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| Air Mail - Vision,
innovation and culture By Warrant Officer of the Air Force WOFF-AF Ray Woolnough Volume 49, No. 5, April 05, 2007 |
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| Greetings Airmen and Airwomen of the Air Force. What a very busy fortnight. The Warrant Officers’ Conference was held at RAAF Base Townsville from March 5-9 and was very successful, with 130 WOFFs attending. By all accounts, attendees gained a lot from the presentations. To the many presenters, thank you for your time and professional presentations. I would like to thank the Base Commander, WGCDR Graeme Davies, and his staff for making us welcome. The WOFFs were so impressed that they have indicated strongly that next year’s conference should be held at Townsville again. Once I have all the presentations together, they will be placed on the Warrant Officer of the Air Force RAAFWEB site at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/raafweb/sites/WOFFRAAF/ For members who are thinking about discharging, I bring to your attention the policy for the retention of personal clothing on discharge from the PAF and transfer to the RAAF Standby Reserve (RAAFStR). Air Force Clothing Policy AAP 3032.001 (3rd edition) Section 1, Chapter 3, Paragraph 16 states: “Personnel who transfer to the RAAFStR on discharge are to retain all items of personal clothing for a period of five calendar years from date of discharge. The member is to ensure that all uniform items including Dress 1A SD Uniform and Mess Dress are in serviceable condition prior to discharge.” It is also stated in Chapter 9 – Reserves – Personal Clothing Policy, Paragraph 5: “All items of personal clothing, necessaries and accoutrements are to be retained by: (a) Members on transfer to the RAAFStR; and (b) Officers of the RAAFStR placed on the retired list. It must also be noted that the RAAFStR Manager also advises personnel that are transferring to the RAAFStR of the requirements by letter when they are discharging from the PAF.” I attended my first Avalon air show from March 19-24. What a spectacular event. The CAF Conference, gala dinner and the show itself were great. Air Force personnel working at the show not only looked great but were very professional. It was mentioned to me on a few occasions by non-military visitors how good the Air Force personnel looked in uniform and how they stood upright and proud. Well done to all. Whilst I was at Avalon with the Air Command Warrant Officer, WOFF Dave Woods, we were approached by AVM Graham Lintott, the Chief of the New Zealand Air Force, and asked a simple question: “What was our Air Force culture?” I must admit that I had to think, and think fast. You would all be aware that our culture is not written verbatim anywhere, and what one member thinks our culture is may vary quite substantially from another member’s views. What we did say in a nutshell was that we have a very strong ‘can do’ attitude, and that we are the quiet achievers when compared to our ‘white’ and ‘green’ cousins. We believe in and strongly support our Air Force Values, and believe that our values are the basis of our culture. CAF’s bumper stickers are: -Be the best that we can be, with what we have, here and now; -Value our Values, and -Keep a close eye on our vision, and seek innovative means to achieve it. Even though we are going through change – Rebalance and Reshape – our culture holds us in good stead. I invite the good people of the Air Force to email me with their thoughts on what they see is our culture and what it means to them personally. I would also like to congratulate the personnel (listed below) recently awarded Air Force Commendations. ‘Till next time, please keep on smiling.
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