CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
A few months ago, a certain wing commander and I traveled to another Air Mobility Command base. His eyes were everywhere; I noticed he took meticulous notice of tiny details I would have normally missed. Hedges needing trimming, grass needing mowing and buildings needing attention were all scrutinized and then compared, in his mind, to the Charleston standard.
"Once you're a wing commander, you never look at a base the same way," he said.
His comment reminded me of another wing commander from a previous assignment several years ago. I remember watching this guy stop his white top in the middle of the road to pick up stray debris. He did this without fanfare and without calling attention to himself. He did not know, nor did he care, if anyone was watching. He picked up the trash because he cared about his base.
Years later, during my time as a squadron commander, our squadron hosted numerous distinguished visitors, both military and civilian, from all over the world. In preparation for each visit, our Airmen were constantly tasked to clean up the building. We had trash details, sweeping parties and Airmen waxed and polished the floors. I spent many hours picking weeds from the landscaping in front of the squadron building.
Over time I noticed I seemed to care more about our how our facilities looked than the rest of the folks in the squadron. While I was constantly on weed patrol, different Airmen were selected for cleaning the rest of the building.
I figured out I was just like the other wing commander who was picking up the trash from his government owned vehicle. Instead of ignoring the weeds no one else would pick, I pulled them. Instead of ignoring the debris others had passed, he picked it up. I knew my challenge was to get my Airmen to care as much about the squadron as I did. We called it "picking up the trash."
Picking up the trash is a philosophy we should all subscribe to. It's more than just cleaning up. It's an attitude. It's about upholding high standards and not letting known problems such as stray debris and weeds evolve into bigger problems. Picking up the trash is about taking action to make things better now and not leaving the problems for our successors.
We are just five weeks away from several major inspections. In order to excel in each of these events, we are all going to have to pick up some trash along the way.
In a literal sense, we are going to have to pick up real trash in order to create a positive first impression for our inspectors. In addition to trimming hedges and mowing grass, we need to police our work stations to keep them neat and orderly. We need to pay closer attention to customs and courtesies by standing when superior officers enter a room and properly identifying ourselves when asking questions.
There are only a few weeks left until the inspector general arrives. In the meantime, what trash are you picking up? Take a look around. Are there problems in your unit that have gone unnoticed or ignored? Are you walking past problems you know need to be fixed? Time is running out and the time to pick up the trash is now.