ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- August marked Lt. Gen. John P. Healy’s two-year anniversary as the dual-hatted commander of Air Force Reserve Command and chief of the Air Force Reserve. Since assuming command, he has released two TASKORDs that detail his expectations for every Airman to own his or her individual and family readiness with an eye to future mission requirements. In this commentary, Healy and his senior enlisted advisor, Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez, take a look back at the commander’s second year.
AFR Readiness
We are readying Airmen through realistic training, including Agile Combat Support and Agile Combat Employment events to mobilize and deploy with less than 72 hours’ notice. We are building organic training centers to simulate realistic combat scenarios to train Reservists, multinational allies and partners, sister services and civil authorities. Since last year, Reserve Airmen have supported 58 exercises around the globe, a significant number considering most of our force is part-time.
The Department of Defense Rim of the Pacific exercise this summer saw 563 Reservists from 25 units participate alongside 25,000 troops from the United States and 29 partner nations. They evaluated disaster relief, maritime security, sea control and complex warfighting around the Hawaiian Islands. During one of the RIMPAC events, Reserve A-10s successfully targeted and struck a floating ship using manually calculated impact distance, angle and delay.
In July, 90 Reserve Airmen of the 477th Fighter Group took part in Exercise Air Defender Alaska, a first-of-its-kind NATO-led exercise with German, French and Spanish allies. This exercise in the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex increased allied familiarization with fifth-generation aircraft capabilities and serves as part of our ongoing preparation for conflict should deterrence fail.
We routinely participate in humanitarian aid as well as rescue and support to civil authorities. In May, the 920th Rescue Wing airlifted a critical patient from a cruise ship with exceptional speed, delivering life-saving assistance six hours ahead of other response teams. In October 2023, 779 Reserve Airmen accomplished 68,000 man-days in response to a humanitarian emergency in the Levant in under 24 hours and provided urgent relief to many civilians.
This past year, Reserve Airmen provided more than 500,000 man-days in support of Regular Air Force missions and many continue to provide short-notice intelligence analysis, cyber security, airlift, air superiority, aircraft maintenance and force protection support to Ukraine and our NATO allies.
More than 3,300 Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Reserve Airmen support every Air Force major command as well as all our nation’s functional and geographic combatant commands, providing commanders with decision advantage against pacing threats.
Readiness extends beyond exercises … the Air Force Reserve recruits Airmen, but we retain families. The AFR continues to mitigate barriers to service with programs like ARC Athena, which has helped leadership address specific burdens affecting families.
Thanks to input from ARC Athena participants, affordable childcare during Unit Training Assemblies is an ongoing priority. The Air Force Home Community Care Program has provided 97,501 hours of childcare to 882 families at a cost to the Air Force of just under $1 million.
Beyond the HCC, we have leveraged additional childcare resources for Reservists through Military OneSource, the Air Force Child Care Fee Assistance Program and the Department of the Air Force Child and Youth Programs. The Reserve is also building childcare partnerships with the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Transforming for the Future
We must transform for Great Power Competition by building combat wings as the leading edge of conflict for our Air Force. We will establish combat wings for every Air Force Force Generation cycle beginning with 27.1 in October 2026. Each wing will include a leadership staff intimately familiar with its unique mission and capabilities, allowing Reserve Airmen to be the Air Force’s definitive combat wing experts.
Modernization requires us to close technological gaps between Reserve and RegAF capabilities. One initiative is to integrate our data transformation and decision superiority efforts with the Department of the Air Force. These data analytic tools allow leaders to understand the wider impact of operational choices.
At the same time, we are fielding data tools through the AFRC App Store which are tailored to the specific needs of Reserve units, such as orders funding and readiness challenges. This kind of data dominance is a crucial element of our transformation for the future of Great Power Competition.
Enlisted Force Development
As part of our transformation, we are also restructuring how we develop enlisted leaders. We are aware of the challenges associated with attending important enlisted development opportunities while balancing civilian and military obligations.
For this reason, we are partnering with civilian academia to create on-demand enlisted development courses led by retired Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force Kaleth Wright and JoAnne Bass. Also, we have programmed $10 million to build in-residence Airmanship Foundations Courses hosted at individual bases. And, together with the Air National Guard, the AFR is rebuilding Airman Leadership School, the Non-Commissioned Officer Academy and Senior NCO Academy to mirror officer distance learning courses.
Our focus on Great Power Competition requires our enlisted force development to include international allies. One initiative to address this is the International Leadership Senior NCO Course. Through this, senior NCOs from five nations – Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Canada – have joined American senior NCOs at Lackland AFB, Texas, to facilitate strategic leadership growth, education and information sharing that benefits our partnerships.
In addition to education, the Reserve is improving talent management for the next generation of enlisted leaders. The Stripes for Exceptional Performers II program now accounts for career field vacancies and member readiness. We are also broadening opportunities with the Enlisted Developmental Education Board to prioritize Airmen who have not attended a developmental course in the past 24 months.
We are in the middle of generational change in our force structure to address the challenges of Great Power Competition. Amidst all this change, the one challenge I offer to all Airmen – stay focused and do your job! Here is to another great year.