By Jeff Mullin, Senior Writer
Enid News and Eagle The Enid News and Eagle

ENID — In his 29 years of service, Chief Master Sgt. James Roy has seen many changes in the Air Force.

Young airmen are going through experiences and taking on responsibilities far beyond their years, are serving side by side with troops from other U.S. services and coalition forces and are facing the stress of combat deployments.

Roy, chief master sergeant of the Air Force, the service’s top-ranking enlisted man, visited Vance Air Force Base Thursday and Friday.

Roy hadn’t been to Vance since about 2001, when he was command chief master sergeant at another pilot training base, Columbus AFB, Miss.

One thing hadn’t changed, he said.

“Even back then I remember how strong the community was with Vance,” Roy said. “It’s no surprise when I come back here and I meet some great community partners that absolutely love the military and love us being here, love the mission.”

Like Columbus, Roy said, Vance is a small base, and, as such, requires its young airmen to fill a variety of roles, and thus receive valuable experience and develop leadership skills at a young age.

“Our people are absolutely tremendous,” he said. “We have young airmen, young NCOs who are doing things here at Vance that we have much more senior personnel doing elsewhere. That’s a testament to the leadership here, it’s a testament to the training and education we provide to these young NCOs that they are willing and able to step up to these leadership challenges.”

Among Roy’s duties is serving as senior enlisted adviser to the secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force chief of staff. He said the Air Force values bases like Vance, where the primary mission is undergraduate pilot training.

“That is who we are in the United States Air Force,” Roy said, “so we place a lot of value on places like Vance and the product they produce, that combat-ready pilot.”

Besides combat-ready pilots, Vance deploys a number of young airmen overseas every year, 100 in fiscal year 2010 alone, many to combat zones. These young men and women, Roy said, are ready to assume these roles.

“Warrior ethos is a term that gets thrown around,” Roy said. “Our young airmen today, we don’t have to give them the warrior ethos. They are warriors, they feel that spirit right out of basic training and that continues with them throughout their career.”

Vance is a reflection of the armed forces as a whole, Roy said, because it is the only base conducting Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training. Besides Air Force pilots, Vance also trains Navy and Marine students, as well as those from coalition nations.

“That’s the way we fight, that’s the way we should train and educate,” Roy said. “The fact that Vance is the only base that does that is truly amazing.”

The stress faced by enlisted airmen these days is of great concern to Roy. In 2010 the Air Force suicide rate hit a 17-year high, prompting Roy to focus on the resiliency of airmen and their families.

“We focus on, not just the physical well-being, but also the mental, the social, your faith well-being,” Roy said. “It’s looking at all dimensions of the well-being of the person.”

The key to developing resiliency, Roy said, is equipping young enlisted men and women with the skills and the help they need to deal with difficult and stressful situations.

“We would like for you to have these tools before you need them,” Roy said. “If you are struggling today, I sure hope we provided these tools to you yesterday or the day before.”

Enlisted airmen today face many stressors, Roy said, as do their families.

“We are a nation at war,” Roy said. “That requires an awful lot of our airmen and it also requires an awful lot of their families.

“I try to express it in how much we appreciate all the sacrifices that they endure.”

A key to developing resilient airmen and families, Roy said, is communication.

“We need to be able to communicate with each other,” Roy said. “One of the things that we often like to focus on is this whole idea of relationships. We try to focus on that art of communicating. Resiliency is one of the most valuable assets we can possibly give young airmen and their families.”

During his many travels to Air Force facilities across the world, Roy encourages enlisted personnel to take advantage of the many educational opportunities the service offers, such as Community College of the Air Force and the Air University’s associate’s to bachelor’s degree program.

New young airmen increasingly are bringing educational experience with them when they enlist, he said.

“Today we have probably the most educated force we’ve ever had,” Roy said.

The chief said he recently met a young airman 1st class who entered the Air Force with a master’s degree. A college degree is required of officers, but not enlisted personnel.

“To find somebody that has a bachelor’s degree, or an associate’s degree, or some college at all, is not uncommon with our enlisted airmen,” Roy said