Special assistant to vice chief of AF addresses Team Edwards Published June 1, 2011 By Kenji Thuloweit 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- "If you remember nothing else I said, remember that I said, 'Thank you.'" That's how Maj. Gen. Robin Rand, Special Assistant to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, began his address to a filled Conference Center May 25. General Rand was in town to wish Col. Janet Taylor, 95th Medical Group commander, good luck during her retirement ceremony later in the day. Colonel Taylor served under General Rand in Iraq while he was an expeditionary wing commander. The general was asked by base leadership to take some time and hold a mentoring session. He talked about the diverse Air Force mission today and its operations tempo, and how Edwards contributes to the fight. "I look at the mission as a wheel and attached are spokes, said General Rand." "Right now, if I can think of what we're doing with combat air power as we apply it in a combat application, the spokes are to provide precision weapons and sensor employment. You guys are the leading edge on that. You are the ones providing the tools to do that. There are weapons that are tested here, that weeks later, are being employed down range and are saving lives." Saving lives was a common theme of the general's mentoring session. From transporting the wounded to providing situational awareness to troops on the ground, General Rand emphasized the Air Force's role in Southwest Asia. He mentioned the role of the Joint Expeditionary Tasking, or JET, Airmen. These Airmen augment the Army so that the "trigger pullers" can focus more on combat missions. The profiles General Rand offered of young Airmen he commanded or met while in Iraq moved the emotions of the audience. He talked about how a young officer volunteered to deploy to Iraq and turned around his protocol office to run more efficiently. He described a young Airman who was by himself filling up barriers with dirt without any supervision, but with a sense of mission and individual responsibility. He talked about two technical sergeants who were vehicle operators deployed to Baghdad International Airport. Technical sergeants Juliano and Pattison were working on a vehicle when enemy rockets landed about two feet from where they were working. Both sergeants were severely wounded and were medevaced to a hospital that could treat their wounds. Due to the severity of their injuries, they had to be stabilized for 72 hours and put into medically induced comas before they could be transported out of Iraq. Neither one of them knew what had happened. General Rand visited both sergeants to pin their Purple Hearts on them just before they were flown out. He said when they were brought out of their comas, the first thing Sergeant Juliano did, after becoming emotional, was ask for a pen and paper - he could not speak. All he wrote on the paper was 'Pattison.' He was asking how his buddy was. "As a guy like me who is winding down and stepping to the side, it gives me great comfort to know that we have men and women like those I served with and you in this room that represent our future." Before serving together in Iraq, General Rand and Colonel Taylor both served at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea and Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. General Rand put in a request to get Colonel Taylor deployed to serve as a chief nurse in Iraq. "She came over during the worst time of the war," he said. "On her first week there, we had mass casualties. The surge had just started kicking in. This was the time when every month our casualties increased. Colonel Taylor ran that hospital in a way - 480 people total and 240 nursing personnel that reported directly to her. Because her background was heavily into trauma she spent a lot of time in the trauma area." General Rand said he was able to present the Bronze Star to her at the end of her tour and told his commander that there was no one else in the Air Force more deserving to receive that medal than Colonel Taylor. The general stated how these stories of Airmen show the great sacrifice military members endure and why they serve, for the country and for each other. After his remarks, General Rand stayed around for a few minutes so that audience members could talk to him one-on-one before heading off to Colonel Taylor's retirement ceremony. General Rand was commissioned in 1979 following graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy. During his career, which includes six overseas assignments, he's had multiple flying tours, been an air liaison officer with the U.S. Army, and served on the Joint Staff and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. General Rand commanded the 36th Fighter Squadron, USAF Weapons School, 8th Fighter Wing and 56th Fighter Wing. He also commanded the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, Balad Air Base, Iraq. Prior to his current assignment, he served as Director, Legislative Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. General Rand is a command pilot with more than 4,930 flying hours, including over 470 combat hours.