 Hello, I'm bingo McLean. Like you, I'm an airman. For more than 50 years, I've been privileged to serve as a member of the greatest Air Force in history. First as a cadet, then as an officer, and finally as an Air Force civilian. My career has included C-141 Navigator, F-4 Weapon Systems Officer, Exchange Duty with the U.S. Navy as an F-14 Instructor Radar Intercept Officer, Multiple Staff Tours at TAC, PACAF, UCOM and the Air Staff, and finally as a Doctrine Analyst with the Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education. Now, that doesn't make me any smarter. It just makes me older. But in getting older, I've been through many of the issues that you younger airmen will have to deal with in your careers. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Maybe a little of what I have picked up along the way can help you in your career. At least I hope you'll think so when I'm done. One of the major issues that all airmen deal with, especially when deployed, relates to the subject to command. Who's in charge of me? Who has the authority to give me a mission and the responsibility to be sure that I am able to carry out that mission? Are we doing things right? Are we doing the right things? The starting point to answering these questions and to gain a better understanding of what is involved in commanding airmen to exploit air power can be found in Air Force Annex 330, Command and Control. The complete annex can be found in the U.S. Air Force Doctrine website at doctrine.af.mil. For airmen, it is time well spent to read and understand the whole annex. But for now, let me just hit a few of the high points for you. Chain a Command, Joint Force, Component Commanders and Command Authorities in Relationship. Been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this one may come close. In this chart, you see all four of the points I just mentioned and how they fit together for command and control of joint operations. Let's break them down by each element, beginning with the chain of command. The chain of command provides an unbroken line of authority and responsibility from the President of the United States to you, the airmen in the field. It begins with the President, then proceeds to the Secretary of Defense. Below the SecDef, the chain divides into two branches, the Administrative Branch, shown here in blue, and the Operational Branch, shown here in purple. Administrative Branch from the SecDef runs through the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to the Services Command Structure of major commands, numbered air forces, wings, groups, and squadrons, ultimately to you, the airmen. Now, back in my younger days, as a debt, we were taught, sir, the mission of the United States Air Force is to organize, train, and equip air forces for the conduct of prompt and sustained combat operations in the air. Sir! Try screaming that from a position of rigid attention with an upperclassman yelling in your face, and you tend to remember it. It is through the Administrative Branch that the Air Force carries out this mission. But as airmen, we also have another mission, to fly, fight, and win, and that mission is accomplished through the Operational Branch. Whereas the Administrative Branch is responsible for preparing forces, it is the Operational Branch that employs those forces. Now, let me repeat that for emphasis. The Administrative Branch prepares and provides the forces that the Operational Branch employs for mission execution. And within the Operational Branch, the service forces are integrated into a joint force for mission execution. So what's a joint force? Within the U.S. military structure, a joint force is a generic term for a force made up of significant elements of two or more military departments organized under a single joint force commander. Joint forces include the 11 combatant commands, like Central Command, subordinate unified commands, like United States Forces' career, and joint task forces, like Joint Task Force National Capital Region, which provides military support to activities in the National Capital Region, such as presidential inaugurations. But joint forces are made up of service forces, organized and provided as a service component command. From the SECDF, the Operational Branch goes to one of the 11 combatant commanders, then to the service component commanders assigned to that combatant commander. If you look at the chart, the blocks at the bottom illustrate the different service components. As an airman, you are part of the Air Force component under the commander of Air Force forces, also called the COMF4. Notice that the two branches of the chain of command, which diverged from the SECDF, now converge at the COMF4. The COMF4 has responsibility and authority derived from both branches to prepare, provide, and employ airmen to help accomplish the Joint Force Commander's missions. The Joint Force Commander can, if they choose, conduct operations through the service component commanders. However, for many years, the more common and better practice has been for the Joint Force Commander to conduct operations by designating one of the service component commanders as a functional component commander, integrating like forces from all the services. As airmen, we are most familiar with the Joint Force Air Component Commander, the JFAC, or the Combined