18th Wing Commander sets goals for 2011 with focus on dollar savings

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Maeson L. Elleman
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  In 2010, Kadena greatly supported contingencies and exercises around the globe, ensured Kadena's operational edge and strategic importance in the region, and strengthened the partnerships with the local community and the Japan Self Defense Force.

But as Team Kadena looks back on the accomplishments this past year, the 18th Wing Commander looks forward to a new year with continued emphasis on the mission, new opportunities to unfurl and new goals for the wing.

"Our mission is not really going to change for this year," said Brig. Gen. Ken Wilsbach, 18th Wing commander. "We will continue to build relationships, and ensure that we are the finest fighting force in the region."

"In 2010, our initiative was time savings. What I asked our folks to do was come up with ways that we could save time, and we did a lot of that in the past year. For 2011, we need to shift gears and focus on dollar savings," he said.

General Wilsbach said that saving money, even in small amounts, could greatly support units throughout the wing. "Because of the size of Kadena, and because of the number of people that work and live here, a small, repetitive dollar savings adds up over the course of a year," he added. "If we could save 50 cents a day per person at Kadena, we could generate $4 million in savings. And what I'd like to do with those savings is not take that money and spend it somewhere else, but keep the money for use in the units."

However, he stated, it's important for unit commanders to track the progress of their dollar savings. By tracking their progress, commanders can motivate their members to achieve the unit's goals.

"If a unit saves money, they should be able to keep that and apply it to their mission or whatever else they need to do with it," he said.

"We will do that at the wing level too. When we realize savings, we will invest that [money] in our folks like we did at the end of last fiscal year. We had thousands of dollars to invest the last few weeks [of FY2010] on quality of life initiatives, and people saw those show up in their work areas, and some in the dorms. So people will see the benefit of dollar savings in real terms at the end of the fiscal year."

Only with the help of every person living on the base, can Kadena accomplish its goals for the year, and better support its residents.

"I would like everybody on this base identifying ways to save money," General Wilsbach said. "Commanders and supervisors really need to focus in and listen to their folks. Our Airmen are innovative. It's the Airmen in the work centers who have the best ideas, because they're most familiar with the challenges. When they come up with innovations, and they provide those ideas to their supervisors or their commanders, then we can implement those innovations and do things more efficiently. The result will be dollar savings."

"If we really got the nearly 25,000 people that live on this base to think dollar savings every day, there's a tremendous amount of money to be realized," he added.

"Getting the whole organization involved is the key to this effort," he continued. "I think having people see the fruits of their labor is an important aspect of this. When members of a unit see that, they get motivated. And when you do get everybody involved in making small savings, the outcome is tremendous."

In addition to saving money, the commander also stressed the importance of safety, and building a strong relationship between U.S. forces and the Okinawan people.

"While we do have some goals for 2011, we'll be making sure we finish 2011 with the same number of folks we started with; so safety is really important," the commander said. "Everybody at Kadena has what I call a 'knock-it-off card,' where if you see something that's not safe, you can call 'knock-it-off.' We can take a pause for a second, and we can make sure we're doing things safe and we're doing things smart."

"The other thing that's really important is the relationship to our host nation," General Wilsbach continued. "Every single Airman and every single family member has a part of that every time they go outside the gate. When you're off base, making good decisions and being a responsible member and ambassador is very important. What may start off as a seemingly small incident can bubble up into a very large international incident and could jeopardize the U.S. position in Okinawa, and could really put a crimp on U.S. - Japanese relations."

"Every person that ever goes off base should feel the responsibility that they are an ambassador. Safety and the U.S. - Japanese relationship should always be on everybody's mind," he added.

General Wilsbach said it's also important to show the host country what the base does through on-base events in which Okinawan people can participate.

"Along with one very important event, Kadena Special Olympics, this year we're going to open our gates to the community this July for AmericaFest," the general added. "This will be an open-house event for folks from downtown to come on the base and see a little bit of what we do here. Different from past years, we hope to have the Japan Self Defense Force here to showcase the interaction of American forces and Japanese forces and how we operate together on a routine basis."

General Wilsbach said he needs the support of every member of Team Kadena to make the wing goals of continued mission success, dollar savings, safety, and improve host-nation relations a reality.