Photo By Tech. Sgt. John Wilkes | Airmen with the 180th Fighter Wing completed their annual ancillary training while...... read more read more
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EXCELLENCE
I used the word EXCELLENCE on every slide beginning any
Commander’s Call because the 180FW is excellent at continuing to
progress on the path of becoming the most lethal, innovative, and
efficient fighter wing in the total force. The 180FW is a winning
organization for many reasons. The following are some highlights:
receiving the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, earning an
“EFFECTIVE” grade in the Air Combat Command Unit Effectiveness
Inspection and earning the highest grade of “Mission Ready” for an
unprecedented third consecutive year during the North American
Aerospace Defense Command Alert Forces Evaluation for the
nation’s number one homeland defense mission, protecting 60%
of the U.S. population.
You have flown over 900 missions since the alert mission inception
in 2008. While flying 2,258 missions totaling more than 3,770
flying hours, you also seamlessly executed the deployment of
more than 530 Airmen and the movement of approximately 140
short tons of cargo and equipment to seven locations throughout
the U.S. including Hawaii, Key West, Alaska, Tyndall, and Alpena,
sometimes in shorter notice than needed to accomplish the mission.
You deployed over 250 Airmen, 300 short tons of cargo, 12 F-16’s
to Guam sustaining over 700 missions in support of the Pacific
Air Forces Commander requirements. You pioneered the first Air
National Guard no-notice force deployment to an overseas base
expanding global power projection and meeting the commander
of the Air Combat Command’s vision. You built confidence in
deploying 12 F-16’s in support of Design Operational Capabilities
statement taskings. The manning rate remained above 103%. The
Chaplain Corps served in Antarctica becoming unique within the
ANG. The Training Affiliation Agreement with the University of
Toledo Medical Center, recognized as a benchmark training program
at the National Guard level, was renewed for another five years.
This training program streamlines medical skills verification and
hands-on training of our military medical personnel locally while
also providing extra manpower at the medical center during the
wing’s training weekends. Six times you ranked number one of 90
in the ANG for individual medical readiness, averaging 88%. The
OHANG was the first state in the ANG to adopt the Public-Public,
Public-Private Partnership Program, or P4. This Air Force Community
Partnership Program is a process to leverage military installation
and local government capabilities and resources to reduce operating
and service costs, while expanding Air Force mission capabilities.
Lastly, we would certainly not be winning if it wasn’t for the
support of the community. This great fighter wing can only be as
solid as the communities who support us. We must continue to partner
with the community and be creative, leveraging each of our strengths
as opportunities to battle the challenges ahead. These cooperative
and innovative efforts will ensure we are postured to support and
defend our nation staying well ahead of our enemies’ capabilities
and respond to crucial state emergencies and disasters. Finally, we
have to be excellent because our joint service and coalition partners
depend on our excellence. Whether you are in the FW Headquarters,
Maintenance Group, Mission Support Group, Operations Group,
or Medical Group, you are an incredibly critical member of this
180FW team…never forget that. Airmen determine how successful
or unsuccessful the mission is. Remember that Airmen are the heart
of the Air Force—with you, the mission can’t fail; without you, the
mission can’t succeed.
AIRMEN’S CREED
Being excellent is also about teaching and inspiring, specifically
what the 180FW Airmen have taught me, what you have inspired in
me, what you have done to make me a better leader. The Airmen’s
Creed uses these three powerful words: Wingman, Leader, Warrior.
These words not only explain what you have taught me and how
you have inspired me, but how you have significantly improved and
impacted my life in the last two and a half years.
WINGMAN
Wingman is a term we use a lot, because it is one of the words
that defines us as American Airmen. Have you ever thought about
what it means or where it came from? The term came from pilots,
specifically from WWII. In WWII, the 8th Air Force bombers, the
B-17 and B-24, loss ratio/attrition (prior to being fighter escorted at
the end of 1943) was above 50%, for executing day time bombing
missions in Germany. When Maj. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took
command of the 8th AF in January 1944, he introduced two new
innovative ideas to increase the survival rate of his bombers, flying
more bombers (more dense formations) and escorting those bombers
with fighters P-38’s, P-47’s, and P-51’s. This put fighters on the
bomber’s wings for protection against enemy German fighters (the
number one cause of bomber losses in combination with ground
gun-fire). The escorting fighters became known as their “wingmen.”
