Photo By Tech. Sgt. Levi Reynolds | U.S. Air Force Gen. Mike Holmes, commander of Air Combat Command, signs post flight...... read more read more
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LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Virg.- General Mike “Mobile” Holmes, Commander of Air Combat Command prepares for retirement and his final flight in for the United States Air Force Aug 28, 2020.
General Holmes sat down recently to reflect on his upcoming retirement on Oct. 1, 2021, and to share some of his story and the wealth of knowledge he has amassed over his unlikely 39 year career and how it was almost over before it began.
“I actually went to the navy first and I enrolled in a Navy delayed enlistment program where you would go do OCS while you were a junior in college and then come back and get a top off and go to flight school,” said Holmes. “Signed up, took the oath, and when it came time to go to OCS the recruiter said ‘You know we talked about being a pilot but what we really need right now are NFOs’ which is naval flight officer which is their fighter navigators 'so you got an hour to decide NFO or nothing’ and after about 10 minutes I said ‘I don't really like the situation you put me in. I don't really appreciate it and i'll take nothing.’ So I have honorable discharge from the Navy and then I went to the Air Force.”
Gen. Holmes could write a book on lessons learned and advice to give future generations of leaders. Until that happens he was happy to give us a little insight to his success as a leader.
“I found there was something freeing in this idea of treating your job like it's your last job you don't try to guess what people want you to do or try to figure out you know what your boss or your boss's boss will want you to do, you're free to say with the experience I have and the advice i get i think this is the right path for us to go and so that's what i'm going to do. I tell people that since 2002 the air force just kept giving me one more last job is the way I've looked at it.” Said Holmes.
It’s hard to narrow down nearly four decades of service into just a few favorite or important moments but after being a commander off and on for a decade all of his experience culminated when he was the Wing Commander at Bagram AB in Afghanistan and that’s surprisingly one of his favorite memories.
“Having the chance to be the wing commander of Bagram for 13 and a half months and people say what was your favorite assignment I go well it's actually that year at Bagram they go really yes you know I was away from my family that part hurt but I got a chance to put everything I had learned up to that point into use with people that were dedicated and motivated to be there and thought they were doing something important and it was a just a super opportunity to kind of realize self-actualization of all the things that people had taught me along the way and all the experience I had gained and the people that would continue to teach me things there and the friends that I served with there and the squadron commanders I watched grow up that was one of the peak experiences for me.” Holmes said.
As he draws nearer to the end of his Air Force career Gen. Holmes has to stop and ask “what’s next for me?”
“The hardest question I have to answer when I'm talking to people is when they say ‘so Mobile, what do you want to do?’ because in 39 years people haven't asked me that very often. It's been more here's the job we have for you go do good and make a good job out of it and that's what I’ve been used to. As far as hobbies and those things, we added a basement in our house and I’m working on the guitar storage layout and how we're going to do that and how we're going to hang them and make them pretty. But growing up in Tennessee around the mountains I know the hikes and the smoky mountains really well. One of the things I want to do this fall is start learning the hikes in the Shenandoah valley so i'm going to try to get out and do some of that every week.”
The General also mentioned doing some writing in his new found free time. So we might get that book on leadership after all.
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2021 14:43 |
| Story ID: | 407952 |
| Location: | HAMPTON, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 153 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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