Here are a few moments you may have missed at this week’s Installation Innovation Forum in San Antonio.

Taking Care of Infrastructure

“After you [underfund infrastructure] for multiple decades, you’re in a very deep hole. By 2029, the average condition index for every facility that I have in the Navy will be in a poor or failing condition. We’re failing. And if we keep doing business the same way, we’re going to fail. So my appeal to leadership is go break some china. We can either accept it and know we’re going to fail, or we can take a little risk, try something different, and maybe bend the curve and start making a real difference. It takes courage.” – Vice Adm. Scott Gray, commander, Navy Installations Command

Creating a Sense of Belonging

“Challenges bring us together. So I think also in those [military family] stressors are real opportunities to come together as a community – within our own military community but also outside the gate – and really foster some great relationships. I think a lot of that starts with a great welcome. It really does set the tone when you move, how you feel about the community that you’re entering.” – Patty George, spouse of Army Chief of Staff Randy George

Building a Connection

“It gives us great excitement to be able to say the Coast Guard, the Coasties are our family. Once you are stationed at Base Elizabeth City, you are part of our family…. The Coast Guard is a family.” – E. Kirk Rivers, mayor, Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Supporting Post-Service Transition

“Underemployment is related to an undervaluing of the skills that we know so many gain through their service time. And so how do we change that? How do we rethink so much of the [transition support] work that has been done over the generations?… The problem with that is that’s assuming a bunch of 24-year-olds and others are getting out wanting to do the same thing…. That has to change, and we have to rethink how we personalize the transition process.” – Sean Murphy, director, grant portfolios, Walmart Foundation

Implementing AI the Right Way

“Think of AI as letting your teenager loose with the car. Think of responsible AI as teaching your teenager how to drive and how to be a defensive driver and putting those guardrails in place. Maybe you tell your teenager you have a black box in the trunk that records everywhere it goes and how fast the car goes so that the teenager is driving more safely because it thinks you’re watching them. Responsible AI is more about how we are going to understand it and explain it. So when it gives you an answer, how do you know that that data was used was correctly, and how do you know the answer is right?” – Lynne Randolph, distinguished engineer, Southwest Research Institute

ADC photo by David Ramirez