Photo By Senior Airman John Day | Col. Franz Plescha, U.S. Air Force retired, speaks to the graduates of Specialized...... read more read more
Col. Franz Plescha, U.S. Air Force retired, visited Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, as the guest speaker for Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 17-04’s graduation ceremony Jan. 20, 2017, at Kaye Auditorium.
Plescha currently works for Booz Allen Hamilton and resides in Orlando, Florida. He received his commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1987 and attended pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.
During his career he had five overseas assignments with multiple flying tours. His first assignment was as a T-38 instructor pilot prior to flying the F-16. He served as an F-16 flight examiner, flight commander, and assistant operations officer.
He is a command pilot with over 3,400 flying hours and 2,200 combat hours. He is a graduate of Air Command and Staff College and Air War College in residence.
The retired F-16 pilot began his speech by thanking the class for inviting him there to speak, the instructors who take on the task to train the pilots and the families in attendance for raising them to want to grow up and take on the noble duty of serving in America’s military. He singled out the mothers of the graduates to personally thank them for their contributions to raise the pilots.
Plescha’s advice to the newest aviators began by outlining three pieces of advice to help them in their careers.
“There are three things I want to tell you today,” Plescha said. “I want to tell you how to survive, how to be good and how to have fun in the Air Force.”
Accompanying his first piece was a story about his brother. He recounted a tale about his brother nearly crashing his aircraft into the water, narrowly avoiding a crash only because he listened and trusted his instincts.
“First, I’ll teach you survival: trust your instincts,” Plescha said. “You will become so tuned in to your aircraft that everything becomes natural and you will feel that you don’t even have to look at your checklists. But even with 1,500 hours in an aircraft, don’t become complacent. Trust your instincts. They can and will save your life.”
He went on to talk about experience and stressed how important knowledge is to flying.
“The next piece is how to be good,” Plescha said. “It is imperative that you know everything you can about your aircraft. Knowing when to take risks, how to compensate for them and how they will affect you. Without knowledge, you will not be able to effectively complete the mission.”
The third piece of advice was to integrate with their respective squadrons and to draw motivation from within that squadron.
“The last thing I have for you is how to have fun,” Plescha said. “We primarily deploy as a squadron. Embrace your squadron family. You will enjoy what you do so much more if you make yourself a part of that family.”
Plescha mentioned one other bit of wisdom that would help the graduates down the road in their careers.
“Finally, for when you become leaders, you will spend time trying to balance people and mission,” Plescha said. “Stop trying to figure that out. It is always people first. If you’re taking care of your people, the mission will take care of itself. Remember this.”
He finished by restating his thanks and congratulations.
“Again, thank you very much for allowing me to be here today,” Plescha said. “It is so neat to see you all putting wings on your chest. It’s an accomplishment you’ll have for the rest of your lives. Congratulations to all of you.”
| Date Taken: | 01.26.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.23.2017 17:57 |
| Story ID: | 227894 |
| Location: | COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 79 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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