ACC director of air, space operations visits Moody

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Frances Kriss
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The director of air and space operations of Air Combat Command recently visited Moody to gain a better understanding of the base's mission and to interact with Airmen from different career fields.

During his two-day visit, Maj. Gen. David Goldfein was able to experience first-hand Moody's capabilities including close air support, combat search and rescue, and expeditionary force protection.

"My goal for this visit was to focus on how I can do my job better and connect with the Airmen and their career fields because I can't do that working in the office," said General Goldfein. "I want to see what our Airmen need to train and deploy, and make sure that they have the right guidance in place."

The general's first stop was to interact with Airmen of the 347th Rescue Group, a unit that holds a special place in his heart. General Goldfein was able to observe a HC-130P/N Combat King flight as well as participate with pararescuemen of the 38th Rescue Squadron during their confined spaces training.

"I truly respect those individuals in the rescue community because I'm a proud recipient of their services," he said. "I am honored to represent them and I'm glad to see that they are living up to their motto, 'That Others May Live'."

In addition to hands-on participation with training, General Goldfein also had an opportunity to sit down and eat lunch with several junior enlisted Airmen.

"During lunch, we were engaged in very good conversations," he said. "I was happy they were not afraid to speak and asked their questions without hesitation."

One of the Airmen who joined the general was Airman 1st Class Kindra Milligan, 23rd Comptroller Squadron accounting technician.

"It's nice to see that General Goldfein was able to spend time with us," she said. "He provided us an opportunity to speak about what we thought of topics such as drinking under the influence, suicide and deployments. He also allowed us to ask whatever questions we wanted."

General Goldfein also visited the 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing and presented two individuals their master parachutist wings. In addition, he observed two members of the 820th Security Force Group jump out of a HC-130P/N and learned about capabilities of tactical air control party members.

"My visit has been spectacular," he said. "There's no substitute for getting out to the field and being able to interact with Airmen. Moody is one of the highest-deployed bases in ACC because of the nature of its mission and I'm glad to see them continue to train for the fight as well as taking care of our Airmen."

General Goldfein advises Gen. William Fraser III, ACC commander, on all matters pertaining to the direct operational planning, training, command and controlling functions to deploy and employ regular and Reserve component combat air forces, including more than 1,900 aircraft, in support of U.S. security objectives.