CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Good morning Team Charleston warriors,
This is it ladies and gentlemen ... it's game time.
Sunday, we'll put the mobility machine in motion to show Air Mobility Command that TEAM Charleston is ready to support any contingency and deploy to anywhere in the world under any conditions. We've been at this for more than a year. We are ready.
The keys to our success remain the same ... maintain a positive attitude, do everything with a sense of urgency and pride, do your tasks by the book and, most importantly, let safety remain at the forefront of everything you do.
Our preparation for our ORI reminds me of a story my father used to share about Adolph Rupp, the legendary basketball coach from the University of Kentucky. Coach Rupp emphasized preparation and constant practice. Rupp would have his players perform basic skills during practice sessions. During pre-game warm ups he would have the team do the same drills. The drills worked fundamentals, but didn't count for all that much by themselves. They were critical building blocks he used to create a powerful offense. He didn't do drills just for the sake of doing them, but used repetition of set plays and game-like scenarios to prepare his team for the real thing. His players practiced the same maneuvers until they became second nature. During the game, Coach Rupp combined sequences of the drills to create his offense ... and Kentucky teams quickly became very successful. Interestingly, after his initial successes, Coach Rupp maintained this emphasis on basic skills, attention to detail in set plays and hard work. As a result, Kentucky basketball dominated their opponents for four decades and won multiple national and conference championships.
It's the rhythm of repetition ... the same rhythm we have practiced many times ... that builds confidence and excellence. This will enable us to dominate our inspection. Our drills didn't involve passing or shooting; instead we practiced emergency response, command and control, the ability to survive and operate, and personnel and cargo processing. These skill sets will combine to form our offensive and defensive teams. As a team we will dominate our competition ... the operational readiness inspection.
Like Rupp's teams, our reaction to events is second nature now. Putting on your chemical gear probably took a lot longer the first time than it does now. That's just one example of how much the 437th and 315th Airlift Wings have improved with every mobility exercise and Warrior Wednesday. Because of your hard work, especially during the past few months, we've gone from a group of individuals trying to get through an inspection to a team working together ready for anything that AMC ... or the mission throws at us!
Is next week going to be stressful? Absolutely. But how we handle that stress will determine our success. Keep a level head, trust your training, remain confident and be proud to show off how good you are. Keep a sense of urgency ... don't argue with the Inspector General and accept any instruction or suggestions with humility and grace. Fight the war ... not the IG. We will water their eyes with our professionalism, our pride and our passion to accomplish the mission.
This is it. Let's suit up. It's game time.
We are ... Team Charleston - Take the Fight to the Enemy!