AFMC vice commander addresses Aerospace Summit Published May 31, 2007 By Brandice J. Armstrong 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- For America to prevail in the Global War on Terror, the Air Force must attack the way it conducts its everyday business with the same synergy that results in air superiority on the battlefield. That's the message Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski, Air Force Materiel Command vice commander, drove home during her keynote address May 23 at the Oklahoma Aerospace Summit and Expo in Oklahoma City. The general spoke about today's Air Force environment, the Global War on Terror and preparing for tomorrow's challenges. "The Global War on Terror is a battle in a very long war," General Gabreski said. "This enemy that we are engaged with today is committed to this fight in what he sees as a 100-year war." General Gabreski said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City were battles in this war. "We can trace the beginning of this war back to events like the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983," she said. To win the war, General Gabreski said the Air Force must face several challenges, including rising costs, lower funding, instability of fuel prices and an aging fleet. "One of the tough decisions we've had to make is how are we going to get things done effectively," she said. General Gabreski said the answer is Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, or AFSO 21, a process improvement strategy. Through continuous process improvements, the Air Force has a "broad and solid foundation for the direction we need to go," the general said. To get the maximum value from the process-improvement principles, the Air Force is applying four key principles: focus of value-added work; harness enterprise efficiencies and technologies; teamwork; and standard work throughout Air Force installations. "We can't afford to stand still to fight today's war, much less be ready to fight the potential adversaries who are out there on the horizon," said General Gabreski. "So we have to do things such as focusing, maintainability and integrated solutions, but probably the most important is we have to continue to develop our people. "In the end, people are the only things that don't lose value; they continue to appreciate," she said. General Gabreski concluded her keynote address by reacting to a remark -- "Air superiority is not a God-given right of Americans" -- attributed to former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman. In response, General Gabreski said, "General Fogleman's quote is right on, (air superiority) isn't a God-given right. It doesn't happen because we wish it would, it happens because we're the best Air Force on the planet and because we plan for tomorrow while we're doing the mission today."