Welcome to the 38th International Military Testing Association Conference. Every year representatives from the military services and eight allied nations gather to share information about personnel management programs and the research and development that brought them to fruition. As the Commander of the Air Force Personnel Center, I am honored to be a co-host with Col Zank from Armstrong Laboratory and Lt Col Ourand from the Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron.
I would like to start off talking to you this morning about change... that's really why you are all gathered here. As the world changes we must adjust all of the tools we are using to manage our personnel programs.
The French novelist and journalist Alphonse Karr once said, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Things have certainly changed since I was a second lieutenant in the late 60s. The world’s a much different place now. Back then, we were at the height of the Vietnam War, with almost 500,000 US troops in Southeast Asia. The Cold War was hot in Europe, where the moderate Czech government's "Prague Spring" reforms were crushed by a Soviet invasion in August.
And things weren’t at all peaceful here at home either. Assassin’s bullets struck twice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s passing brought rioting to the nation’s streets in May, while the shock of Senator Robert Kennedy’s death evoked memories of a president slain not so long ago. And student sit-ins disrupted campuses across the nation, as young adults made their voices heard on the war, civil rights, and other social issues.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. The Apollo 8 flight put men in orbit around the moon in preparation for the moon landing in 1969. The movies of the year were the Beatles' Yellow Submarine and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the musical Hair opened on Broadway.
But things have changed since then, and certainly so in the Air Force. In 1968, I was one of more than 21,000 Air Force second lieutenants. This year, with the Air Force’s downsizing behind us, we have 7,151 gold bars serving proudly. In 1968, there were more places to go-- 198 major installations in the continental United States, and 69 overseas. Today, there are 75 at home and 13 abroad. And there were more of us back then. Just over 900,000 people in Air Force blue in 1968, compared with about 385,000 officer and enlisted today. The hot new airplanes were the F-4 and F-111. Today, we’re mustering out those aircraft, while bringing on the C-17 and planning for the F-22.
Of course, these changes are due to the end of the Cold War, and the opportunity to reduce military spending and size in favor of other national priorities. But there’s another factor at work -- the public’s perception of the military as a whole. One of the many adages attributed to Abraham Lincoln is, "Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed."
While the military remains one of the most trusted institutions in public opinion polls, continued questioning of the need for a military of our size shows that the public does not understand the scope of our mission nor that our mission is needed. Put another way, the question is: What does the military have to contribute in a world without a global threat? As the past few years have shown, we have much to contribute. In fact, we’re busier than ever. We’ve stopped aggression in the Persian Gulf. We’ve provided humanitarian assistance in Iraq, Bangladesh, the former Soviet Union, Somalia, Bosnia and Cambodia. We’ve worked to restore democracy in Haiti -- to the point that American troops helped run local government and organize community projects during the transition period. We’ve assisted disaster relief efforts in the Philippines, Guam, Florida, California, Hawaii, and Oklahoma City.
Before he left Air Mobility Command to become the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Ronald Fogleman predicted that America would "increasingly depend" on us "to replace chaos with order and restore hope from despair." He also said that "the United States is the only country over the next quarter-century that has both the capability and the moral will to simultaneously contribute to peacemaking, peacekeeping, and relief operations." Peacemaking, peacekeeping, and relief operations are not traditional defense missions, but they are important. Just ask the millions of threatened, hungry, and homeless people we’ve helped in the last few years.
I believe the future capabilities and readiness of the Air Force will depend on how effectively we communicate the importance of our work. In times of conflict, the nation needs and supports its military, but that relationship is reciprocal--in times of peace, the military needs the public.
That is why what you do here is so important. With the downsizing comes an increased importance on selecting the right person for the right job. You make sure the tools we use to do this can get the job done -- from using the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) and Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), to our Weighted Airmen Promotion System materials. Each of the major sponsoring organizations has an important role to play... the Air Force Personnel Center, Armstrong Laboratory, and the Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron.
Armstrong Lab is the principal Air Force organization charged with performing scientific research, developing technologies, and transitioning products to enhance the role of the human in Air Force combat effectiveness. They conduct research and development to improve selection, assignment, evaluation, and retention of Air Force members. They also increase the effectiveness and efficiency of Air Force training design, delivery, evaluation, and management. The Lab provides more effective aircrew training through advances in simulation and training devices, and reducing the logistics footprint through more efficient use of manpower and material. Basically, they provide all our underlying research and development used to make our policies and procedures.
The Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron surveys occupations, analyzes resulting data, and reports findings and observations to decision-making officials for support of personnel management programs such as recruitment, selection, classification, training, promotion testing, and transition. They produce occupational survey reports which contain a narrative summary of each occupational specialty specifying data relevant to personnel management decisions. AFOMS develops promotion tests -- the Specialty Knowledge Test (SKT), Promotion Fitness Examination (PFE), and USAF Supervisory Examination (USAFSE). SKTs and PFEs are used in the Weighted Airman Promotion System (WAPS) and USAFSEs support the SNCO Promotion Program. They also develop, revise, and maintain Air Force Pamphlet 36-2241, the PFE and USAFSE Study Guides.
The Air Force Personnel Center is central to the personnel business -- running the gamut of personnel actions throughout the "personnel lifecycle" from accessions, utilization and training, promotions, and retirements and separations. We are one of the main customers of your efforts.
With downsizing, reengineering, information technology, and budget and manpower cuts, personnel selection methods and techniques are more important than ever. All services must be sure the people they select and classify are the right people. To effectively and efficiently use smaller forces, occupational analysis, job analysis, and force structuring are critical. Training is also critical to ensure properly selected forces, accurate classification into the right jobs, and effectiveness in those jobs. We need to ensure we develop innovative testing methods and conduct thorough research to help select the best people, and maximize their potential as individuals and their contributions to our military organizations.
Our Air Force people, and our future members, are relying on you here at this conference to ensure the best methods are developed. Today, computerized testing and training is beginning to come to the forefront. Distance learning technologies are being implemented. The Air Force is beginning to take steps to automate the testing function. This is not just a transfer from paper-and-pencil tests to computers, but using research to determine better ways to measure knowledge and skills through the use of technology and computers.
At the Air Force Personnel Center, we brought up our home page on the Worldwide Web in January 1995 and were excited with over 5,000 "hits" the first month. Now, we are getting more than 1.2 million "hits" a month. This is mind boggling! But, it’s the way of the future...computers, technology, and automation. We need to take advantage of technology and our assets in getting ready for future challenges.
This conference is a great opportunity to keep current in areas and interact and exchange information with peers and counterparts from the other services and nations. Use this International Military Testing Association forum as an opportunity to share capabilities and resources among all organizations and countries present to benefit from each other’s experiences and ideas. You have a rigorous schedule for this conference and lots of presentations to keep all of you current with your analysis. I challenge each of you to be innovative and step up to the challenges and develop systems that will meet our future requirements. Thank you for this opportunity to speak here today and good luck.
