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(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...