Secretary of the Air Force Visits the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - Oct. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- FORT BELVOIR, VA – Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James, visited the Defense Threat Reduction Agency/United States Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction for the first time on October 8 to host an Air Force Town Hall and familiarize herself more with DTRA/SCC’s mission and projects the Agency partners on with the United States Air Force.

Addressing the crowd, Secretary James thanked the airmen in attendance, saying “I came today to learn more about the missions and work of DTRA and to spend time with our airmen. I thought I knew what DTRA did, but after being here, I can tell you, it’s not your Grandaddy’s DTRA. From your work in treaty verification, or the Jordan Border Security project which the senior leadership of Jordan credits with keeping their country safe, the work you did during the Ebola crisis and your responsibilities in the nuclear enterprise--thanks for the important mission you are performing here at DTRA.”

James reiterated her top three priorities for the Air Force; taking care of people, balancing the readiness of today with the modernization of tomorrow and making every dollar count. “Taking care of our people is number one. We need to continue to recruit, retain and develop our people; all our people. That includes Active Duty, Guard, Reserve and our families,” she stated, “We need modernize our Air Force and make cyber, nuclear and space investments while making sure we’re efficient in all we do.”

James answered questions from the audience on a wide range of topics from diversity to recruiting to potential impacts to missions at Ellsworth, Kirtland and Dyess AFB, which were recently transferred to Global Strike Command. “There shouldn’t be any impacts on those bases,” she said, “The people and assets remain in place but now all bombers will be under one command.”

DTRA/SCC Deputy Director Major General John Horner, the Senior Air Force officer at DTRA/SCC and one of the hosts of the event said, “Its honor to host the Secretary of the Air Force. With her experience on the Hill, in corporate America and within the Department of Defense, Secretary James brings an enormous breadth of expertise as the 23^rd Secretary of the Air Force and is a strong advocate for our airmen.”

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DTRA is the U.S. Department of Defense’s official Combat Support Agency for countering weapons of mass destruction, addressing the entire spectrum of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosive threats. DTRA’s programs include basic science research and development, operational support to U.S. warfighters on the front line, and an in-house WMD think tank that aims to anticipate and mitigate future threats long before they have a chance to harm the United States and our allies. SCC-WMD, the U.S. Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction, synchronizes Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction efforts across our military’s geographic commands and leverages the people, programs and interagency relationships of DTRA at a strategic level. We work with the military services, other elements of the United States government, and countries across the planet on counter proliferation, nonproliferation and WMD reduction issues with one goal in mind: Making the World Safer.