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AETC chiefs gather at Luke for symposium

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Clinton Atkins
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  More than 50 chiefs from across Air Education and Training Command came to Luke Air Force Base for the AETC Chief Symposium Sept. 11-13.

The chiefs discussed a myriad of Air Force issues, engaged with community leaders and visited units around the base to learn about Luke’s unique mission.

“We want to bring wing command chiefs and staff chiefs across the command here to Luke because there are so many great things happening that we want to expose them to,” said Chief Master Sgt. Juliet Gudgel, AETC command chief.

Gudgel was excited to expose the chiefs from across the major command to Luke’s innovations such as the Lightning Integrated Technician program, a home grown initiative that combines four career fields to produce nose-to-tail F-35A Lightning II maintainers.

“It’s a great idea and we let Airmen run with those ideas so that we can save time,” she said. “We can create the next great Air Force Specialty Code for our Air Force.”

Gudgel said the symposium was more than just showing off Luke’s Airmen and its leading-edge initiatives, it was also a moment to showcase Luke’s exemplary relationship with the surrounding community.

“We want the chiefs to see how the community interacts here at Luke,” she said. “It’s different from any other AETC base we’ve been to. We want to introduce them to those civic leaders so that they can go back to their own communities with ideas.”

Gudgel hopes Luke’s success stories can be translated into further success for other AETC bases.

According to Gudgel, it’s been years since AETC had an off-site chief symposium, and given its success and what they were able to accomplish at Luke, the AETC chiefs will be visiting more bases throughout the MAJCOM.

“In the future, our goal is to go out to bases across the command and highlight the mission and success stories and then again bring those civic leaders so they can talk about the great things they’re doing within those communities,” she said. “We have so many things that we can do to help move things forward as chiefs within AETC, and if we expose them to different mission sets, we’re going to be successful.”