Air Force Now The Uncommon Jones

since July 1974 David C Jones has been Chief of Staff he says he heads the number one Air Force in the world and he wants to keep it that way anyway you look at it he's certainly become the uncommon Jones yours can be traced back to Boyhood years in Min not North Dakota it was then ladies and gentlemen that young Dave Jones spent many hours at the local airport talking to anyone sharing his interest in flying when World War II came he left College to join the Air Force as an aviation Cadet he took Advanced flying instruction at posos out in the Big Bend Country thereafter his assignments included operational and command positions in tactical fighter bomber tanker and training units as well as staff assignments in the Strategic Air Command and the Air Force Headquarters I am honored to present to you the chief of staff of the United States Air Force General David C Jones [Applause] my chief of staff just told me leaned over and said keep it short Congressman Ken thank you for the very fine words it's a great honor to work with you on the Hill there's one clear-cut advantage the United States takes a lot of work in preparing to go before a public audience I do not have a speech writer I do the work myself I normally don't use a script and I find it comes across much better when it it's my own thoughts and be able to sense the audience is much more effective than just stand and read we've got fine young people that have all the courage and dedication of their predecessors those who came before them just like to cite a couple of instances the tragic C5 accident with the orphans but if you look at the the coolness and the performance of that crew that very young crew here they are climbing through 23,000 ft with 330 people aboard and all of a sudden explosive decompression and the full rear of the airplane blows out and when it broke the force of the air going out literally ripped this door this panel right across like so see it and it hung on here then this whole panel rotated down about a 90° angle this piece is vertical and as it rotated it pushed up hitting the control cables right up there and the hydraulic line how much pressure on door in total pounds it was about five or six TSI the essence of now what we're doing of course is uh I always tell everybody got four full-time jobs one of them is to to work with the Congress and and other Departments of the government and one of them is to uh deal with the public because we need support of the public and to see that we in the military are we don't have fire coming out of our years and that we we are Broad in interested in our country so there's a there's a great deal today out in the field and visiting Kelly and lackin and the OTS good morning sir off b sir McDonald normal morning Commander's call he was going to brief you I'll tell you now we we didn't know who it was going to be until about a half hour ago and the guys wanted and War hooped and they're all assembl in one room but there are Commander calls in four places here this morning we'll take you to one of them okay mind stick my head in off board just to say hello if yeah quite a few of us here are uh graduates of the aecp program this is the program through which we're receiving our commissions wonder if you could give us the current status on the ACP program and what are the chances for having the program fully reinstituted uh we're working hard to get it reinstituted but I believe we ought to have a program we're we're in the Air Force we're convinced to give to people in the enlist listed ranks an opportunity to become commissioned and to go to way to school and then to come to the program here and uh and receive a commission in the Air Force we've been working uh on the hill I would say we have a good chance of getting it this year but I wouldn't want to uh to give any guarantees but I just want you to know we're committed yes or see any change in the Manpower requirements of the Air Force as a result of day taunt well not so much dayon but uh sort of the post Vietnam situation we uh our military services have decreased in size very substantially since the peak in' 6869 in fact the United States and Soviet Union had about the same number of people underarms in 1968 but when you compare it today they have almost twice as many as we do unless the world situation changes I would expect that we have pretty well leveled off give or take a little bit and this will give us some degree of stability there is concern in the hill that we don't have a high high enough enlisted to officer ratio so our officers probably will come down some but we want to do it in a way for the years ahead Beyond this year where we don't have to riff 22nd day I Run 2 miles every morning and I find if I if I'm someplace I can't run in about 2 3 days I can notice the difference in How I Feel get Loy I'll have a little corn place a little bit just a little corn a little and just just a few beans well let's sit down and eat before we uh everything gets cold oh see California Indiana Wisconsin New York no North dakotans you all about the same I mean about how many n days to oldest in time of service at lock h I assume he's looking after you giving you what help now I make a point when I go out on a trips to visit with our Reserve components equally as with our actives because they are part of us and are and are important to the Air Force and to our country how you doing a phase aircraft in PH how are you see you how you thank you don't fall off there while you're Hardon how are you today very good I see you how you doing pH yes sir how's the aircraft holding up pretty well yes sir uh we've been on it a week now you getting much sheet metal put take problem yes sir on the uh tips wing tips of course now since they came out with the message where we check the screws on every phase inspection how many people you have working for I just have three Sears in my particular phas doc you what you do to try to deal with people most of the time because I find that that's much more interesting rewarding you get a better feel of what's going on rather than dealing with paper but the days are are varied in the spring up through about this time tremendous amount of time in working with Congress his Excellency the president of the Federal Republic of Germany [Applause] Mr Mr President Mr Speaker you have invited me to address you I appreciate this special gesture I respond by expressing the Deep respect which every Democrat owes to this outstanding assembly the world is fra with unrest and problems and I am grateful we have far more new members and they're very inquisitive they want to learn they want more information and therefore uh takes a lot of time and then there's being a member of The Joint Chiefs of Staff which is demanding and then there's running Air Force I don't put that last in priority but there's there four responsibilities the days will vary tremendously uh Joint Chiefs of Staff we normally meet three times a week I I understand that during the my situation that you were very involved with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in that situation is there any thing that you could share with us regarding that yes I had the uh great responsibility and honor to be the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the myu incident and participated fully in the the discussions and the deliberations of the National Security Council with the president and with the meeting of the leaders of of Congress as the operation got underway and it I it was very reassuring from the time we walked in on Monday morning and sat around a table like this with the president it was absolutely clear that we were going to act and that we were going to be successful was any doubt about it wasn't any doubt about who was in charge the president and uh he wanted to examine the options and the Alternatives and then when we looked it over he made the decision calmly cooly with a with dispatch during the war in Vietnam one of our problems is our objectives were never clear and we were never the nation was never determined to be successful in this incident it was clear from the start that our objective was to recover that crew and that ship and to do it in the proper way the Air Force played a major role although the publicity of the Air Force's role wasn't that great uh all of the helicopters that took the Marines in and out where Air Force the gunships overhead the command and control aircraft most of the Tactical Fighters involved Air Force and their great feats of heroism uh of our helicopter crews in particular uh going in Time After Time and each time under heavy fire uh as many as five times into the island going into very small Landing zones and picking up the very large numbers in one case 60 people aboard that helicopter and as long as we have people like that um there's nothing to worry about for our country ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States of America and Mrs [Music] Ford [Music] Chief what did you do in the last few days well it returned to San Antonio on Sunday after having visited Kelly and the office of training school and the basic military training and the Texas a National Guard and making a speech here for Association Saturday night back Sunday a little time with the family catch up a little bit on paper work Monday uh I guess the the main event was going to the White House as the acting chairman and uh participating in the ceremony for the uh arrival of the president Federal Republic of Germany a uh a busy Monday involved mainly in Air Force business we did not have a meeting with the Secretary of Defense so tried to get some Air Force business done Tuesday I think morning over to Capital Hill to be on the floor of the house when President Shield delivered his speech to the Joint session of Congress and then back in the afternoon to to the Pentagon out to Andrews to uh meet air Chief Marshall Humphrey back Pentagon meet with one of my major air commanders and talk about some of the issues involved in his organization dinner with the at our quarters last night with air Chief Marshall Humphrey and then to the office early this morning for a little while and now and rude out to Andrews again to fly down to northp for the Armed Forces Staff [Music] College I'm proud of the Air Force I'm proud to be their Chief we've got improvements with we can make we will make improvements we'll make mistakes but want you to know that the heart's in the right place we're just trying to make it a great service [Music] [Applause] better [Music]