Pacific Command senior enlisted leader visits JBER

  • Published
  • By Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Command Master Chief Petty Officer Mark Rudes visited JBER to witness the base's capabilities and joint opportunities Aug. 14 to Aug. 16 2012.

"The reason I'm visiting as the U.S. Pacific Command senior enlisted leader is I've got great responsibility," Pacific Command senior enlisted leader from Speculator, N.Y., said. "I work on developing the senior enlisted partnerships in those countries, as well as our joint force - Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, and when needed, the Coast Guard.

"If you ever take a look at a globe and divide it off from the east coast of India, North Pole to South Pole, and go over to the West coast of the United States and divide that globe in half, that's my area," he said. "36 countries; it's about 52 percent of the planet."
Rudes said he was impressed with JBER.

"JBER is an integral part of the entire [Air Force] team," he said. "Strategically, the location is important, the capabilities here are important."

The success of the joint basing and operations here will continue to be used, he said.
"At Pacific Command, we view the Alaska command as a very important element of our overall team," the command master chief said. "I'm sure Northern Command feels the exact same way. It's an interesting dynamic because there're many hats being worn by the commander here and so, depending on the question asked, you can see that importance because they've got those responsibilities."

Rudes said he wanted every service member to realize the importance of their daily work.

"Every single Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine provides relevance to the mission that we're doing," he said. "If you think for a moment that you're just doing a routine, if you step back and look at the world and see how quickly it's changing, how we are helping shape that; everyone is important in that process.

"Continue to try to professionally improve yourself every chance you have," Rudes said. "Whether that's strengthening your relationship with your family, furthering your own education, taking on opportunities as they present themselves, infusing your leadership so that you can grow and climb that ladder."

He said there are many capabilities he didn't know JBER had.

"This is a great base," he said. "I was introduced to some capabilities that I didn't even realize were up here. The joint-training complex is just state-of-the-art, both the Army and the Air Force bring a new level of skills that I'm very happy I've now seen, so that I can help share and communicate that across the theater. This is no exception. JBER probably has one of the best [noncommissioned officer] academies that I've seen; it's impressive that you're able to train your [staff sergeants] and [master sergeants] together in a collaborative way is a special thing. I'm going take that as well and share it with the other services.

"It's pretty exciting," he said. "This is a great time to be serving in our military."