After the introduction of these ideas, the loss ratio/attrition rate
dropped to well less than 40%. Those wingmen saved lives, many
lives…in fact; the term was forged in blood, sweat and tears. In
the flying business, being a “good wingman” is everything, good
wingmen do not lose sight of their flight leads and good wingmen
always check the flight’s “six o’clock.” Since then, we have taken
that mentality and applied it on duty, off duty, on the ground and in
the air. Being a good wingman defines who we are; it is unique to
us and it defines us as American Airmen. If you are good enough
at it, if you are worthy enough, then fellow Airmen may call you
a “good wingman.” Being a good wingman is also about learning
and mission accomplishment; being a good wingman continues to
save lives today.
During my tenure, the firefighters saved three lives in the community
and you have saved two Airmen’s lives. Several thousands of students
learned about making choices concerning alcohol and drug abuse
in the 5 Minutes for Life program. More than 100 Stinger Airmen
registered as bone marrow donors through the C.W. Bill Young
Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program, joining in the fight
against cancer. And the 180FW held a special ceremony dedicating
F-16’s to 16 surrounding communities by placing the names of cities,
villages and townships on the side of the fighter jets. In 2015, the
180FW contributed $3,638 and 870 pounds of goods to the Toledo
Seagate Foodbank, donated 114 units of blood to the American Red
Cross, and more than 150 volunteer hours were contributed to the
Cherry Street Mission to prepare over 2,000 meals for local families
in need. Of those meals, 160 were Thanksgiving meals delivered,
by you, to the homes of those unable to provide a holiday meal for
their families.
Throughout my time at the 180FW, you all were both leaders and
wingmen. Good wingmen trust their leaders once they have verified
their credibility over time. When I first arrived at the 180FW, I was
not only an outsider, but an active duty outsider. It was asking a
considerable amount of you to not only trust me as your new leader,
but to have faith in me and the direction we were going to go. You
did it all, in fact, you taught me the values and characteristics of
being a good wingman through your ability to defend the homeland,
your deployments, your ability to be mission ready all the time, your
immediate response to domestic issues, your unwavering commitment
to the community and your capability to save our very own Airmen
and community lives. You inspired me to have the courage to take
risk when making decisions in a resource-constrained environment,
when there were more questions than answers. And, you performed
flawlessly in being empowered, gaining my 100% trust in your
impressive talents to be exceptional leaders and good wingmen.
LEADER
The most powerful lesson you have taught me, the one that matters
most in our business, is leadership. Leadership is what drives our
Profession of Arms business of the PhD level application of absolute
controlled violence through the air domain or responding to those
state disasters and contingencies. In Today’s complex operating
environment, the most prevalent constant is change. Successfully
leading the labyrinth of enterprise-level change demands equal mastery
of art and science. Today, too many leaders focus on the science
and avoid the art, remaining cemented in facts and analysis that too
often fail to compel real change. Your art is understanding that if
you want people to change, you have to make them feel something,
versus just thinking something. You have taught me to connect with
you and your families on an emotional level, making the facts and
analysis real, making them personal, harnessing the power of our
affect as well as our intellect. This is how lasting change is forged.
Leadership is hard, but you make it look easy. Leaders fail, but
you get up and become that much stronger. And, leaders are humble,
a trait you demonstrate every day. You have showed me that it’s
not just about leadership but about effective leadership and that
effective leadership does not necessarily imply good leadership but
that good character is absolute for effective leadership. Effective
leadership means inspiring those to do more and become more, it
means empowerment, making decisions without all the information,
paying attention to the details and being credible and trustworthy.
And you have proved that bold leadership is another way to counter
our uncertain future.
