By Lisa Roskelley
Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
Thursday, June 16, 2005

LAYTON -- Chatting may be the military's next great communication innovation.

And it may as well come from the top now, since it's a common practice in the ranks. Jumping on the bandwagon now at least puts leadership in the same vein, Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, told hundreds of people Wednesday at the Davis Conference Center.

Jumper compared the efforts of the top brass in a command center to the troops on the ground solving problems improv style.

"We're like the tribal leaders sitting around the campfire trying to light our peace pipes," he said. "But the captains are out there typing away planning."

Jumper said the traditional course of C2, command and control, is giving way to a new era of C2, collaboration and connectivity. The traditional version is one of ownership of a plan, he said, and the new innovation is one of focusing on the mission.

"This is the new C2," Jumper said. "It's the job of the leaders in this room to (bring about) the right kind of collaboration."

And he'd like for that collaboration to evolve at the speed of light rather than the speed of typing.

In essence, Jumper kicked off the 26th annual Utah Air Force Association's Focus on Defense Symposium -- one of jointness and interservicing.

Throughout the daylong conference, the top defense officials from around the country -- military and civilian alike -- offered suggestions on how to join efforts across services to make the U.S. military as a whole better.

Jumper had a few key words of importance to the business of logistics, including agility, access and integration.

A case in point Jumper showed were convoy trucks being attacked in Iraq repeatedly. Instead of getting the trucks off the road in the most dangerous places, he said the Army's list of options doesn't include utilizing the Air Force.

"Nowhere in there does it say ask the Air Force for help," Jumper said, acknowledging the Air Force's own inability to offer help.

However, along with the heightened awareness of technology and improved communication come other problems, he said.

"(We need to) put some discipline into it," Jumper said. "Some of the vocabulary in there isn't what you want to see. Rethink our senior leadership (so they) facilitate the inevitable collaboration and do it in a way that is understandable and directable."

Gen. Greg "Speedy" Martin, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command, Hill's headquarters, also stressed the benefits of using those lower on the chain to the best of their ability.

"The troops, when they understand the mission, they make it happen," Martin said. "We don't want to be the ones ... to inject barriers. ... The troops are way ahead of us."

Martin and Jumper were in unison when offering more rounded approaches to missions. Jumper stressed that the military should take advantage of what's already happening and adapt missions to be cooperative instead of running single missions.