Take advantage of Team Vance's joint nature Published Nov. 27, 2006 By Col Kevin Kriner 71st Operations Group Commander Vance Air Force Base, Okla. -- One of the great attributes of Vance Air Force Base is the "joint" nature of our operations. What is "joint"? Joint is two or more of our armed services working together to get the mission done. Here we're blessed to have Airmen, Sailors and Marines working side by side to develop the nation's newest pilots -- the only joint flying training operation in the command. Until a few months ago, we also had a U.S. Army presence, which gave the 71st Flying Training Wing a joint full house! Our Army brethren have departed after a job well done, but we still have a great opportunity for cross-service interaction ... and we should all take advantage of it. Until recent history, interaction between the various branches of our armed forces was best characterized by the separate services working in isolation to serve their own needs. With little knowledge, understanding or appreciation of the enormous capability they possessed working as a team, joint operations were typically executed only when the demands of war forced the services to integrate on the battle field. Even though the value of "jointness" was recognized from conflict to conflict, the joint bonds formed under fire were quickly left to atrophy as fast as the last shots fell silent. Service-centric thinking and inter-service rivalry rapidly filled the resulting void and "joint lessons" were left to be relearned by the warriors who followed. Not a great way of doing business. The beginning of the end of this cycle began with the passing of the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. Along with centralizing operational authority through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the legislation highlighted service integration as the key to operational success in the future. The joint successes, and failures, we've experienced since then, from Operation Desert Storm through ongoing combat operations, have reinforced this point and served as extra motivation towards better service integration. One of the many initiatives instituted to achieve this goal was the establishment of Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance AFB -- the U.S. Air Force's only JSUPT base. That not only empowers us to meet the joint pilot needs of the U.S. military, but also affords us a great opportunity to go beyond the mission and become familiar with the other services: their people, mission and unique operations. By nature, each of the services is different, and under the joint umbrella, that is good and necessary. Recognizing and understanding the differences will enable better integration before we reach the battlefield. Each of us can promote that cause by exploiting the opportunity that exists here -- going beyond our day-to-day mission to learn about the other services. Keep up the great work!