Kadena's leadership guides the way to mission success

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Angelique Bilog
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Every journey begins with a direction of travel, a desired destination; the 18th Wing's endeavor toward mission success is mapped out by the wing commander's priorities.
 
The wing's top three priorities are provided to help Airmen and families gain a better sense of where the wing is headed, what the end goals are and provide guidance on how to get there.

The 18th Wing's top three priorities are: Fight Tonight, Win Tomorrow; Promote Joint, Bilateral and Multilateral Engagement and Ambassadorship; and finally, Develop Professional Airmen and Support Kadena Warriors and Families.

These priorities allow the 18th Wing to focus on the unique mission aspects Team Kadena is charged with here on Okinawa. In simpler terms, these priorities provide three main areas of focus: Warfighting, integration, and people.

Fight Tonight, Win Tomorrow:

The 18th Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Matthew Molloy said that Kadena's location at Okinawa allows us to be close enough to the threat but also the right distance away to allow strategic assets to be here and able to respond immediately.

"We have to be razor sharp, amazingly focused and we have to know our jobs cold and if we do that we will win tomorrow," he said. "If we focus on that warfighting "fight tonight" piece then tomorrow will naturally take care of itself. We will focus on all the right priorities so that when tomorrow comes it's taken care of."

Promote Joint, Bilateral and Multilateral Engagement and Ambassadorship:

One of the most notable changes in the wing priorities is the emphasis on promoting interoperability with both U.S. counterpart services as well as international partners.

Airmen will begin to see these wing priorities in action in some of the changes reflected in increased joint training, more exercises with our Japanese partners, increased training in the Republic of Korea and local readiness exercises involving the Army and the Special Operations Group in order to better integrate all the mission partners and be well prepared for any event.

"We deliver air power, but we do it through Airman power," he said.

In the ever changing social and economic climate of the world, especially in a resource-constrained one, it is important that we are still able to fully carry out our missions; doing so requires more than a little help from our friends--from our joint partners and our allies.

"We realized that, with the imploding budget crisis that we're in, there's no longer singular capacity," said the General. "If we're going to maintain the same level of capability, we're going to have to share, integrate and distribute. There can't be redundancy."

General Molloy also said that bringing capabilities such as the 1-1 Air Defense Artillery Battalion's Patriot 3 missiles, and the Japanese Air Self Defense Force's F15's together to work on increasing and perfecting communication across networks and links increases the potential and capacity to complete the mission, despite the decreasing force structure and budget.

He also stressed the idea that every Airman is an ambassador.

"Remember whose land this is, it's not U.S. soil, this is Okinawan soil," he said. "They have invested mightily in our presence here so each and every Airman has to be an ambassador and plays an all-star role in preserving and protecting the mission. We are here by invitation and permission, not by right; not by force. We are guests. So we must be awesome ambassadors or we may risk losing a key power projection platform--the Keystone of the Pacific."

Develop Professional Airmen and Support Kadena Warriors and Families:

The care of those responsible for getting that mission done isn't solely focused on the operational aspect of Kadena's mission.

"I like to say mission first, people always," he said. "We organize, train and equip around the mission, no doubt, that's the whole reason we exist, that's why we are the 18th Wing; it's all about doing the mission. But, I know as a commander the only way I'm going to get that mission done is if I take care of the people. It's the Airmen, empowered by their families, who get the mission done."

General Molloy said that though the goals may seem lofty, each goal is broken down into objectives, metrics and then further into countermeasures. This granularity allows our objectives to be measurable to Airmen. He said he needs Airmen and commanders to send their input up the chain and let wing leadership know which metrics are the most important and how to measure them.

"There is great potential in these goals," said Molloy, "I want to take that potential and turn it into kinetic, positive energy to move the wing forward and advance the wing across the goal line so we are indeed ready to fight tonight and win tomorrow."

These wing priorities provide Team Kadena with a roadmap on our travel toward mission success and with these priorities, Airmen and their families will have a strong grasp on which direction the wing is headed and where Team Kadena's true north is.