JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (AFNS) —

Chief Master Sgt. David A. Flosi was formally installed March 8 as the 20th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.

In remarks after the formal “Change of Responsibility” ceremony in which he assumed the job from retiring Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass, Flosi emphasized both the opportunity before him and what it means to the Total Force at a time of dramatic change and challenge across the service.

“As I assume this role, I’m aware of the challenges ahead,” Flosi said. “We live in a rapidly evolving world, where new threats emerge with alarming frequency, and the demands on our Air Force continue to grow.

“While demanding, I am confident in our ability to rise to the occasion. I am confident because over the course of my career, time and time again, I have witnessed the dedication and professionalism of our Airmen,” he said.

Flosi’s installation as the highest-ranking enlisted noncommissioned officer in the Air Force completes a total overhaul of senior military leaders for the service. Gen. David Allvin was installed as Air Force chief of staff on Nov. 2 and Gen. Jim Slife officially became Air Force vice chief of staff on Dec. 29.

All three senior leaders, along with Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, will be instrumental in successfully establishing far-reaching plans to “reoptimize” the Air Force to better confront China and other modern-day adversaries.

Allvin stressed that effort in welcoming Flosi during the dignified ceremony, which also included comments from Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, prior to that, Air Force chief of staff. 

“Dynamic, fast-paced environments require agile, determined leadership – that’s exactly what Chief Flosi brings to the fight,” Allvin said. “We’ve got work to do, and I know Chief Flosi is ready to move out on reoptimization to enhance our readiness and mold our one Air Force.”

In his remarks, Kendall offered a glowing tribute to Bass and provided clear guidance for what he expects from Flosi.

Bass, he said, “has served over 30 years in the Air Force, and we are an infinitely better organization because of your service. She’s been a standout leader at every level.

“Chief Flosi, you’re going to have to fill some pretty big shoes. I look forward to working together and to everything you have to offer. I want to welcome you to an incredible team. … We will need your experience and your perspective to make sure the needs of our Airmen and their families are always at the forefront of all of our efforts,” Kendall said.

Brown echoed Kendall in his praise and admiration for Bass.

“Jo, I’m so glad I hired you. You’ve been an inspiration for me. We were able to break barriers together,” Brown said, referring to their shared histories in which Brown was the first African American to be named Chief of Staff of any branch of the military and Bass’s selection as the first woman to serve as a Service senior enlisted advisor in the history of the United States military.

“You’ve been an inspiration to me. You’ve been an inspiration to our Air Force; you’ve been an inspiration to our nation,” Brown said.

Flosi steps into the job being vacated by the retiring Bass, who senior leaders said set the standard by which all subsequent Chiefs will be judged.

“Chief Bass’s passion for Airmen and their families has defined her time as our 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force,” Allvin said. “Her tireless work on their behalf has propelled our force forward. Even after over 30 years of dedicated service, I have no doubts that she will continue to be an advocate for Airmen and airpower moving forward.”

In her remarks at the dignified ceremony, Bass highlighted memories and achievements from across her 31-year career. She thanked a list of people who helped her at every point, including her husband Rahn, her parents, and a large group of Air Force colleagues who served as mentors and role models.

She directed special praise to Brown, who selected her to be chief master sergeant of the Air Force when Brown served as chief of staff.

“General Brown, chairman, thank you for hiring me as your wingman and chief. The best words you shared with me were ‘proceed until apprehended.’ And I did just that,” she said.

“I may have gotten apprehended once or twice, maybe three times. In any case, you let me be me and get after the things that matter to our Airmen and their families. It’s been an honor for Rahn and I to serve alongside you and Sharene,” she said.

Flosi’s new job is similar to his previous post but on a larger, more high-profile stage. He arrived at the Pentagon from Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where he served as the command chief master sergeant. That role was similar in many respects to the role he now assuming. At AFMC, he is the senior enlisted leader and the primary advisor to the commander on all matters regarding the readiness, training, professional development, and effective utilization of the command’s 89,000 total force Airmen.

Like his predecessors, Flosi pledged to lock arms with Airmen to help them – and the Air Force – thrive and succeed.

“Today, as we stand on the dawn of a new era, we recognize we are serving at a time of consequence. It is imperative we acknowledge the urgency of the challenges we face,” he said.

Later in his remarks, he added, “Fellow Airmen, my commitment to you and to our Air Force is unwavering. As we navigate the complexities of great power competition and seek to optimize our force, I pledge to be your wingman.”

Prior to his tour at Wright-Patterson AFB, Flosi served as the command chief master sergeant at the Air Force’s Sustainment Center at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.

Flosi began his Air Force career in 1996 as a nuclear weapons specialist. That focus expanded over the years to include various leadership duties in conventional and nuclear munitions, as well as missile operations, program management and test and contingency operations.

