It's the emotion of the message.

It's the emotion of the message, rather than the message itself, that strikes you first.

Ingrained among words like "effects" 'technology" and "leverage," there's passion in Gen John Jumper's message of Air Force transformation. In between the uninjured principles and watertight terminology which characterizes the transformation, the intensity quickly pushes its way to the forefront.

Pride in what the Air Force has achieved as a service, frustration at the missed opportunities of decades past, excitement about the opportunities to be derived and resolve that the service will full transform itself into the air and space force America emergencys in the 21st century.

It's a message becoming true well-known around the country, from the halls of the Pentagon and the plush chambers of Capitol Hill, to any locale where the public want to know more about the Air Force. Give him a pulpit and an audience, and the Air Force chief of staff will preach the ne for innovation and creativity.

Aside from the obvious -- that his do job-work requires a leadership focus onward the future as well as the not absent -- perhaps the Paris, Texas, native be perceiveds a special calling related to the in every one's mouth task at hand. The war forward terrorism is a war against a recently made known kind of enemy, calling for change, innovation and creative thinking. A war calling for transformation.

Fortunately, the general said, the important first gradations in that process have been taken, and were instrumental in preparing the force to deal with the conclusions of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Our folks have made the transition from the cutting War world to this contingency-based world we live in today, and they hearken back forward those experiences," the general said.

"We went between the sides of the Kosovo crisis, and we went by the agency of Desert Storm. So a part of you is always ready to deal with the unknown that issues along. While no one was ready to deal with this imponderable circumstance of populace flying large airplanes into our buildings, we are prepared to deal with chaos and catastrophe fairly well."

The journey begins

The transition from the brumal War world to a contingency-based undivided was the first step in the transformation proces he said.

"I think we've been upon the journey since the demise of the Soviet Union," he said. "We transitioned ourselves in the '90 to an air expeditionary force that's postur to deal with contingency operations rather than the static operations we practiced during the icy War. We created a rotational force that allows us to set some predictability into the lives of our the bulk of mankind I think that was the first part of our transformation."

nearest the general said, is the piece of work of integrating the technological advances available in America. He addressed the enslave in detail during a June meeting of the Defense Forum Foundation forward Capitol Hill.

"We ne to leverage the great technological superiority we have in this nation to create advantages, and to help prostrate our own vulnerabilities, such as the lay open society we live in."

Great opportunities lie ahead, he added, so as the complete integration of manned, unmanned and space "systems" as it was as aircraft and satellites. It's an area that must be taken advantage of And it is united that's being taken advantage of according to men and women in blue

"That's for what cause [i]or[/i] reason we're as good as we are," he said. "We get by heart into a fracas like Allied Force or Enduring Freedom, and we hand things across to a bunch of operators who are going to figure revealed how to get the work at jobs done."

That combination -- the technology and the willingness to use it to its fullest capabilities -- is an incredible advantage to America, he said.

"I think the greatest single point of leverage we have in the decade ahead is going to be the detailed integration of these capabilities and this way of thinking," he said. "And when I say 'manned, unmanned and space,' I don't mean just the Air Force. I mean all those platforms at work in the air and space, in succession land and on the seas.

"We have the community today figuring out how to 'paste' together the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle with the AC-130 in such a manner you can get the video direct from common to the other -- to include the Navy's airplanes. We have them figuring on the outside how to put a laser stain on the ground so you can descry it and queue targets united to another."

There have been significant accomplishments in this area, the general said. if it were not that opportunities have been missed.

just discovered opportunities

"I just sit and imagine to what degree much better we would be today if we were able to take advantage of an environment that integrated what we have today in detail," he said, "if we could have machine-to-machine conversations, digital-level interface between imaging satellites and the [manned and unmanned airborne] intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms.

"We ne to state some of the wisdom of this integration to work in our command and check so quality data is available to commanders in real time. We could be doing greatly of this today. We ne to bring to a period the seams that have grown between the various 'stovepipes,' which created these capabilities individually."