Tenth Air Force commander shares thoughts with Airmen Published Feb. 16, 2010 By Public Affairs staff 419th Fighter Wing HILL AIR FORCE BASE, UTAH -- Public Affairs recently sat down with Maj. Gen. Frank J. Padilla, Commander of 10th Air Force, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas to discuss his duties and the future of the Air Force Reserve. What are your top priorities as Commander of 10th Air Force? My job is to maintain the priorities of Air Force Reserve Command and hold true to our AF Reserve values - supporting our families and our employers, all while accomplishing our mission. My job is to enable our Airmen to maintain the Reserve triad. How can reservists maintain the Reserve triad? For 20 years as a Traditional Reservist, I had to balance my family, my civilian career and my Reserve commitment. The key is to have a civilian employer that understands and a family that absolutely supports. We can help to make our employers our advocates, so that when the nation calls and we have to go, they are behind us 100 percent. What is the most pressing issue that reservists currently face? The Air Force faces a few challenges with funding and personnel cuts. So Reservists have new, emerging missions as we help our Regular AF counterparts meet increasing deployment requirements. We need to prioritize and find out where we can help out and team with our Regular AF brothers and sisters. I firmly believe that the best years of our AF are still in front of us. Despite all the challenges, we're going to make it work. That's just the culture of our Air Force; we're never satisfied with "good enough." We always strive to make things better with the resources that we have, every single day. If you could sit down and have a one-on-one discussion with every AF Reservist in the wing, what is the primary message you would convey? I would first thank them for all the incredible things they've done. I've seen the list of what the 419th Fighter Wing has accomplished through the years, all the awards they've received. It's another indication of the quality of people we have in the AF Reserve. It takes an outstanding individual, a solid family and good employer to make these things happen. My next message would be to hold to the Reserve triad and continue to embrace our AF core values - integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do - that's what our Airman do every day. Keep up the good work because great days are ahead of us.