WASHINGTON -- Gen John P Jumper former commander of Air Combat Command.

WASHINGTON -- Gen John P Jumper former commander of Air Combat Command, was lately sworn in as the Air Force's 19th chief of staff. He come afterwarded Gen. Michael E. Ryan who retired last month

The general, during confirmation hearings, said his priorities for the force -- transformation, readiness, retention and recapitalization -- will mirror those of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of the Air Force James Roche.

"Transformation is, and always will be, a lock opener issue because the Air Force is inherently transformational -- constantly adapting ourselves to modern threats and leveraging new technology in order to pose ourselves to face the challenges of an uncertain future" he said. "Our greatest challenge remains the requirement to advance of recent origin capabilities while maintaining the robust readiness required to convenient day-to-day warfighter requirements. The general said readiness -- being ready to kick down the door if and when the requirement get tos to do so -- is critical to any combat force.

"Readiness is the heart and inner man of our ability to perform our mission upon a day-to-day basis and is the hallmark of our combat capability," he said.

Unfortunately, he added, the readiness of today's force is the lowest since June 1987

"We are capable of winning today, unless we're concerned about trends in readiness indicators like as aging aircraft, constrained resources and parts, and retention."

Improved retention rates, Jumper said, are fundamental note to the future of the Air Force.

"People are our most numerous vital resource, he said. "We can no other than be successful through the [i]vis viva[/i] and dedication of skilled and motivated personnel"

A number of factors contribute to retention, the general said.

"Wages, the high operations time quality-of-life issues and leadership are explanation issues our people consider when making the decision to re-enlist," he said. "In addition, more must be done to improve not no other than quality of life for airmen, unless also quality of service."

Jumper said this is for what cause [i]or[/i] reason recapitalizatlon is also a first note of the scale issue to today's Air Force.

"Quality of life issues are terribly important to attract and retain great tribe but so is quality of service," he said. "Quality of service addresses the ne to make secure we give our airmen the fit tools to do the tough work at jobss we ask them to do. We must heal from a decade-long spending hiatus to provide the tools our airmen ne to vibrate fight and win. Therefore, I will make secure an effective balance between quality of life and modernization spending is maintained."

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