I’ve done my fair share of criticizing the direction and policy choices of the Air Force this past year. OK, maybe more than my fair share. But I harbor few second thoughts about that … for seldom in the annals of our national defense history has there been an institution more astray from its proper flight path or more averse to the kind of self-criticism necessary to get back on course. I’ve felt criticism was both constructive and necessary.

But while problem recognition is important, many famous and respected leaders have often opined with good cause that it’s best to accompany complaints with suggested solutions. In that spirit, I offer a non-inclusive rundown of what I consider to be valid and achievable reform proposals for the Air Force in 2016. These are things I happen to believe are achievable, worthy ideas that could help break the service out of its current spin and help it start to ascend again. They’re mainly products of other peoples’ minds, creeping into my playbook in the ongoing effort to influence, be influenced by, and channel America’s airmen. They should be given consideration.

This list assumes a radical reorganization is off the table for the time being, and that the substantial personnel reforms currently under review by DoD won’t materialize until well into the future. I also assume we can’t get much more money right now.

I don’t bound this list out of defeatism so much as pragmatism. The service is in bad shape; it can’t wait for an all-encompassing universal solution to everything … those actions possible and constructive need to be entertained and acted upon now — before either (a) the Air Force organizationally collapses or (b) it is challenged by an adversary formidable enough to expose internal weaknesses largely obscured from politicians and the public.

Which leads me to my first proposal.

These are just ideas rather than full proposals, and they’re just the beginning. A full list would include many more suggestions … from overhauling officer development and creating an online debate space to quadrupling the current number of PhD candidates and prohibiting volunteerism statements on performance reports. There are myriad ways I could beg for more truth and less politics from people who wear military rank.

But in the end, every one of these suggestions is part of one overarching recommendation: invert the current set of priorities. Gen. Welsh and Sec. James are currently seized with modernization, organization, and then people, in that order. This is exactly backwards.

People, organizations, equipment. In that order. When you get that right, many of the problems enumerated and implied on this list will resolve or dissolve naturally.

When you make people the center focus, it forces you to balance taking care of them with accomplishing the mission, which in turn requires simultaneous focus on the mission. War is a human activity. When we focus on war execution and war readiness through the lens of human performance, our understanding multiplies, our choices and activities naturally harmonize, and our priorities naturally align. When we focus elsewhere, these natural impulses get misdirected, and we find ourselves trying to define our mission around systems, processes, machines, or programs. These things are not what drive performance in war or readiness, and trying to force them into that center focus creates internal dissonance. It gives us an institutional migraine. Sound familiar?

All of which is to say that when you take care of people, they take care of everything else. When you don’t, they can’t.

If you follow these recommendations and govern by these priorities, you’ll still have problems. You won’t have enough money or people to do what is [t]asked; you’ll still lack the top cover from the Administration to close bases or reduce infrastructure; Congress will still shirk on national defense issues and hang the blame around your neck; the uniform your predecessors spent millions developing will still be terrible, as will the fitness test you feel obliged to maintain. Undoubtedly, you’ll still be nagged and heckled incessantly by journalists and commentators exploiting social media to live inside your OODA loop.

But these aren’t problems that can collapse the service or threaten defense. The things that can bring down the Air Force are all internal. Internal division, internal confusion, internal misprioritization … and internal hemorrhaging of trust and confidence.

With the trust and confidence of airmen, the Air Force can never lose and can achieve anything. Without that trust and confidence, it can’t expect to win or achieve much of anything. Putting people first again in 2016 is the key to breaking out of the current cycle of unintentional acrobatics. It’s the airman, not the machine, that is key to the Air Force’s future.

On that happy note, I offer sincere best wishes to the men and women who serve the world’s greatest Air Force in 2016. Hopefully, it’ll be a year spent gaining altitude.

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