Commander lays foundation for successful tour Published Aug. 20, 2008 By John Ingle 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Brig. Gen. O.G. Mannon has had a month to visit with Sheppard personnel and tour a few facilities following his July 17 change of command ceremony, and his initial impression of the mission and people here can be summed up in one word - amazing. The 82nd Training Wing commander, just a month into his position, has seen the vital role Sheppard's mission plays into the sustainment and viability of the overall Air Force mission. "We are producing highly-skilled - although young and inexperienced - craftsmen," he said. "It's because of how smart they are, the great instructors we have and the training tools available." THE GOALS While bells and whistles like virtual reality and computer animated devices are nice to have in the training environment, the general's goal of improving basic skills needed on the battlefield is important as the frontline is often blurred or non-existent. To do that, the general said he wants to ensure that Airmen walk away from Sheppard with the necessary technical skills, but also those needed to fight and survive in combat. "The Air Force has determined that because of the new look of the battle, there is no frontline," General Mannon said. "If you work as an administration Airman working 150 miles from the suggested frontline, you are just as likely to be engaged." Not only will an emphasis in skills help the Airmen, but the gaining unit would receive an Airman who would be fully capable of deploying within a short period of time, the general said. It's not speculation that provides the basis for the general's thoughts. Rather it's real world experiences in special operations that he said provides a background and understanding on how the war is being fought and won overseas. "We're going to make incremental changes to build on the warrior mentality," he said. "We are in the business of defending the United States." Another of General Mannon's goals is to continue to provide highly-qualified, technically-trained Airmen to the field. "We get to touch the future of the Air Force," he said. The general said that a lot of senior leaders work long hours on important issues at the staff level, but where he's at now doesn't compare. "Working with 19-year-olds who are excited ... it doesn't get any better." His final goal, the general said, is to improve quality of life issues and force protection on base. "If we can do all three of those, this will be a pretty successful tour," General Mannon said. THE MISSION The general said he knew a little about Sheppard's mission, but not a great deal. That was because of the fact that in the special operations world, Airmen were experienced and typically into their second term or more. General Mannon said he didn't have a good cross-check on new Airmen in the Air Force, specifically first-term Airmen. But, that impression has changed. "I had no clue of the complexity of the mission at Sheppard Air Force Base," he said, adding he knew the base conducted medical and initial maintenance skills training. "Fifty-five thousand young men and women a year pass through here, some with only a high-school education, and we teach them how to work with very complex skill sets." A big factor in the success of producing highly-skilled, technically-trained Airmen, the general said, is the type of training tools available to instructors today. He equated the difference to going from using paper to using computers. The general's understanding of how today's Airmen operate doesn't come from good guessing - it comes from his own household. "It's been helpful to have - and lived through - raising a teenager," General Mannon said. "Teenagers can handle more than one ability at a time, which is what we ask our Airmen to do here." THE PHILOSOPHY It's simple, really - communicate. Up. Down. Front. Back. Primarily, though, the general said horizontal communication is the key to mission success. "I'm a big proponent of horizontal communication," he said. "Many of the issues within the Department of Defense are based on the fact that we haven't morphed to communication horizontally." The general said he doesn't mean circumventing chains of command to communicate. Rather, he said people should be talking to each other all along the chains of command and breaking down barriers between skill sets that could provide information quickly and create a better response time for action. That horizontal communication training can begin right here, he said. "To provide quality Airmen, we have to expose and convince them to the right way of doing business," General Mannon said. PARTNERS IN THE FIGHT General Mannon said he knows the importance of joint training among sister services as well as training with coalition partners engaged in operations around the globe. The clear cut example of a success story, he said, is sitting on the north end of Sheppard - the 80th Flying Training Wing's Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program. "I think it's an absolutely perfect example," he said. "What it does is it establishes long-term relationships." He used German Col. Axel Pohlmann, the 80th Operations Group commander, as an example. General Mannon said Colonel Pohlmann earned his wings in the early '80s as a student pilot at ENJJPT, and still has a relationship with families he met during that time. But, the general said training with coalition partners today is more important than it has ever been. "You're not going to fight and win in the 21st century unless you're with a coalition," he said.