JULY 26, 2017, NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev.(AFNS) – Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson visited Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases, Nevada from July 17-21, 2017 to meet with Airmen and witness Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force‘s premiere multi-domain integration training exercise.
Wilson’s priorities of readiness and innovation were bolstered through the experiences she had during her week in southern Nevada.
“Nellis [AFB] is where we bring readiness together,” said Wilson. “Not only is it where we test new things, but it’s where Airmen have a chance to come together and practice the high-end fight.”
Not only was Wilson able to see how Red Flag readies the Air Force for future threats, but she also saw firsthand how Nellis AFB remains at the forefront of modernization.
“I spent three days here at Nellis [AFB], and test and evaluation is a big part of the mission,” said Wilson. “This is where we test the newest things we’ve developed, and we push the envelope on innovation. We’re seeing innovation by Airmen every day here, and it’s great to witness.”
Wilson came to Nellis AFB at the peak of its training exercises, giving her the opportunity to see how the Airmen and joint partners at Red Flag are training through innovation.
“Multi-domain command and control is one of the areas in which we need to innovate,” said Wilson. “It starts to come together here first. Those are the things that were most evident to me witnessing Red Flag, the complexity of it, integrating all kinds of air, space and cyber power in order to prevail in very difficult high-end fights.”
Training the warfighter in all aspects of air, space and cyber was just part of the experience of watching the exercise. Wilson also took time to talk about how fascinated she was by Airmen.
“The amount of responsibility and the amount of training that we give to young Airmen, and then the responsibility we put on their shoulders for decision-making is impressive to me,” she said. “They shoulder the burden, and they protect the country.”
By Senior Airman Kevin Tanenbaum, 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
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