Dover’s mobility Airmen directly support war – at home and abroad

  • Published
  • By Col. Steven Harrison
  • 436th AW commander
Full-spectrum excellence; a passion for continuous process improvement; yes-oriented leadership; top-down and bottom-up communication; mutual support; front-line supervision with a personal touch ... most of you have heard me talk about all these themes at one time or another.

It's a message I share with every First Term Airmen's Center class. It's typically the first thing I discuss with new squadron commanders. It's a theme during my luncheons with the first sergeants and Chief's Group. It's the way I measure our organization.

In the Global War on Terror, Air Mobility Command Airmen, Team Dover Airmen in particular, are engaged on more fronts than any other organization ... often with lives at stake. At home, our Airmen are moving critical channel and contingency cargo to warfighters faster, in more volume and with more precision than nearly any other organization in the world.

That's what Global Reach is about, and it distinguishes us from any other Air Force in the world.

In the Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom theaters, air-mobility sorties constitute the vast majority of flying missions. Since Sept. 11 we have flown nearly 980,000 sorties and, through our air convoys, we are removing an estimated 3,900 trucks and 9,400 servicemembers from the roads of Iraq every month.

Combine that with more than 15,000 aeromedical-evacuation sorties flown since Sept. 11, and you can easily see why airlift is one of the most valuable resources for every combatant commander.

On the ground, our Airmen are engaged in conducting convoys, building third-world infrastructure, standing up Iraqi and Afghan justice systems, training the Iraqi air force, launching and loading life-saving missions, aiding with detention facilities, providing safe harbors for all servicemembers and much, much more.

Excellence must be our watchword, because our mission involves saving lives and conducting the Global War on Terror at the enemy's doorstep. We must get it right every time - at home and abroad.

We must be better today than we were yesterday, and better tomorrow than we are today. The mission demands and America deserves the best fighting forces in the world.

No organization embodies the spirit of full-spectrum excellence or passion for continuous-process improvement, more than Team Dover. Monday we'll have a chance to prove it when AMC sends their Installation Excellence Inspection Team to look at the way we do business.

We're already one of the top three wings in AMC; now we'll have a chance to show them that we are the most creative, innovative and mission-focused warriors in the entire Command!

Then Tuesday through Thursday, we'll have another chance to demonstrate our world-class leadership in Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, lean and continuous-process improvement. We've been selected to host the Air Force's first-ever AFSO 21 Senior Leader training course. Twenty-seven senior officers from across the Air Force will be learning the concepts, and reviewing Dover successes, in the AFSO 21 realm.

Saving lives, delivering freedom and fighting more effectively by leading AMC in full-spectrum excellence - another reason why Team Dover is America's Preeminent Expeditionary Airlift Team!