Like Bass and previous CMSAFs, Flosi will be the public face for Air Force personnel to those in all levels of government. He will be a personal adviser to Allvin and other senior leaders, both military and civilian, and will be expected to provide insight on issues regarding the welfare, readiness, morale and proper utilization and progress of the Air Force’s entire cadre of Airmen.

Flosi emerged as the clear choice from a group of the most highly respected, experienced graduated command chief master sergeants from across the Air Force’s global operations, officials said. These leaders were selected based on breadth of experience, recommendations from senior commanders and performance across each candidate’s Air Force career.

Story by Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) —  

To best optimize itself for Great Power Competition, the Air Force plans to, among other things, bring back warrant officers within the cyber and information technology professions, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin during a presentation Feb. 12 at the Air Force Association’s 2024 Warfare Symposium.

That change was among two dozen announced by senior Air Force officials. Each change is specifically designed to prepare the service for strategic power challenges from competitors like China and Russia.

“Both China and Russia are actively developing and fielding more advanced capabilities designed to defeat U.S. power projection,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. “The need for modernization against capable, well-resourced strategic adversaries never stops. But modernization isn’t the only thing we need to do to be competitive. Today we are announcing 24 key decisions we have made to improve both the readiness of the current force and our ability to stay competitive over time, to continuously generate enduring competitiveness.”

Those changes, Kendall said, focus on people, readiness, power projection and capability development and are implemented within the Department of the Air Force, the Air Force and the Space Force.

Spotlight: Science and Tech
Within the Air Force, Allvin explained, the service is looking to better attract and develop cutting-edge talent, specifically within information technology and cyber fields. The service plans to expand technical tracks for officers and create technical tracks for enlisted, and to also reintroduce the rank of warrant officer within the information technology and cyber fields as a way to maintain technical leadership with those skills.

“We know there are people who want to serve. They just want to code for their country. They would like to be network attack people and do that business,” Allvin said. “But everybody needs to see themselves into the future beyond just this assignment or the next. So, developing that warrant officer track for this narrow career field, we anticipate will drive that talent in and help us to keep that talent. There’s something specific about this career field, why it’s attractive and it’s a nice match for a warrant officer program. The pace of change of the cyber world, the coding world, the software world — it is so rapidly advancing, we need those airmen to be on the cutting edge and stay on the cutting edge.”

The Air Force had warrant officers when it was created in 1947, after being split off from the U.S. Army. But the service stopped appointing warrant officers in the late 1950s.

Allvin also discussed changes in the way the Air Force will conduct exercises. The plan is for the service to implement large-scale exercises and mission-focused training which encompasses multiple operations plans to demonstrate and rehearse for complex, large-scale military operations, he said.

“We’re going to reorient ourselves to more large-scale exercises rather than a smaller scale that have been a product of the last two to three decades,” Allvin said. “Large-scale means multiple weapons systems, multiple capabilities, coming together in a combat-simulated environment and showing our ability to execute the mission that’s going to be expected of us in the high-end conflict.”

Exercises in recent years, he said, have already been getting bigger. But those enhancements have been driven at the local level, not from the top down. That will change.

“Our Air Force needs to institutionalize this,” he said. “And we’re going to do that.”

He said the Air Force is looking at fiscal year 2025 for its first large-scale, multi-combatant command exercise targeted at Indo-Pacom.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said a change underway within the Space Force is to enhance readiness by implementing standards that reflect operations under contested conditions rather than those of a benign environment.

“The legacy force that we had, our roots … were built around efficiency, built around a benign environment,” he said. “So, the standards for readiness that we kind of held our forces to was different. It wasn’t built for the domains that we’re facing, a contested domain.”

Now, Saltzman said, the Space Force must rewrite its standards for readiness centered around a contested domain, rather than an uncontested domain.

Spotlight: DoD Space Strategy
That, he said, means in part having the right mix of officers, enlisted personnel and civilians in Space Force units. It also means training must be aimed at more than just procedural competency.

“As soon as you put a red force in the mix, as soon as you put a threat in the mix, it radically changes your training,” he said. “You have to have advanced training, you have to have tactics training, you have to understand how you work together, in-comms, out of comms, with other units, in order to continue to achieve the kinds of effects in a contested domain when an adversary, a capable adversary, is doing everything they can to stop you from being successful.”

Space Force, he said, will build a training infrastructure and a test infrastructure to validate its tactics so operators will know more than just how to operate equipment — but will be successful against an adversary.

Kristyn Jones, who is currently performing the duties of the under secretary of the Air Force, also pointed to changes at Department of the Air Force level. There, she said, among those changes, the department expects to create an Air Force Integrated Capabilities Office to lead capability development and resource prioritization. The office is expected to drive Department of the Air Force modernization investments.

“We’ll be looking at capabilities across our services, not in stovepipes,” she said. “We’re enabling end-to-end creation of effects. This organization will help us to prioritize our investments and will be responsible for working with us to determine the next iteration of operational imperatives.”

By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News