June 11, 2010 Commanders Corner At the conclusion of last week's exercise, I sent out a note to the wing for the incredible effort made by Wing One participants. The level of planning developed by the members of our wing resulted in the near flawless execution of a first time exercise seen by AFGSC. You set the bar for the
June 4, 2010 Customs and Courtesies Military tradition... For members of the Armed Forces, it is vital to maintaining good order and discipline. So let's spend a couple of minutes on military tradition. Let's break it down further into customs and courtesies. You may recall from Basic, USAFA, ROTC, or OTS, a custom is a way of acting;
June 4, 2010 Celebrate Your Leadership Over the last couple of years, we've been challenged greatly as an organization. History shows that when such challenges come, leaders must be prepared to lead. Hard work will be required and leaders must deliver. I love the Airmen's Creed and our core values. They remind us of what is and should be
June 1, 2010 Tale of Two Lieutenants [Author's note: Names are changed for privacy and security purposes]Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part leadership series.Deep in the jungles of central Honduras, I felt (as the Billie Holiday song goes) "hotter than a summer with a thousand Julys," even with the fan on the far side of a
May 24, 2010 Show gratitude for those who died for our freedom This Memorial Day, we remember those men and women of our armed forces who gave their lives serving their country. Recently I had the honor to lay a wreath on behalf of our Command at the memorial on Guam for the crew of RAIDR 21, who went down in a B-52 off the coast of Guam nearly two years ago. I
May 19, 2010 A Season of Change Spring is a season of change. We've all noticed the dandelions are in full bloom and the yards require mowing and trimming. And of course, since it's only late May, we know there's still a chance for a good snowstorm. Remember the first week of June in 2008 when we received nearly a foot of
May 13, 2010 Tale of Two Lieutenants [Author's note: Names are changed for privacy and security purposes]"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things"Peter Georg Drucker (1909 - 2005) "Sir, we need to talk," my dual-hatted first sergeant/utilities superintendent remarked to me one hot day upon returning to
May 7, 2010 I have the controls "I have the controls!" I've used this phrase hundreds of times over my 15 years as an instructor pilot, many times as my life was flashing before my eyes. But as the years have passed, I've found myself using it less often. The quality of pilots hasn't changed, but my ability to provide inputs and
May 7, 2010 'Bumper sticker' comes to life . . . again Nice job, Malmstrom...Just another week at a northern tier missile base - blizzard conditions, red roads, 48 hour alerts, 46 sites on diesel, RCII sites, commercial power down on base and most of the missile complex (still down in some areas). Problem is, this is not January, it's spring. Of course
April 30, 2010 Failsafe Failsafe from Merriam Webster is defined as: incorporating some feature for automatically counteracting the effect of an anticipated possible source of failure: being or relating to a safeguard that prevents continuing on a bombing mission according to a preconceived plan: having no chance of