General Looney stresses importance of improving career, quality of life Published Aug. 28, 2006 By 2nd Lt. Jon Carlo Air University Public Affairs MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AETCNS) -- Providing insight on his vision of Air Education and Training Command and how he plans to make it "the command of choice," Gen. William R. Looney, AETC commander, addressed Maxwell/Gunter personnel during a visit here Oct. 11-12. General Looney, who took command of AETC in June, has big plans to transform the command of recruiting, training and educating into what he calls "the command of choice." He stressed the importance of ensuring each Airman assigned to the command gets a variety of career benefits from the assignment which in turn will attract individuals to become instructors at AETC installations. "We have to make sure an assignment in AETC is professionally rewarding, challenging, and most importantly, enhancing to one's career prospects, and we must also ensure Airmen feel as though they are continuing in an upward vector with regard to their career aspirations," General Looney said. With equal importance, the general said to attract the best, leaders and supervisors should ensure the quality of life personnel enjoy on AETC installations is second to none. "If we attack it from both the approach that it is a professionally rewarding and enhancing assignment, along with the fact the quality of life Airmen and their families enjoy is unsurpassed, then we will have people getting in line to come to AETC," the general said. To maintain those high standards, General Looney also began implementing a management system called the balanced scorecard, a strategic planning tool to measure AETC's success in specific areas. "Our strategy is one that supports our mission: to develop America's Airmen today ... for tomorrow, and our vision: to deliver unrivaled air and space education and training," he said. General Looney wants AETC to be recognized as the world-class standard for education and training. After seeing how well the balanced scorecard program worked at his last two commands, the Electronic Systems Center and the Aeronautical Systems Center, he decided to "swing for the fence" again at AETC. According to the general, there are specific objectives at AETC for the three pillars of recruiting, training, and educating. Each objective will have a measurement tied to it, which will give an indication as to whether or not the objective is met, exceeded or not met. If the objective is not met leaders will seek a new initiative that closes the gap between expectations and where AETC stands. One example General Looney gave was developing AETC personnel by balancing work and down time. This can be measured by looking at the average leave balance at the end of each year. "Balancing work and play so there is time for family and creating professional opportunities for our personnel are extremely important," he said. AETC leadership hopes to have the system implemented at the command level by mid-2006. It will then reach Air University and continue to each school. General Looney was at Maxwell for the Air University change of command Oct. 12 and visited the Maxwell-Gunter Honor Guard as well as the 42nd Security Forces Squadron.