Note from AFA President -- Final note

This will be my last note to you. I depart my AFA position at the end of the month. 

It has been my honor to have served as the AFA President and to have communicated with you on a regular basis. The AFA Board of Directors has selected a new President, but has not yet publicly announced his name. I expect he will be in place near the beginning of September.

For those of you who want to stay connected, I have established a new email account:  FormerAFAPrez@gmail.com

Feel free to write any time.

Many of you have asked me which of my notes received the largest response.  [Almost all of them – good and bad – are online on the AFA web site.]

I estimate several of my notes reached well more than one million people … thanks to many of you forwarding them to those in your address books. One written in Feb 2008 received perhaps the most positive feedback … but please recognize that the numbers in the note are now different due to budget cuts. However, the concept is still valid. The title of the note was: "How the AF Buys Aircraft – the "101" version." You can find it at:  http://www.afa.org/PresidentsCorner/Notes/Note-2-29-08.pdf

A second popular note listed quotes on national security and on Airpower. You can find a link to the quotes at: http://www.afa.org/quotes/quotes.pdf

My favorite?  Gen "Tooey" Spaatz's quote on page 18:  "We better be prepared to dominate the skies above the surface of the earth or be prepared to be buried beneath it."

My next favorite - Gen David C. Jones (page 9):  "Without courageous families, there would be no courageous Airmen."

A third favorite note of yours was a pictorial depiction of AF aircraft and cars made in the same year. The visual image of  … say a C-5 juxtaposed with an AMC Gremlin … seemed to clarify exactly what the AF aging fleet really meant. In the note, I said:

"[With a car] … despite its age, there are no worries. If something goes wrong at 55 miles per hour, you just pull over and make a phone call.

Contrast that with an Air Force aircraft built the same year. Like the car, the plane has been obsessively cared for over the years. But there are huge differences. Instead of being garaged, its frame has withstood everything nature can throw at it for decades. Instead of low mileage, it has far exceeded, sometimes doubled or tripled the manufacturer's expectations. Instead of being taken out for special occasions, it has been a daily workhorse put through the rigors and strains of high-speed air travel for more than a generation. It still is expected to fly at top speeds and for long distances as it did when it came off the assembly line and when something goes wrong in the air, it is a split-second matter of life and death."

You can find a link to the contrast at:  http://www.afa.org/media/reports/contrast.asp

Let me take this opportunity to thank our AFA leaders – all of whom are volunteers – for their many hours of service to the Association. Without the field, AFA simply would not function.

And finally, let me also thank the AFA staff. They spend thousands of hours on hundreds of tasks … with many tasks being thankless ones. Without such a superb staff, AFA would not be where it is today.

And … I leave you with one last quote, which is especially apropos to the situation we face today. 

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."  - Winston Churchill

For your consideration.

Mike

Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association

"The only thing more expensive than a first-rate Air Force is … a second-rate Air Force."  --  Senate staff member