ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Honorable Kristyn Jones, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, performing the duties of under secretary of the Air Force, toured the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility May 1-9.
Jones met with Airmen, Guardians, joint service members, and military families at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Joint Region Marianas, Guam; Kadena Air Base, Japan; and U.S. Forces Japan.
At each location in this priority theater, she communicated the Department of the Air Force's mandate to project power and expand combat capability across the region and the joint force. She spoke with commanders to better understand their resource requirements and their challenges in preparing for the strategic pacing challenge presented by the People's Republic of China. During her meetings with Airmen, Guardians and their families, Jones further emphasized the importance of people – the Department’s most valuable resource.
"Visiting our Airmen and Guardians serving in the Indo-Pacific provided me with firsthand knowledge to inform resourcing discussions at headquarters,” Jones said. “It is our responsibility to provide our service members and their families with what they need to execute demanding daily missions while preparing for future conflicts per the National Defense Strategy,"
Jones's visit focused on a wide range of Department capabilities enabling the joint force, from maintaining base infrastructure and aircraft to ensuring uninterrupted operations of satellites in orbit.
While in Hawaii, she met with Pacific Air Forces leadership to better understand the major command's overall infrastructure, mission challenges, and opportunities relative to the pacing challenge.
In Guam, Jones toured Anderson Air Force Base to better understand fuel and munitions storage capacity and the mission of the 21st Space Operations Squadron. In addition, Jones met with telecommunications and power providers, who maintain the critical infrastructure for an increasingly networked global joint force. A stop at Tinian further reinforced the recurring theme of the criticality of infrastructure. Jones reflected on the Guam portion of her trip in a statement in late May.