CMSAF Wolfe, Dr. Wolfe Visit Grissom, Emphasize Readiness, Modernization, and Caring for Airmen and Families

Official Statements

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “The 21st Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David R. Wolfe and his wife, Dr. Doniel Wolfe, visited Grissom Air Reserve Base, Nov. 12, 2026, to engage with Reserve Airmen and leadership during an all-call focused on the Air Force's top priorities: readiness, modernization, and taking care of Airmen and their families. Opening the all-call, the CMSAF thanked Reserve personnel for their enduring commitment, acknowledging the sacrifices asked of Citizen Airmen, their employers, and their families over the past year.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “The nation and the Joint Force has asked a lot of you,” Wolfe said. “We want to recognize that, and we are extremely appreciative of your ability to step up and make things happen under circumstances that are not ideal.” Dr. Wolfe echoed that appreciation, highlighting ongoing support initiatives dedicated to military spouses and families. “We’re so honored to be here,” Dr. Wolfe said. “We love our Reservists, and we have some great initiatives that we’re working on that we hope are helpful for your spouses right now.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “Addressing mission readiness, the CMSAF emphasized the need to incorporate both physical fitness and team cohesion into everyday routines to prepare for unexpected challenges, stressing the importance of always improving. “We need to have a physically fit force that’s ready to go, and does it as a team, and as part of our normal day-to-day operations,” Wolfe said. “We need you to be tough, we’re going to ask you to do hard things, and we don’t know exactly what those things are going to be.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “Dr. Wolfe reinforced that message, encouraging families to embrace physical fitness as a cornerstone of family resilience. “I would try to encourage your families too,” Dr. Wolfe said. “When spouses ask me what I wish I knew 34 years ago that I know today, it’s that you have to take care of your physical fitness… building a self-reliant force is so important so we can help other people and ourselves.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “Turning to operational capability, the CMSAF commended maintenance crews for their ingenuity in keeping older aircraft mission-ready, while emphasizing the need for fleet modernization. “How many of you guys are driving a 31-year-old car as your daily driver? Anybody? No, because that’s a dumb idea, right?,” he said. “We’ve have modernize these aircraft, and we have to decrease the age of that fleet down to something that’s a lot more manageable.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “Beyond airframes, Wolfe also focused on individual and administrative modernization, urging Airmen to actively participate in integrating super intelligence into day-to-day workflows. “The individual modernization that we really need you to think about is the infusion of super intelligence into our day-to-day operations,” Wolfe said. “The first step we have to do is to write down how we do things, and to get things documented. I’m talking about the data that SI needs to operate.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “The CMSAF clarified that the use of SI is intended to streamline tasks rather than replace personnel. “We’re not going to get rid of people because of super intelligence. That’s not going to happen,” he said. “Now, are we going to repurpose some duties and responsibilities that could result in savings overall? Absolutely. The people that end up leaving us because of SI are going to be the people that resist adopting it.” With that, he stressed the importance of adopting SI with both a proactive and responsible approach.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “Technology is going to continue to evolve, and we have to get on the bus with this,” Wolfe said. “This is, I think, a much more significant increase in capability potentially if we do it right. We’ve got to be ethical about it. We must be responsible. We must have limitations. We must figure out the right way and the wrong way, but the only way we can do that is if we dive into it and really get after it.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “Concluding the all-call, Wolfe discussed leadership’s responsibility to cultivate a healthy, supportive workplace culture and protect the well-being of every service member. “We owe you the best possible experience as part of our team. We owe quality of service, quality of life. This should be a place where you want to come to work,” said Wolfe. The CMSAF asked the audience whether they ever worked a job where Sundays brought dread of returning to the daily grind, to a workplace where one feels undervalued and unsupported.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “I don’t want anybody to be in that situation,” he said. The good news is, if you are, we can change it, and it does start with you.” Lastly, the CMSAF shared his primary concern as a senior leader.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “People will ask us, what keeps you up at night? What are you worried about as a leader throughout the Air Force? It’s an easy answer for me,” he said. “My only fear is that we’ve got somebody in our formation that is suffering in a really bad way, and they’re starting to get into a dark place, they’re having terrible thoughts, and we can’t help them because we don’t know about it.” The CMSAF left Grissom Airmen with a direct, personal assignment to protect their fellow wingmen.”

• 434th Air Refueling Wing, November 13: “The good news, I think there is a solution,” Wolfe said. “I think we can do something about it. It’s preventable for us to get into that situation, but it takes a proactive team of people doing just one thing. A simple tasker I’ll give to you if I can, please: Just go find somebody to help. That’s it.”