.” (For more coverage of Wilson’s interview, see Closing the One-Room Schoolhouse.)

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