Deborah Lee James, 23rd SECAF was here 4/17/19 to discuss her upcoming book release & answer questions.

Thanks Gene! Hope you check out the session tomorrow

Deborah James - I’ll try, but my day is rather right tomorrow. What time is it.

PO1 H Gene Lawrence, Secretary James will be available at 4:00 PM Eastern on 17APR19. You may also leave a question for her now if you wish.

LTC Stephen C. - thank you.

1.Historically,the military services don't consider life cycle costs when they do acquisitions, nor do they consider sufficiently how training will occur. This is changing--getting better and better--but still not perfect. I have high hopes for the new TX trainer--which considered training and sustainment as part of the solicitation. Its brand new--contract winner was just announced earlier this year--but the acquisition approach was put together while I was in office. The TX uses Open mission system approach so that when some element of technology changes, the plane can be upgraded without having to redo everything or being locked into a proprietary system. So this is an example of progress. When it comes to budgeting, I'm afraid we may be stuck with what we have because Congress dictates the different colors of money (O&M, R&D, procurement, personnel) and they have steadfastly refused to allow more flex between accounts without reprogramming actions.
2. Attracting and retaining the right people involves offering a competitive package of pay and benefits (especially education benefits--these are traditionally very attractive to young people thinking about joining; medical care, child care and housing allowances--attractive to those already in); a focus on the mission and training opportunities; reducing red tape and doing the best possible to focus on quality of life issues and not have constant deployments (family separations are a top cause why great military members leave)

Thank you very much for taking the time to review the questions and respond to our questions with candor Deborah James.

you got it!

There is no smoother service to adapt to than the AF, The mngt is considerate to any level of airman, They have their stuff together and care about the health and welfare of their personnel.

I think the biggest challenge for our airmen is the pace of operations. Our people have more deployments, family separations and still too many "additional duties" weighing them down that suck time and energy away from the mission. So time is a precious commodity and there is not enough of it.

When getting ready to transition from the Air Force to civilian life, there is the TAP program (I always hear mixed reviews on this but they have tons of information to share) and a many non profits stand ready to assist transitioning service members in different ways. If you google, many of these resources will pop up. The best news is that the American people are very supportive of veterans these days--they value the skills, leadership qualities and "get it done spirit" you displayed on active duty.

Hi Brandon--I am looking forward to the day that a Space Officer becomes the Chief of Staff of the Air Force--or a Cyber officer--or a specialty other than pilot. Don't get me wrong--pilots are fantastic but there are many backgrounds that bring value to senior positions. No matter what happens with Space Force, I can assure you that space is receiving top focus. Budgets are way up, new acquisition authorities are being implemented to speed things up, wargaming is happening doctrine is being rewritten and there are many new space-related technology investments in the budget. We have only just begun to review the utility of small satellites, for example, to help build resilience and reduce costs. Culture, by the way, may be the toughest nut to crack. With General Hyten--a space officer--about to become the Vice Chairman of the JCS--this sends an important message about changing culture in my opinion.

Hey, Sir, do you keep up with anything that SMDC/ARSTRAT is doing? I won't speak for the USAF, but the DA is addressing those same issues.

The Air Force is addressing these issues too. A critic might say that Air Force is not investing enough in some of the new technologies like hypersonics, autonomy, quantum computing, AI etc, but investments are definitely happening and the amount of money for everything has gone up significantly over the last few years. Its true that we have invested in several major platforms--the F35 leaps to mind--but these platforms have some of the key technologies that the warfighters consider to be game changers. As you point out, the US focusses on exquisite systems (some space systems, for example) and sometimes simple, cheap approaches can interfere with them. We need to learn from the recent past and build in more resilience to our systems going forward.

Deborah James - I am happy to see that leadership is looking at all these options, which we can turn around into opportunities. TY!

1) getting through the House of Representatives. Since this won't happen, there is no Space Force.

The major is correct in that it must be approved by Congress--House and Senate. I personally think they will approve some version of the proposal, but it will be different from what was proposed by the President. If it goes through, there will be an effort to ""keep down the bureaucracy"--a good goal but I fear t will get eaten up within the much larger services in the Pentagon. The force will largely be a carve out from existing Air Force military and civilian personnel.

During my tenure, I made the Civil Air Patrol a full fledged member of the Total Force (alongside the Active Duty, Guard, Reserve and Civilian components) so I hope that tells you how I feel about the CAP. I saw potential for the CAP to help alleviate some search and rescue; and drug detection missions. Its also an organization that inspires young people with the love of flying and STEM education--two things we need more of!

1.Stay above the fray as much as possible. Read a news source that is not your "go to" source to see what others are saying--then listen and try to understand their point of view even if its different from yours. Do your job to the best of your ability and take care of your family, friends and community.
2. To remove the stigma, we need to keep communicating at all levels that we want people to get the help they are entitled to. To the extent leaders keep beating this drum--and those that seek help end up better off for the care they end up receiving--the stigma will continue to gradually erode. The military makes a much greater effort to retain those in service who wish to stay--not in all cases--but its no longer a career ending move to admit that you need help.

That is good to hear, and good advice, thank you.

Top threats of my day remain with us today: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and terror. I worry a great deal about new approaches in warfare (like cyber offense, space interference) and other approaches that make it difficult for the US to declare attribution.

You're welcome George!