Numerous Air National Guard, ANG, senior leaders attended the Atlantic Region Strategic Planning System, SPS, event at Berry Field Air National Guard Base in Nashville, Tennessee, Jan 23-24, 2024.
The assistant adjutant generals, chiefs of staff, directors of staff and senior enlisted leaders met to tackle the challenges in the Atlantic Region states’ that range from helping to implement the Director of the Air National Guard, DANG, strategic priorities to elevating day-to-day Airmen’ structural issues that need to be elevated to acquire real change.
“The voice of one isn’t messaged as loudly as the voice of a banded many,” said Brig. Gen. Carla Riner, Delaware ANG Chief of Staff and Atlantic Region SPS vice chair.
The ANG senior leaders meet twice a year to discuss what impacts their states and how to best find solutions. The meetings touch on three of the ANG vision statements, people, partnerships and force structure.
They work to prioritize people by taking the initiative to act as representatives on their behalf, vocalizing issues and collecting reelevate and new firsthand information and updates.
Riner said she knows their discussions are successful when their state issues get elevated to a national level. An example being when their issues with a new medical screening program were elevated all the way up to the Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
They build partnerships through these events, developing camaraderie so that other regional states know someone they can call when they need a hand, said Col. Jason Glass, Tennessee Assistant Adjutant General, Air.
“So, to me, it’s all great, at the national level, at the state level and at the regional level,” Glass said.
The capstone principles are part of the strategic planning system that helps guide the future of the ANG and it is one of the national level projects that the Atlantic Region ANG members have had a hand in. With this, ANG senior leaders are focused on force structure.
“It’s all about understanding what the DANG’s strategic priorities are and trying to help him manage the strategic outcomes,” said Brig. Gen. Drew Dougherty, Maryland Assistant Adjutant General, Air, and Atlantic Region SPS chair.