COMMENTARY: Maximizing mission effectiveness: Are you up to the challenge?

  • Published
  • By Maj. Travis Prater
  • 100th Communications Squadron commander
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Gen. Mike Hostage, Air Combat Command commander, once said, "It is a moral imperative on the part of all leaders to ensure forces that will deploy are fully ready, not partially ready. Trying to send Airmen into combat without the training they need, without the equipment, parts and the capabilities they need to be fully effective is the definition of a 'hollow force' and must be avoided. To do that, we have to make hard choices and make sure that we apply scarce resources to the tasks that are the most important and mission critical."

As Airmen serving in the 21st century, we face some unprecedented challenges. The most significant of which is developing a strategy to meet ever-increasing operational requirements in the face of fiscal austerity. This environment necessitates innovative leaders focused on maximizing the effectiveness of resources to deliver the dominant combat air power the U.S. demands and expects.

Our nation is looking for leaders who have mastered their domains as this provides the perspective necessary to identify mission critical areas that must be preserved. It is these mission critical areas that must be protected at all costs and represent our nation's most important no-fail expectations.

Beyond mission critical, all other requirements fall into what Hostage would characterize as our "ought to do" and "like to do" requirements. The difficulty lies in prioritizing what must be done against what we ought to do and what we would like to do.

When applied, this approach requires maximum application of scarce resources to the mission critical requirements before even considering expenditures for any ought to do or like to do requirements. As such, it requires leaders with the moral courage to make the hard choices as many requirements that fall outside the mission critical status will go unfilled. However, it is this type of deliberate leadership that will open the door for innovative solutions that will enable the Air Force to continue to meet our nation's most essential national security requirements in a manner that maximizes impact.

Maximizing mission effectiveness demands innovative leaders committed to developing long-term strategies that ensure we continue to deliver the dominant air power the U.S. expects. It is more than reprioritization based off wants, it is developing a perspective and culture that values that which is most critical to our nation. Are you up to the challenge?