ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Air Force Reserve Command senior leaders joined their counterparts from across the Air and Space Force to discuss Total Force Integration during the 2023 TFI Symposium at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, March 14 and 15.
Lt. Gen. John Healy, chief of the Air Force Reserve and commander of Air Force Reserve Command, Maj. Gen. Maureen Banavige, mobilization assistant to Healy in his role as AFRC commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Timothy White Jr., Healy’s senior enlisted advisor and AFRC’s command chief master sergeant, represented the Reserve at the event.
Healy, Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider, Air Force director of staff, Lt. Gen. Michael Loh, director of the Air National Guard, and Katharine Kelley, deputy chief of Space Operations for Human Capital, presented their component and service perspectives on TFI during a fireside chat.
“After just seven months of standing up the Air Force, the Air Force Reserve was created,” Healy said during his opening comments. “They knew they needed a Total Force partner to be successful with capacity at a cost savings. The Air Force Reserve was created 75 years ago this April, and we have been a part of every war, every conflict, every dust-up since then and we are going to continue to be a part of it going forward.”
The senior leaders covered several topics, including the culture of each component.
“When an active-duty member comes over to the Reserve, it is for the culture,” Healy said. “It is the opportunity to lay down roots in the unit and the community. They come for the culture, and they stay for the culture.”
Banavige gave her presentation, “IMAs: Total Force Accelerants for Innovation,” and answered questions from the virtual audience.
“Over time, IMAs have served in every major conflict and major surge operation since our inception,” she said. “From the Gulf War to the Global War on Terrorism to Hurricane Katrina to the rebuilding of Tyndall Air Force Base to the COVID pandemic and most recently with the Chinese balloons, IMAs are out there doing great things.”
White participated in a TFI senior enlisted panel discussion with Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Ramón Colón-López, Chief Master Sgt. JoAnne Bass, the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, and Chief Master Sgt. Tony Whitehead, the senior enlisted advisor to the chief of the National Guard Bureau.
“Our Reserve Citizen Airmen bring their skills and expertise from their civilian careers to the Total Force,” White said. “This is one of the things that makes us so valuable. I am so proud to be a Reservist because of who we are as a command and what we bring to the fight every day.”
In addition to the senior leader participants, several other AFRC members sat on panels and gave presentations in their areas of expertise.