CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Welcome to the New Year Team Charleston! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and had some down time to relax with friends or family. With the holidays behind us and the start of the New Year, it is time to focus with laser-like precision on many important events in the coming months.
The New Year brings with it some challenges, most notably the Unit Compliance Inspection, Aircrew Standardization and Evaluation Visit and the Logistics Standardization Evaluation Program in May.
Last year Team Charleston successfully prepared for the Operational Readiness Inspection, and demonstrated that we can conquer any challenge and that we excel at our mission. A UCI is the reverse side of the same coin. The UCI evaluates our processes and documentation that enable us to perform our mission. UCI preparations are already underway at all levels. For us to excel again, it will take every member of Team Charleston pulling together with the common goal of demonstrating our excellence and commitment to precision.
Many years ago a much-revered group commander lived by an adage of three T's and an A; that with the proper time, tools, training, and attitude it was impossible to fail. He provided the time, tools and training to accomplish the task and each individual brought with them the attitude by which they could all rise to face any challenge. It was a philosophy that worked because everyone contributed. Commanders worked hard to provide an infrastructure that insured each team member had what was required to perform the mission and this produced an overall attitude of mutual support, of working as a valued member of the Team, and it proved to be a good recipe for success.
Naysayers like to point out that we were not heavily involved in Iraq or Afghanistan at the time. The Trade Towers still stood; there was no Presidential Budget Directive 720, it was a different world. That attitude is defeatist and inaccurate. If you look at the history of the Air Force you'll see that there have always been challenges in resources or manpower. Facing and overcoming one challenge leaves you more fit and able to face the next. Our obligation to the nation dictates that we will identify and overcome any challenge set before us.
Team Charleston has always risen to the challenge at hand and succeeded admirably. We have that same attitude that engenders success today as it did years ago, an attitude of mutual support, camaraderie, and a willingness to face any challenge without reservation, as a unified team of professionals.
There are 124 days left until the UCI, which means we have that long to continue to prepare to demonstrate that we are the best at what we do in every respect. Every member of Team Charleston has a vital role to play in the UCI and in the coming weeks everyone will be tasked to support the Team effort in some way. Every link in the Team Charleston chain has been tempered by the challenges we have faced in the past and I am confident that we will succeed in this as well.
Team Charleston - Take the Fight to the Enemy!