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On March 10, the United Service Organization building nestled in the middle of the Air Force dormitories found itself covered in several feet of snow in the bitter Alaska winter. Inside was an oasis from the cold – and it smelled like bacon.
The Air Force Sergeant’s Association chapter on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was taking a new approach to mentorship, and it may or may not have involved violent cheering over a twitchy finger and a toppled block tower.
Mentorship and guidance are two words many Airmen marry to phrases like “letter of counseling” or “reprimand.” This unfortunate association does a disservice to some of the most valuable and effective tools for personal development available today.
The “Tops-Off Mentoring” event was designed to provide a different sort of guidance with minimal restriction on time or rank. The idea is to remove as many barriers as possible between individuals, rank being one of them.
The USO was a bit more crowded than usual that day. Four or five young children sat on the leather-clad couch watching an animated film while a couple Airmen laughed about how many children they’d had in a board game that simulates life through retirement.
A technical sergeant leaned over the next table and shouted in a good-natured attempt to get his junior to twitch as they pulled a small wooden block out of a precarious tower made of the things.
Nearly a half-dozen folks crammed in the kitchenette in the center of the room cooking bacon-wrapped hotdogs and chili.
Not much time had passed before that rowdy technical sergeant had left the tower game behind in favor of conversation with a couple senior Airmen from the medical group and civil engineer squadron by the couches.
Mentorship can’t be accomplished on a schedule, said Air Force Master Sgt. Alexander Rosales, AFSA chapter president. It takes time – a lot of it.
I sat in the middle of the room watching what at first glance appeared to be a bunch of people playing board games and chowing down on traditional American fare shift toward something distinctly more structured.
As more Airmen wandered into the USO, more AFSA members split off from the pack to sit and get to know them. Before long, there was no pack of AFSA members at all, just a room full of people teaching, learning and eating bacon.
“It’s important to give people someone to talk to outside their chain of command,” Rosales said. “I see all these people on social media who are frustrated and seem to hate the Air Force; I think it’s toxic.”
At work, those same individuals spewing hate on social media are likely locked up during the duty day and don’t want to – or feel they can’t – ask the questions that are bothering them. On the Internet they feel free of social constraints and swing all the way in the opposite direction, venting pent-up frustration in an unhealthy way.
This is where quality mentoring comes in; those grievances can be heard or addressed in a productive environment. Maybe their concerns are valid or maybe they don’t understand some key bit of information that would explain the ‘why’ of it all.
It’s not always that simple, but the goal is to create a force of educated and motivated Airmen who instead of misrepresenting the Air Force online, spend their time sharpening each other's professional skillsets.
“How can we develop someone’s strength without knowing their areas of improvement?” said Dolores Fisher, a professional military education instructor here. “You have to talk to them.”
“You can save the world with mentoring,” Rosales said. “You can do anything.”
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.15.2017 14:31 |
| Story ID: | 226941 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, AK, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, AFSA mentors Airmen, develops relationships, by TSgt Kyle Johnson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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