JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  We consistently talk about the future fight and preparing for strategic competition. This is by design, with the singular purpose of defending our nation against any who would test our resolve. The character of war is constantly changing, yet its fundamental nature remains the same. Special Warfare Airmen and operators must be prepared to face the harsh nature of war and be ready to master its new character.

Over the past 30 years, China has rapidly transformed its military capabilities, which means we must prioritize our own transformation and modernization to ensure superiority on the battlefield. We must be deliberate in the investment and development of our force to preserve our nation’s freedoms and way of life in the future.

How does the Special Warfare Training Wing fit into the strategic picture? How does your work every single day determine the outcome of the future fight? For Special Warfare, it comes down to our people; our permanent party ensures our strategic success.

This team shoulders the precarious burden of shaping the minds, strength and emotional capacity of our next generation of Air Force Special Warfare operators, the Multi-Capable Airmen who will remain our competitive advantage now and going forward. Your daily work sharpens the most strategic players in our nation’s arsenal. But this extends beyond your work with candidates and includes your time with each other. Each of you is a strategic asset, able to leverage access, strike and recovery to position the U.S. for strategic advantage in competition. By taking advantage of everything this Wing offers, we look to ensure you remain the most agile, empowered, lethal and combat-effective Airmen in the world.

Yes, we select and equip the next generation of operators, but we also consider it our mission to invest in and develop our nation’s best who come to us as instructors and staff. Use this assignment to learn more about how your own brain works and how your body trains by taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge amongst your teammates.

Additionally, carve out time in your busy schedules to understand the environment of strategic competition and our adversaries. I recommend visiting the China Toolkit that Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute recently released. The Toolkit is full of videos, articles and even Chinese publications that the CASI team translated into English.

The work you do every day is crucial in preparing yourself, your colleagues and our candidates for strategic competition. I am proud of this team, and of everything you do to set our nation up for victory.