Connett honored to be part of 81st TRG legacy Published July 20, 2011 By Steve Hoffmann 81st Training Wing Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- June 28, Col. Lynn Connett will be stepping down as commander of the 81st Training Group. She's been no stranger to Keesler, having graduated from the administrative officers course in 1987 and serving as commander of the 81st Mission Support Squadron from 2002 to 2004. According to Connett, her third time has not only been a charm -- it's been an incredibly rewarding experience. Here are some farewell comments from a recent interview with the colonel. What does it mean to be the commander of the 81st Training Group? For me, what it means to be the commander of the 81st TRG is understanding our mission and its relevance to the Air Force. Our mission here is technical training. But at a strategic level we're building the next generation of Airmen. And making sure my folks understand our long term generational impact on this force is critical to me. What we do here doesn't just make a difference next week, next month, or next year. What we do here ripples through our Air Force for a generation. The Airmen we graduate at Keesler will be tomorrow's future leaders. How has being the commander of the 81st TRG prepared you for your next assignment? I graduated from Keesler technical training school in 1987. Fast forward to 2009 and I'm taking command of the 81st TRG. The 22 years in between had honed the functional and strategic competencies the Air Force needed for me to be successful in this job. What has the last two years done for me? It's helped build my confidence. But more importantly it's continued to hone my strategic appreciation for where we stand as a service and what we need to do as we look forward to the challenges ahead. It's been an incredibly rewarding two years here at Keesler. In leaving, I know I've made an impact for the better and I now become a part of the legacy that the 81st TRG has in helping develop our next generation of Airmen. Can you describe that impact? I give full credit to the Airmen, and when I say Airmen, I mean the officer, enlisted and civilian members of our group. It's been an honor to be in command of Airmen who have engaged in historic transformations over the last two years. One of those was standing up the cyber schoolhouse. We transformed communications and information from a support focus to an operational posture. We embarked on a game plan for facilities modernization. We've had several new facilities open throughout the 81st Training Wing since Katrina. However, we still have numerous 1950s era facilities. When I walked in the door two years ago I asked, "What's our five-year plan?"We've got a 30-year plan for the wing, but what's our five-year plan? You have to take small steps in order to get to that 30-year goal.We didn't really have one so I said, "We're going to build one."We're going to take our dollars and we're going to start targeting facilities for renovation. For example, if you wanted to see what a building looked like in the 1950s, all you had to do was walk onto the second floor of Allee Hall. Last year, we started total renovation of the second floor. Upon completion, it's going to be a 21st century academic training facility. Over the last two years, we spent more than $5 million targeting specific facilities to bring them up to current day standards. Another huge accomplishment was our reorganization of the 81st TRG. After the Program Budget Decision 720 cuts, the group lost a significant number of key leadership positions. Remaining personnel were dual-hatted to cover the losses. When I arrived, I took a look at where we were following those manpower reductions and I said, "How do we fix this?" So we pulled together a team to take a look at how we could reorganize to fill in the gaps. The fix entailed standing down a squadron and realigning the mission sets to other squadrons in the 81st TRG. That allowed us to take the management overhead and use those billets to buy back the lost leadership positions. Reorganizing the group to align with our manpower is one of our most significant accomplishments. It entailed a great deal of work and was an emotional event, but the 81st TRG pulled together and we did it right. We also received an "excellent" rating during last year's UCI inspection. Of our seven squadrons at the time, six received overall excellent ratings. What do you like most about Keesler? My family and I greatly enjoy the people. This community is one of the friendliest I've ever been in. I always refer to Keesler as a generational town. My kids are going to schools where parents and grandparents have gone to school. Folks know one another based on years of friendships and interaction. My family and I feel like a part of this community. In all of our Air Force travels, this is the one place we call home. What have been your biggest challenges? Probably resource constraints, but I think that's true for any commander in the Air Force. Whether it's money, facilities, or manpower, there's always going to be resource constraints. Those have been our biggest challenges, but they've never stopped us from meeting our mission requirements. What are you looking forward to most with your next move? Reuniting with my family. We came to Keesler as a family. My husband, Col. Jay Stone, was deployed three months after we arrived and was gone for seven months. While he was deployed, he was promoted to colonel, which we're very proud of. But the promotion led to his reassignment to Washington, D.C., shortly after he returned from deployment. So I jokingly tell folks I've been a geographic single mom for the last two years. We have three children. Our oldest has been with dad for the past year, so it's been a unique assignment for us as a family. What is your next assignment? I'm returning to Air Staff and will serve as deputy director for plans and integration, HAF/A1X. The directorate oversees all the information technology systems for personnel programs and the associated budgeting requirements. Is there anything else you would like to add? I have a passion for what we do here in the 81st TRG. I was so honored to have been selected to be the commander of a training group. I think Air Education and Training is the most important command we have in the Air Force. We are not the world's best Air Force because of the quality of our technology. We are the world's best Air Force because of the quality of our Airmen. I also want to add that the training group does not operate in a vacuum. We would not succeed without the support of the other groups, agencies and contractors in the 81st TRW. One of the things I will walk away with is the sense of pride and community Team Keesler shares as a whole in accomplishing our mission of training Airmen.