Today’s challenges and fiscal constraints force us to be bold, and
you are bold. You have taught me to do the same things in new and
different ways. We are more cost-effective because of your everyday
pride, dedication and perseverance. We think differently about potential
solutions than any other wing because of your innovation and we
have unlocked ourselves from the things we’re used to because of
your creativity. Lt. Col. Addison Baker’s continual drive to lead his
formation of bombers to the target in 1943 at the expense of his life
was bold. That’s our legacy, that’s our heritage. You are that bold
leader today and you are shaping the 180FW legacy to hand to our
future. You have taught me to become a better leader and at any time,
especially during times of adversity or crisis, you can count on one
thing: that I will follow you because of your credibility and trust.
WARRIOR
While I can never do enough to thank you and your loved ones for
securing our freedom, I thought that I would honor you in two ways.
First, to remind you what it means to be a part of the Profession of
Arms; and second, to thank you for teaching me the ANG culture, a culture that continues to help our military preserve its warrior ethos
while remaining connected to those in whose name we fight. Our
profession is different than any other profession. Our profession can
be ugly sometimes, but somebody has to be good at it…you are that
somebody. Every day we have to remind ourselves that we are part
of the Profession of Arms, and that our job is to fight and win the
nation’s wars and respond to state emergencies and disasters, that
is our responsibility and that is what we must value.
The Profession of Arms is a personal commitment and loyalty to
standards and expectations framed within an environment of shared
trust and guided by core values like integrity, service before self
and excellence. Being part of the Profession of Arms is the heart of
our warrior ethos, lived both on and off duty. The warrior ethos is
a covenant between the members of the Profession of Arms. It’s an
ethos that stands for everything that we serve for as a military, it’s
a brotherhood and a sisterhood. But the warrior ethos also depends
on the military’s connection to society. It’s the warrior ethos that
permits servicemen and women to see themselves as part of a
community that sustains itself through sacred trust and a covenant
that binds us to one another and to the society served. The warrior
ethos is important because it’s what makes the military effective
and successful.
The military relies on Americans being connected to its military.
Separation from society would be significant because military warriors
depend on respect for what they do to maintain their self-respect.
Americans must understand what is at stake in the wars the military
is engaged. The warrior ethos is about the warrior’s commitment to
act courageously, endure hardships, take risks and make sacrifices
and most notably make the ultimate sacrifice to preserve freedom
for this great nation. Fortunately, the ANG Citizen Airman culture, a
culture that I now understand because of you, preserves our warrior
ethos by serving as the real connection between America and its military, a connection that has existed since 1636 in the early days
of the Massachusetts Militia. We must preserve that ANG culture,
that of the Citizen Airmen, and not only our enduring relationship
with the community but the critical role that each of us play in
keeping our military connected to those in whose name we fight.
If society is unsympathetic to the warrior ethos, it will become
increasingly difficult to maintain the fundamental requirements of
military effectiveness.
INDESCRIBABLE HONOR
Let me end by thanking you and your families for your service
and your sacrifice. Thanks for your outstanding pride and dedication,
for everything you do and thanks for coming to work every day to
learn something new and to make something better. You are certainly
a role model for me to live by. You are so incredibly important and
absolutely critical to us performing the mission and moving forward
in our vision and our strategy. You always perform extraordinarily
and credibly; you are committed to service greater than yourself; you
consistently outperform any standard; you have superior attention
to detail; you are courageous; you are really good at what you do
and you always make a difference. You make your mark every day
and you represent the strength of our nation…you are American
Airmen and I am always so proud of you.
It has been my indescribable honor to be your Commander
and to serve with you; I can only hope that my leadership actions
inspired and motivated you to learn, to dream, to teach, to build,
to understand, to do more and become more…because I know that
you have significantly improved and impacted my life for many
years to come. Best of luck in each of your future endeavors, each
of you will always hold a special place in my heart.
Stinger’s because without them, you lose!
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.27.2016 15:08 |
| Story ID: | 202556 |
| Location: | SWANTON, OH, US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Last Call: Commander's Final Comments, by SMSgt Beth Holliker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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