jscope95

JSCOPE 95 (XVII), January 95

LTGEN Ervin J. Rokke, USAF, President, National Defense University
Lieutenant General Ervin J. Rokke, USAF, President of the National Defense University, presented a thought-provoking welcome. He emphasized the support of the leadership of the services for the purposes of JSCOPE and encouraged all of us to examine carefully and endorse fully the core values that structure the American profession of arms.

Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall
Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall delivered the keynote address, in which she emphasized the importance of continually articulating the core values of the profession, which ennoble those who commit their lives to serving the nation. She discussed the difficulty of precisely identifying those values, however, even though they are widely recognized as being critically important. She presented the six core values of the Air Force (integrity, courage, competence, tenacity, service, and patriotism), but revealed that she would prefer a more compact set such as the Air Force Academy's three: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do. Her subsequent explanation of integrity, service, and excellence made clear that in her view full commitment to those values will make service members ready for life's most difficult challenges.