New Year, New Challenges

  • Published
  • By Colonel Jose Monteagudo
  • 944th Fighter Wing commander
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Happy New Year! I trust everyone had a fun filled holiday season and as we race into 2012 I hope you had time to set new commitments, goals and priorities for yourself and your loved ones.

As usual, the 944th Wing is charging into the new year at full speed. We have deployments, exercises, humanitarian trips and much more on our list of commitments. We are also going to be seeing some big changes coming down the pipe over the next year or two.

Our top leadership has said that we will see a transformation to our forces and the way we do business due to the financial challenges all the Services are facing. For our Wing, fiscal year 2012 is going to be pretty stable and stay about the same as last year but we will see some changes in fiscal year 2013.

Our Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, has said, "The Air Force is going to get smaller. We'll have fewer airplanes, probably fewer wings, probably fewer squadrons. But whatever size we end up, we are still going to be a superb Air Force. The bottom line is that it's OK to get smaller, but we'll remain ready, and we will still be feared by our adversaries. That's what we're about."

The 944th Wing will remain ready to do what we are tasked to do. Even as our fiscal future is in flux our mission here at the 944th is not changing. We will still be in the forefront of Total Force Integration and our mission to support the 56 Fighter Wing continues to be on solid ground. It is actually more important now than ever before that our team operates effectively and efficiently to meet the future challenges.

As we move forward in 2012, we will clearly face some challenges... but I'm more than confident that the 944th is well-postured and prepared to meet any challenges head on.