Undersecretary of the Air Force visits Wright-Patterson

Published Jan. 31, 2023
By Hannah Carranza
88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --

Gina Ortiz Jones, undersecretary of the Air Force, got a look at various organizations and missions during a daylong tour of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Jan. 9.

Jones was also briefed on a variety of topics, ranging from cold-spray technology and strategic transport to sustainment innovations and flying while pregnant.

Her first stop was the 445th Airlift Wing, where she met with aeromedical evacuation and staging Airmen, as well as crewmembers who delivered an Afghan baby on a C-17 Globemaster III. After that, she made stops at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center and National Security Innovation Capital for classified briefings.

When Jones broke for lunch at the Air Force Institute of Technology, she found time to connect with a few AFIT students.

After lunch, she made her way to the 711th Human Performance Wing and received briefings on flying while pregnant and a tour of the Signature Tracking for Optimized Nutrition and Training Laboratory, which focuses on measuring and assessing cognitive and physical biosignatures in order to generate ways to develop training, supplementation and technology for performance enhancement.

Jones went from the STRONG lab to the Air Force Research Laboratory and was given a demo on how strategic guidance is driving new technology imperatives. The undersecretary then made her way to the Rapid Sustainment Office at The Greene in Beavercreek, where she was able to see firsthand a variety of new RSO innovations.

Jones ended her tour at a reception in the Wright-Patt Club, where she got a chance to connect with local community leaders from the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and Dayton Development Coalition.