Yellowhammer Times

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) questioned Air Force General Kenneth S. Wilsbach during a Senate hearing regarding his reappointment as General and Chief of Staff of the Air Force. The discussion covered issues related to military readiness, equipment, quality of life for service members, and the direction of military training at academies.

Senator Tuberville began by addressing the status of the KC-46 tanker aircraft, asking about its operational effectiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. "Thank you very much, General. Good to see you. Congratulations. Look forward to working with you, and on your important mission in front of you. While we’re on these KC-46s—I don’t think any of us know how far along that we’ve gone. We’ve gone a long time trying to build these things. Give us your evaluation. Are they working now? Do we have enough range in the Indo-Pacific? Where do we stand with that? Because we can do all of the Sorties we want, we can build all these planes, but if you can’t refuel them in the Indo-Pacific, we got problems."

General Wilsbach responded by emphasizing the importance of aerial refueling: "Exactly right. So, fuel in the air is the key to our success. My experience with the KC-46 has been positive. And I know that we have some issues that we have to take care of—specifically with the boom system that needs to be fixed at this point. But overall, very happy with the platform. And it does provide us with not just air refueling, but it does many other missions. We can’t talk about those in this setting. We can come back in a closed session to talk about some of the other things that that gives us, which other tankers didn’t give us in the past. So, it is a force multiplier there. So, I’m pretty pleased and I think the progress that we’re seeing with the fixes that are coming in are promising."

The conversation shifted toward recruitment and living conditions for service members and their families on base facilities across different locations.

Senator Tuberville said: "Yeah. Thank you. In your career, you’ve had probably a lot of experiences, you and your wife, family of base facilities. Recruiting is very important. We are getting a lot of bad information on—well, I can’t say it’s bad information. A lot of information from some of these bases that were having problems with base housing facilities and we haven’t done enough. I mean, if we don’t take care of our families, we’re not gonna be able to recruit people who’ll be in our military. I don’t care what leg of the military. What’s your thoughts on that?"

General Wilsbach acknowledged ongoing concerns: "So Cindy and I have traveled all over the Pacific and all over the continental United States visiting airmen and their families. Cindy spent a lot of time with the families and you’re right, Senator...there’s multiple complaints—many, many, many places there are complaints...we owe it to America’s sons and daughters to have quality of life and quality of service...that facility should be safe, it should be clean, and it should be of high quality..."

Tuberville emphasized prioritizing improvements: "And we have to put that as a priority...still we have a lot of our bases that are sending back problems in terms of housing and schools...That is very, very important."

He then addressed concerns regarding curriculum at military academies: "And I hope we continue to make that a priority...And I’m also on the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors...Are you aware of any problems? And will you get personally involved in making sure that we train leaders to fight foreign adversaries instead of this woke nonsense that a lot our academies have been in for a few years?"

General Wilsbach replied: "I will Senator...I share a passion ...of making warriors ...physically mentally spiritually tough ...the Air Force Academy is great place for that ...the academy today is starting one ...exercises ...they’re gonna get tougher..."

The hearing concluded with brief remarks about college football.

Senator Tuberville serves Alabama as part of several Senate committees including Armed Services; Agriculture; Veterans’ Affairs; Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP); and Aging.