JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Many of us refer to ourselves and those around us as wingmen, but do we really uphold the virtues of being good wingmen? What does it mean to be a wingman?

The wingman culture is one in which we come to the aid of a colleague in distress, steering him or her toward appropriate resources and above all taking action. A great example of this is Tech. Sgt. Joe Lawrence from the 437th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Blue Aircraft Maintenance Unit, who took such action when he received a text message from a deployed Airman's spouse that was having trouble breathing. He called an ambulance for her and responded personally to help get her car back home while she was transported to the hospital.

There are other such instances of Airmen doing the right thing, however, one aspect of being good wingmen that I am concerned about is with taking care of colleagues when alcohol is involved. There is a troubling trend where Airmen have a good time with wingmen in attendance but drive themselves and others home after having too much alcohol to drink. At what point should we as wingmen be held culpable for permitting a member to commit a crime, endanger innocent lives and violating our core values?

We have all heard and seen many briefings that depict how dangerous drinking and driving is and how alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive a vehicle: judgment, muscular coordination, vision and attentiveness. Thanks to Staff Sgt. Amanda Lotspeich and the Airmen Against Drunk Driving program, Joint Team Charleston had an opportunity to hear the astonishing story of Sarah Panzau with one of the key aspects being the failure of her friends (wingmen) to step in on her behalf as she made a horrendous decision to drive while intoxicated.

As wingmen, is it okay for us to stand idly by while one of our colleagues stagger across a highway and hope they make it without being killed? Is it okay to stand by and let an Airman point or shoot a weapon at a crowd of innocent people? I am sure we would all answer that these situations would be unacceptable to a wingman. However, every week I hear of incidents where crimes are committed with no one taking appropriate action to stop the chain of events. I hear of wingmen that stand by while colleagues head to their vehicle intoxicated. I hear of wingmen fully aware of colleagues that are unable to control their consumption of alcohol, remaining silent, allowing extreme risk taking behavior and endangering innocent lives.

Wingmen should not hesitate to do the right thing and report these crimes and violations of standards and personal endangerment to agencies that can help. At some point, we as wingmen are culpable for our failure to act when we face these situations. I applaud those wingmen that have taken action to help alcohol impaired colleagues, and I ask everyone to recognize the importance of engaging when you recognize a problem exists. Let's not hide behind the pretense that we did not know or were not aware, don't look the other way or hope that someone else will take action. We may feel apprehensive for stopping one of our friends, but imagine how agonizing it must be if we fail to initiate this course correction and it results in loss of life or injury either to our colleague or an innocent bystander.

By no means am I excusing the behavior of perpetrators that commit driving under the influence offenses. These Airmen are being held accountable and sadly two such colleagues in the past 12 months have paid the ultimate price in losing their lives in single vehicle accidents. What I ask is that we step in as wingmen when we recognize a problem and either render assistance or notify the chain of command to ensure the appropriate help is provided. As Airmen, we must be faithful to the proud heritage and traditions of military life and never falter in the role of being a good wingman. You are usually in the right place at the right time to help as a wingman. It is your inherent responsibility - if you don't take action, who will?