We can do more with less Published March 18, 2014 By Lt. Col. Roger Lynch 9th MDSS commander BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The new way of doing business is to do more with less. At one point I to use to say "oh you have to be kidding, I cannot continue to function with this level of support" (or what I thought was the lack of it). With that sentiment out of the way, we can now take a moment to observe how the Air Force has changed and how we have learned to be more efficient and effective, and have found better ways to do our jobs. When I joined the Air Force, a mobile phone was the size and weight of a large car battery and service was horrible or nonexistent. At my first duty station there was only one computer and it was located in the commander' s outer office. You had to insert an 8-inch floppy disk which made a lot of noise as it loaded data. The monitor, just a black screen with green text, took up the entire desk. My duty section depended on punch cards that were fed into a reader manually. To do any type of part number search we had go through a card catalog and locate the correct microfiche slide. Then we would squint into a viewer and carefully move it to align the area where we could read the correct numbers and cross reference to the next higher assembly to determine what part was needed. At that time we would have loved a one word search internet! We're in a different world now. I carry two mobile devices - on one I receive encrypted work e-mails, make phone calls, text, and can get online to search the internet. My personal device maintains all my contacts, emails, social media, music, and is capable of searching the World Wide Web via voice commands. Almost every Airman has access to a computer, flat screen monitor, with a printer nearby. From their work area, they can access e-mail, information about nearly anything and, coordinate across the globe to get the job done. On the flight line, Airmen have "rugged" computers that have every publication needed at their fingertips. While there is more expected of us today, we do have improved tools that optimize our abilities. As military professionals we must embrace technology as the new way of doing business. Rather than talk about the past and how we used to walk to work uphill both ways in the snow, we must leverage the talents of the young people and the technology that is coming into to our Air Force every day. This is how business is conducted today and the future is only limited by your ability to imagine, invent, and utilize your minds. YES we can do more with Less; we just have to be willing to embrace change.