Force Air Component Commander, the CFAC, when part of a coalition. Although it is the authority of the JFC to designate any one of the service component commanders as the JFAC, historic practice for more than 20 years is that JFC has always chosen the COMF4 to be the JFAC. Air Force doctrine assumes that this will continue to be the case and is written to describe proven best practices and provide advice to the dual-headed COMF4 JFAC. For convenience, instead of always saying the COMF4 JFAC, we refer to this as simply the Air Component Commander. As I said before, the Air Component Commander exercises authority over airmen in both the administrative and operational branches of the chain of command. I just want to briefly point out three of those that have the most impact on you as an airman. Administrative control, ADCON, operational control, OPCON, and tactical control, TACON. As the COMF4, the Air Component Commander uses administrative control, or ADCON, as delegated from the service of administrative branch of the chain of command to ensure that Air Force forces meet Air Force standards and are properly prepared and supported in accordance with those standards to be employed for operational branch tasking. As an airman, you're subject to Air Force ADCON from the time you join until the time you finally separate. Even when you are serving as part of a joint force or with another service as I did with the Navy, you are still an airman under the ADCON of an Air Force Commander somewhere in the chain. The Air Component Commander also has operational branch authorities delegated from the JFC to employ forces for mission accomplishment. As the COMF4, the Air Component Commander holds operational control, OPCON, over Air Force forces. OPCON includes all the authorities necessary to accomplish the mission, including the authority to reorganize the forces, task airmen for specific types of functions to be accomplished, direct specific joint training for those functions, assess and assess the risk to the force and, if necessary, direct and grant waivers to service ADCON standards. In the dual role of the JFAC, the Air Component Commander also has tactical control, or TACON, over Air Force forces and other service Air Forces made available for tasking. TACON is the authority for more detailed, specific mission direction as to timing, type of target, weapon choice, etc. With TACON, the Air Component Commander, through the Air Tasking Order and Air Operations Center, provides specific mission tasking to the Air Forces and executes real-time employment of those forces. It's time for another picture. This one shows the boxes and lines that I just described from the President through both branches of the chain of command, the Air Component Commander and, ultimately, to you, the Airman, as part of the Air Force forces. The discussion we just had sounds like a great potential for confusion as to which orders you, as an Airman, are subject to, and should follow. Am I being tasked under the operational branch or the administrative branch? Is that order from OPCON, TACON or ADCON authority? Well, let me offer one of the tenets of air power as shown in this chart to help simplify it. Airmen work for Airmen and the senior Airman works for the Joint Force Commander. You, as an Airman, are included here in the Air Force Forces box. The senior Airman is the Air Component Commander, shown here as the dual-headed ComF4JFAC. Above the Air Component Commander is the Combatant Commander in the operational branch and the Air Force chain of command in the administrative branch. It is the Air Component Commander's responsibility to know and employ the correct command authority to task you. You either prepare for mission tasking or to execute that tasking. And by the time you rise to the level of the Air Component Commander, you will have years of experience and a well-trained staff to help you keep straight if the orders you are giving are from the operational branch authority of the JFC or the administrative branch authority of the Air Force chain. So, in summary, what key points should you take from this? Airmen are organized, trained, and equipped and provided for operations as part of a Joint Force under an Air Component Commander. The Air Component Commander prepares and employs Air Forces to meet the Joint Force Commander's taskings. The Air Component Commander has responsibility for and authority over Airmen in both the administrative and the operational branches of the chain of command. There are many more details and nuances to commanding Airmen and controlling air power that you will pick up throughout your careers, both from academic environments and practical experience. But those points should give you a starting point upon which to build. I gave you just an overview of some key doctrinal concepts regarding comrade, but if you'd like to know more and study the details of each doctrinal concept, it's as easy as using Google. Literally. Pull up Google and type annex 3-30 command and control of Air Force Doctrine. Back when I was a young captain, yes, I was young once. My Squadron Commander told me the most important job I would ever have was to train my replacement. That was my objective for this discussion. I now pass that charge under you. Have a great Air Force career and enjoy it while you can. Then go out.