An ASMC interview with major general Stephen R. Lorenz.

(Editor's note: MG Lorenz is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. This interview appeared in a recent Washington Chapter newsletter.)

ASMC: With over 29 years' experience as a command pilot, parachutist, plans officer, executive officer, wing commander at several Air Force bases, and Commandant of Cadets at the Air Force Academy, obviously you have had prior experience working with the Financial management (FM) community Now that you are the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Budget, how have your perceptions of that community changed?

LORENZ: I've started out with a very positive perception and [the perception] has just gotten more and more positive. FM people are the hardest-working people in the entire United States Air Force. They know what the mission is; they know our financial systems are archaic, but they work so hard with the common objectives of getting resources to the warfighter every day. I am amazed at and I am in awe of their abilities and their hard work and dedication to make that come through.

ASMC: You are responsible for planning and directing Air Force budgets totaling over $107 billion, yet you've been on the FM team for just under a year. You've had much to learn in a very short amount of time. What has been your biggest challenge in that time?

LORENZ: I've learned a great deal and still have much to learn. The only reason I've had a modicum of success in this position as the Air Force Director of the Budget is because of the great FM people who surround me and give me guidance and advice on a daily basis. If it weren't for them, I couldn't do my job.

Working the budget issues, especially during a wartime, which we are operating post-September 11, ...fighting wars is an execution business, and our budget wasn't built to fight a war. It's built to open the doors of our United States Air Force, and supplemental appropriations are there to fight the wars.

It has been an amazing experience to me to close out FY 01, work the FY 02 budget through the POM process and have it signed out on Capitol Hill in January, build FY03 and get it working through Capitol Hill during the summer, and then work FY 04. And do all these things simultaneously, and do the Defense Emergency Relief Fund, and work the supplementals and the omnibus reprogrammings. It never stops in FM.

My biggest challenge is to keep all these things going forward at the same time and location, especially to explain to different people external to the FM community that--"Well, that wasn't FY 01, that was an FY 03 issue, and we are working FY 02 to work this issue"--because most people do not understand the PPBS system as well as FM people do.

To keep it all straight and to move in the right direction is a big challenge, and to then articulate that and to get the right resources to the warfighter at the right time is a big challenge. There are many moving parts to this process.

ASMC: You are currently the most senior military member in the Air Force financial management community. What advice would you give the officers and the enlisted members working FM issues around the world?

LORENZ: Be the best you can be where you are located in the job that you have--in other words, bloom where you are planted. There are no guarantees in life, but whatever job you have, you be the best you can be. I can't guarantee you a better job, but I can guarantee that if you don't do a good job where you are, you're not going to get another job.

Being in FM means being a professional non-commissioned officer, professional airman, or professional officer. For civilians, learn your trade the best you can. You'll never know when your expertise is going to be needed. Especially during wartime, we are needed now more than ever to help push those resources out to the warfighter at a very critical time. And the FM people are the ones who make it come true when all is said and done. We build the POM, but if it isn't in the budget, it doesn't get done. And we make it come true.

ASMC: As you know, corporate membership is very important to ASMC. Do you see a larger role in the future for corporations to assist the Department of Defense within the field of financial management? If so, would you please elaborate?

LORENZ: As we have evolved as a Service and as a Department--the Department of Defense--we went from primarily a military organization with Air Force civilians, and the respective Services with their civilians, and then we evolved into the Total Force. We've always had a Total Force, but the Total Force became more and more important--that is, the Guard, Active Duty, Reserve, and Air Force civilians.

Another factor, especially as we contract out more and more of our resources just as big businesses do, is the contractors--and their companies become more important toward our mission. You can see it on a day-to-day basis, at the wing level and at the headquarters level, where we contract out certain functions of our FM and other parts of the Air Force. I see in the future that this Total Force team includes the contractors, because we won't be able to do our mission and support our nation without the contractors.

Now, as for financial systems, I support--totally support--Dr. Zakheim [Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)] and Mr. Montelongo [Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller)] on the transformation of our financial systems. One way to look at it is [that] we need our financial systems to be at least as modern as our weapon systems.

Right now, our archaic financial systems are not enabling our policy makers to make the right resource decisions because the data is either incorrect or imprecise, and it is definitely not timely. We need to move forward in that arena where we have better financial systems to support our warfighters.

ASMC: You may already know that civilians outnumber all other categories of ASMC membership. In your opinion, how can a financial management civilian best serve his or her military coworker?

LORENZ: As long as everyone and every part of the team remember why we are here: to push resources to the warfighter. It doesn't matter if you wear mufti or a uniform. We're interchangeable.

ASMC: That's a term I'm unfamiliar with. What is mufti?

LORENZ: Mufti is an old British term for wearing civilian clothes. So the issue is [that] it doesn't matter if you are Active Duty, Guard, Reserve, or Civilian--we all are doing the same mission together as a team. This team can make anything happen as we work and act as a team.

Our civilian counterparts give us stability, experience, and wisdom in carrying out our mission. Usually, they stay longer at most locations, and that stability and wisdom help our military members support the rest of the team. We complement each other every day, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

ASMC: Thank you, General Lorenz, for taking the time to provide your comments to the members of the ASMC Washington Chapter. Your insights should better our understanding of senior leadership's ideas about this very important career field.

Keith Hicks is budget analyst for HQ Air Force. He previously served as the O&M analyst for U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Mobility Command. Before entering civil service, he served on active duty with the Air Force in Germany, Italy, Turkey, and other locations. He also is the Air Force secretary for the Washington Chapter of ASMC.