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Commanders welcome units, members to new AFMC center

  • Published
  • By Michael Briggs
  • Air Force Civil Engineer Center Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  The commanders of Air Force Materiel Command and Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (Provisional) welcomed San Antonio-based members to the major command and its new subordinate center Oct. 9 during a town hall meeting here in the Bob Hope Theater.

Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, AFMC commander, and Maj. Gen. Theresa Carter, AFIMSC(P) commander, spent about 90 minutes presenting information and answering questions from some 400 members in attendance from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Air Force Security Forces Center, Air Force Materiel Command  Services Directorate and local squadrons assigned to the Air Force Installation Contracting Agency.

Those units, plus the Financial Management Center of Expertise in Denver, Colorado, and Air Force Financial Services Center at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, aligned under AFMC Oct. 1 with attachment to AFIMSC(P). Carter visited those units Oct. 2-3 before arriving in San Antonio.

"I am so excited to welcome you all into this major command," Wolfenbarger said in opening the session with a presentation about AFMC, its mission and her priorities.

She said AFIMSC(P) was created as Air Force senior leadership's response to the biggest challenge facing the Air Force today: reduced budget and resourcing.

"We determined there was merit in figuring out how we could centralize installation management functions that today are executed across all of the major commands, put those together, realize some synergies and reduce resourcing as a result," the general said. "This was the biggest strategic initiative that was put on the table in response to the Secretary of Defense's mandate to reduce management headquarters by 20 percent."

A centralized installation and mission support organization aligns well under AFMC because the command is the agile combat support champion for the Air Force, the general added. The six organizations new to AFIMSC(P) execute missions that help provide ready warfighting platforms for the Air Force.

Carter focused on two areas in her remarks: constant and change. She first used the words together to describe the constant change Airmen assigned to AFICA, AFCEC, AFSFC and the Services Directorate have experienced the past several years as their organizations merged activities previously done in multiple organizations into a single unit.  She then separated the words and used "constant" to describe the stability the units joining the new center provide the force.

"No matter how we're organized, no matter what patch we may wear, there is a constant among our security forces defenders, our contracting and finance professionals, our Services team and our engineers," Carter said. "You solve problems, you help commanders in the field, you help General Wolfenbarger and her counterparts at the MAJCOMs ... you make a difference every day."

She said that's a fundamental premise that wouldn't change with alignment of the functions under AFIMSC(P).

"You're going to continue to deliver a capability the Air Force has relied upon since before it even became a separate service by providing that platform from which the Air Force can operate in air, space and cyberspace," Carter said. "That platform doesn't exist without the capability you provide."

The general said while the "why" and "what" are the constants, "how" is where change comes into play, specifically in how the centralized capability will be organized and how it will conduct its mission.

"We need to do it smartly and we need to recognize that whatever we put in place will also continue to change," she said. "Constant change."

A group of about 60 people representing the major commands and functions joining AFIMSC(P) are working at Joint Base Andrews-Naval Air Facility Washington, Maryland, to develop the program action directive that will describe the unit's organization, mission sets and operations. That document and a basing decision for the location of the permanent unit headquarters is expected in early 2015.