WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with Air Force General Kenneth S. Wilsbach during his hearing to be reappointed as General and Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Read Sen. Tuberville’s remarks below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you very much, General. Good to see you. Congratulations. Look forward to working with you, and on your important mission in front of you. While we’re on these KC-46s—I don’t think any of us know how far along that we’ve gone. We’ve gone a long time trying to build these things. Give us your evaluation. Are they working now? Do we have enough range in the Indo-Pacific? Where do we stand with that? Because we can do all of the Sorties we want, we can build all these planes, but if you can’t refuel them in the Indo-Pacific, we got problems.”
WILSBACH: “Exactly right. So, fuel in the air is the key to our success. My experience with the KC-46 has been positive. And I know that we have some issues that we have to take care of—specifically with the boom system that needs to be fixed at this point. But overall, very happy with the platform. And it does provide us with not just air refueling, but it does many other missions. We can’t talk about those in this setting. We can come back in a closed session to talk about some of the other things that that gives us, which other tankers didn’t give us in the past. So, it is a force multiplier there. So, I’m pretty pleased and I think the progress that we’re seeing with the fixes that are coming in are promising.”
TUBERVILLE: “Yeah. Thank you. In your career, you’ve had probably a lot of experiences, you and your wife, family of base facilities. Recruiting is very important. We are getting a lot of bad information on—well, I can’t say it’s bad information. A lot of information from some of these bases that were having problems with base housing facilities and we haven’t done enough. I mean, if we don’t take care of our families, we’re not gonna be able to recruit people who’ll be in our military. I don’t care what leg of the military. What’s your thoughts on that?”
WILSBACH: “So Cindy and I have traveled all over the Pacific and all over the continental United States visiting airmen and their families. Cindy spent a lot of time with the families and you’re right, Senator. At almost every base, she also meets with the first sergeants who talk a lot about living in the ‘dorms’—that’s what the Air Force calls the barracks. And there’s multiple complaints—many, many, many places there are complaints. And you’re exactly right, we owe it to America’s sons and daughters to have quality of life and quality of service. And part of that quality of life is the place that they live. And when they live on base in a facility, that facility should be safe, it should be clean, and it should be of high quality, just like their service.”
TUBERVILLE: “And we have to put that as a priority. If we don’t do that, they’re not gonna get any better. And since I’ve been here, I’ve heard a lot of rhetoric about, ‘hey, we’re gonna do this and that.’ But, still we have a lot of our bases that are sending back problems in terms of housing and schools and things [related] to where we educate our kids. That is very, very important.”
WILSBACH: “Great.”
TUBERVILLE: “And I hope we continue to make that a priority. And I’m on the Personnel [sub]committee, and I’m also on the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors. And we’ve had problems there. Are you aware of any of the problems? And will you get personally involved in making sure that we train leaders to fight foreign adversaries instead of this woke nonsense that a lot of our academies have been in for a few years?”
WILSBACH: “I will, Senator, and if confirmed, I do wanna get personally involved there. So, I share a passion that I know that you do of making warriors that are physically, mentally, and spiritually tough. And I believe that you get there by doing hard things together and teaching, coaching, and mentoring after those sessions where maybe you didn’t meet the standard, but next time you will. And the Air Force Academy is a great place for that to happen. And I just had a conversation with the superintendent yesterday, and the academy today is starting one of those exercises with all of the cadets. And they’re gonna get tougher in the next couple of days, which I love.”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, thank you. Congratulations, and good luck to your Florida Gators. You and your wife, she’s wearing her Gator colors today. Big win last week, but they’re all big. So good luck to the Gators. Thank you.”
WILSBACH: “Thank you, Senator.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.
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