Air Mobility Command Welcomes New Director of Safety, Col John B. Kelley

Hello from lovely Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. I’m Col John Kelley, your new Air Mobility Command (AMC) Director of Safety. I am excited and honored to join the ranks of safety professionals at such a dynamic and pivotal time for our Air Force. My career has intersected with safety many times—as an aircrew member flying combat sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq, as a planner and strategist on staff, as a squadron and deputy wing commander leading Airmen, and as a “Senior” controlling missions on the 618th Air Operations Center operations floor. With each position and duty, I gained a more comprehensive appreciation of how foundational safety culture is to airpower’s success. I learned firsthand throughout my Air Force journey how a strong safety culture focused on mishap prevention and risk mitigation is a combat capability multiplier, enabling more lethality while protecting Airmen.

If your journey in the Air Force is anything like mine, you have been the recipient of many lectures on hazards and mishap prevention. From cold weather driving dangers to the 101 critical days of summer, few activities in the Air Force are as ubiquitous as a squadron safety briefing. Whether those briefings focus on flight crew safety, confined space safety, or weapons safety, we grow up in our respective fields with mishap prevention. Mishap prevention and proactive safety practices are the gifts our predecessors passed on to keep us safe. However, mishap prevention is one-half of the safety mandate. The concept of risk mitigation is equally important.

Great Power Competition and the challenges of facing peer adversaries in conflict demand Airman warfighters understand not only the inherent risks involved in military operations but also when increased risk may be necessary or even beneficial. Identifying the situational risks, who can accept those risks, and how to use the available tools to mitigate the risks are skills we all need to hone.

Understanding risk identification, mitigation, and acceptance is a critical skill for the next challenges we face as AMC and as an Air Force. The demands on our Mobility Airmen will only go up as we train and prepare for Great Power Competition. During the next year, I will discuss different aspects of risk and how Airmen can use risk understanding to make better decisions both on and off duty and in training and combat.

Again, I am honored to be a part of our command safety team as we embrace Great Power Competition as only Mobility Airmen can. Fly, Fix, Support—Let’s Go!

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