THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080706
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
God and the soldier, whom all people adore,
In times of conflict, and no more.
When the war is gone, and all that's wrong is righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier's slighted.
- Anonymous
Chief Master Sgt. David J. Campanale likes to quote this poem to make a point: With all the cuts of the post Cold War drawdown, people in the military make up far less than 1 percent of the nation's population.
``Yet,'' he adds, ``they're still expected to give so much.''
Making sure they get their due for it is one of Campanale's jobs as the highest-ranking enlisted man in the Air Force, a position he was appointed to three months ago.
In a visit last week to Langley Air Force Base, the former B-52 maintenance crew chief told a group of enlisted personnel how the service is trying to provide them compensation and rewards with resources that are spread ever thinner.
``In the past few years, we've lost sight of `our' Air Force - our team, our voice - because we're smaller now,'' Campanale said. ``That means we have to go to more places, with lots of different rules.''
Salaries, which he placed at 12.6 percent lower than comparable civilian pay, are always a top concern for airmen, he said. So is adequate housing, a good quality of life, and ``to know they will be taken care of.''
``We hire drug-free, highly motivated, responsible young people. We need to keep a ready force, and they need to receive reasonable compensation.''
Complicating that effort are the forces at work in the post Cold War world, forces that are redefining the military.
``Our mission has changed, from nonlethal to humanitarian. What our people really want the most now is stability, and the chance to just settle down,'' he said.
Among the 300 people attending the gathering with Campanale last week, questions about education, training and testing predominated. They wanted to know more about opportunities for professional as well as technical training, and about how to get recognition from the service for their college degrees.
One airman asked Campanale why, with recent cutbacks, so many staff sergeants and technical sergeants - ``the working leaders'' - were forced out of the service.
His reply: ``Because that's where the fat was.''
Now, he added, the Air Force is nearing the end of its drawdown ``and we can start to get back to some career progressions.''
In recent years, the Air Force has shed nearly one-third of its members, from a high of 608,000 five years ago, to 400,000 by the end of this fiscal year and finally to 385,000 by 1997.
``People think just because we've been in a drawdown that we're not hiring anymore,'' Campanale said. ``That's just not true. This year, we'll take in about 31,000 recruits and about 4,000 new officers.''
Campanale's message to airmen was to speak up, without fear for how outspokenness might affect advancement. ``You have a right to be heard,'' he said.
The chief master sergeant said the message he's getting from Air Force enlisted members is ``just to stop change, so they don't have to keep looking over their shoulders to see what's gaining on them. They can just start to look ahead.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
CARL CASON
David J. Campanale, Air Force chief master sergeant
Graphic
DAVID J. CAMPANALE
Rank: Chief master sergeant of the Air Force.
Age: 42, born Oct. 7, 1952, in Worcester, Mass.
Service highlights: Joined Air Force 1970; trained as aircraft
maintenance specialist, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, 1971; B-52
crew chief assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., 1971-1974;
three tours in Guam in support of B-52 missions in Southeast Asia;
senior enlisted adviser, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base,
Ill., 1992-94.
Selected honors: Legion of Merit, Meritorius Service Medal with
two oak leaf clusters, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with
Palm.
Family: Wife, Barbara, two daughters.
by CNB