WASHINGTON – Last week, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Troy Meink, during his Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing.
Read excerpts from their exchange below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.
TUBERVILLE: “Dr. Meink, this question is for you here on the future of engineering in your department. […] We’re gonna have a tough time keeping good engineers and people employed because of the private companies taking our good people away out of the military. What’s your thoughts and your plan of hopefully keeping the best and the brightest in the military instead of taking the private route?” […]
MEINK: “Thanks for the question, Senator. And just kind of to echo, I think it’s not just money. I think it is the opportunity to do advanced research, do advanced engineering that has a mission outcome. Right? That what we found in my current organization is it’s a very highly technical workforce. We’ve done very well in recruiting and retention, and it goes kinda back to the quality of service I mentioned a little bit earlier—[…] when you bring in these really skilled, talented people, regardless of what that talent is, you need to have—there needs to be an opportunity for them to be successful and to do what they love to do because it takes a lot of work to get some of these skill sets. I think in many cases, that’s even more important than just pure funding or pure salary.”
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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