CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Opportunities to exercise the art of leadership are abundant abound in the Air Force.
Whether it's leading a small team of professionals to accomplish a single task or leading an entire service to organize, train and equip the world's most powerful Air Force, chances are you will be called upon many times during your career to lead.
When the call to lead comes, you must be prepared for the challenge. The Air Force core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do provide an outstanding foundation for guiding leadership preparation. In the 16th Airlift Squadron, we supplement the core values with four guiding tenets: standards, safety, support and success.
Standards are one of the defining characteristics of a profession, including the profession of arms. Its members hold themselves to a higher standard and choose to enforce this standard amongst themselves. I am certain each of you remember the day you raised your right hand and took the oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." By doing so, you pledged to uphold the standards of our service and the ideals of our country. In return, the citizens of our nation entrusted you with the defense of our freedoms and provided you with the tools and resources needed to accomplish this.
Certainly, the degree of autonomy enjoyed by the United States armed forces is relatively unusual among the world's militaries and is almost entirely predicated on our citizens' trust. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance we always maintain the highest personal and professional standards, whether in or out of uniform.
Poor job performance, a sloppy appearance, poor physical fitness and violations of our nation's laws erode that confidence and ultimately constrain our ability to perform our mission. We cannot let that happen. Each of us must not only uphold the highest standards, but also ensure our fellow Airmen hold themselves to those same standards. To do any less threatens our combat capability and mission effectiveness.
As a squadron commander, I am occasionally asked why the Air Force emphasizes safety to such a high degree. Doesn't military service inherently include additional risk? The answer to this question is clearly yes, but that doesn't mean we can afford to disregard safety. In fact, safety is more than a means to keep people from getting hurt or equipment from being damaged. It is a vital component to preserving our combat effectiveness and also a moral responsibility of every Airman.
You are already aware that adversaries will seek every opportunity to degrade our combat capabilities; a lack of attention to safety creates the same results our enemies seek to achieve, but doesn't cost them anything. Are you willing to help our foes achieve their goals with little or no effort on their part, or would you rather thwart their objectives by making safety a priority for yourself and your unit?
Supporting our mission, our Airmen and their families is an integral part of our Air Force culture. Taking care of our people, however, is more than just the right thing to do. We recognize our Airmen are our true source of strength and the well-being of their families is critical to maintaining each Airman's mission focus. Additionally, our Airmen's time is an extremely valuable yet limited resource.
There is no shortage of demands on an Airman's time; therefore, we must support them by ensuring we make the best possible use of every available moment. If your unit has outdated processes or requirements that unnecessarily consume our Airmen's time, take steps now to prevent this waste of our most valuable resource: our people.
Above all, Airmen must focus on success. They must focus on the success of our mission, the success of our units and the success of their fellow Airmen. Success is attained by using the Air Force core values as the minimum acceptable level of performance, adherence to and enforcement of standards, incorporating safety into everything we do and supporting our Airmen by creating effective support networks and making the best possible use of their time.