- So, we decided to do something a little bit different,
as a senior leadership team,
to talk to you about this business
of courageous and inspirational leadership.
And some experiences that we've had in our lives.
And some leaders who have inspired us.
And just share those experiences
so we can talk about this incredible gift
that we've been given.
Which is the opportunity to lead.
And it's a gift that's given by those that we serve.
And so, we're just gonna share some stories with you.
And then open it up for Q and A.
- Absolutely.
Thanks a lot.
The first courageous and inspirational leader
I'd like to share with you.
This is Lieutenant Colonel Tara Opielowski.
Colonel Opielowski is the security forces commander
at Kadena Air Base in Japan.
Now, she's a Purdue graduate.
She is airborne trained.
Air assault.
She's been to the FBI academy.
She's a raven.
She graduated from the US Marine Corps
Command and Staff College.
She has 10 assignments, four deployments.
And she's on her third consecutive tour
as a security forces squadron commander.
Currently with about 460 airmen under her charge.
So, basically, she's a badass.
But that's not necessarily why I'm inspired by her.
I'm inspired by her.
I first met her when she was
security forces commander at Lakiki
when I was stationed in USAF.
I'm inspired by her because of the way she engages
not only with her senior leadership team,
her chief, Dana Council,
and her first sergeant, Senior Master Sergeant Hollis.
I mean, it's just probably one of the best examples of.
We talk about the triad.
The commander, the first sergeant, and chief.
This is probably one of the best examples
I've ever seen in my Air Force career
of a leadership team that works together.
But I'm inspired by the way she highlights
and the way she takes care of her airmen.
She's tough.
I told you about her background.
So, she's tough.
But she's fair.
And, at any given time.
And so, a lot of people follow me on Facebook.
If you want to know who I follow,
I follow Colonel Opielowski,
because of all the inspirational things she does.
She's a PT juggernaut.
She's intimately involved in the lives of all of her airmen.
I mean, she is just an all around fantastic leader
and someone that hopefully,
with the little time that I have left.
And we have kind of a mentor-mentee relationship.
She mentors me on occasion.
On occasion, I'll pass on my thoughts to her.
But just an amazing leader that I'm proud to serve with.
So, when I asked her if she had any thoughts
that I should pass along to you all,
the one thing she told me was
she tries to instill mutual respect at all levels.
And, if each of us, as leaders, could do the same.
If we could treat our airmen with love and mutual respect
the way that we would want to be treated,
a lot of our problems would actually go away.
And she does all of this while being a single parent
to her daughter, 12 year old daughter Reagan.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of our
most courageous and inspirational leaders,
Lieutenant Colonel Tara Opielowski.
(applause)
- So, I'm a firm believer that
no officer in the United States Air Force
becomes successful, at the very senior ranks,
without being raised by a great senior NCO.
And great NCOs.
And you always know when you're about to learn something,
because NCOs have a code.
Especially chiefs have a code.
And it starts off with, "Sir, ma'am, do you have a minute?"
(laughter)
Which, of course, the answer to that is always yes.
And then you know you're about to learn something
if the next thing you hear is "With all due respect."
(laughter)
So, let's bring up the next slide.
This is my first chief.
Chief Jimmy Kelly.
And I was a young squadron commander
and I hadn't had a chance
to really work with a chief before.
And Jimmy Kelly raised me.
And one of the lessons of the many that he taught me
that I wanted to share this morning.
He walked in one morning.
I was working on something.
And he says, "Hey, sir, you got a minute?"
I said, "Absolutely, chief.
Come on."
And he came in and closed the door
and he walked in and he pulled something out of his pocket.
And he put it on my desk.
And he says, "Sir, you ought to take a look at this."
He goes, "This ought to make you mad.
'Cause it makes a lot of your airmen mad."
And I picked it up.
And I looked at it.
And I turned it around.
And I kept staring at it and looked around it.
I said, "Chief I ain't getting it.
What are you trying to teach me here?"
And he says, "Well, sir, read the box."
And so, I read it.
It said Johnson and Johnson flesh colored bandaids.
And he says, "Yep, ought to make you mad,
because it makes a lot of your airmen mad."
And I stared at that box.
And I kept turning it around.
And I put around.
I kept looking.
And I said, "Chief, I ain't getting it.
What are you trying to teach me?"
And he sort of had a little glimmer in his eye
and he says, "Let me show you."
And he pulled open the box.
He ripped out a bandaid.
And he pulls it off and he puts that
pink bandaid on his African American skin.
And he says, "You know what?
That ought to make you mad.
Makes a lot of your airmen mad."
Then he winked and he walked out.
So, what's the moral of the story as leaders?
As servant leaders?
I couldn't see it.
I could have stared at that thing for weeks
and I would never have seen it.
Because my life experiences.
I've never actually been the only one of me in a room.
Every time I've been in a room in my entire career,
most of the people in that room look like me.
Sound like me.
I've never been the only African American,
Asian American, Hispanic American, Asian.
I've never been in a room where,
perhaps, I was scrutinized to a different level.
I've never been the only woman in an organization
who has everything I'm saying
scrutinized to a completely different level
and had people say things to me that
they thought were funny
but that were actually sort of degrading.
To be wearing uniforms and equipment
that were actually never designed for me.
But I just sort of suffer in silence
to go strap into an airplane
and fly a nine hour sortie and put a vest on
that was actually built for men.
See, I've never had those experiences,
because most of what my experience has been
has been all about people that are like me.
So, how do we, as servant leaders.
How do we lead in that environment?
I think the first thing we do is we acknowledge
that we all have blinders on as leaders.
And there are certain things that
we are not gonna be able to see in our organizations.
And I think, once we acknowledge that,
we also have to acknowledge that
there are flesh colored bandaids in every squadron.
It's going on.
And so, the only way we can see them
is to surround ourselves and build our teams
in ways that others can point them out for us.
And recognize the fact that
the culture of the United States Air Force
has to be the big tent culture.
Because, if you go to a high school
and look at the kids and ask yourself,
"Who lines up to join the Air Force,
the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps?
What kind of kid is gonna see themselves
in the culture of each of those?"
And there's been studies done
on what kind of kid lines up in each line.
Our line should generally be the longest.
Not because of any parochial or competitive nature,
but because think about the nature of what we do.
We do leaflets to nukes and everything in between.
We operate from 65 feet below the surface
to the outer reaches of space and anywhere in between.
And we're involved in every single mission
that the United States military
and our coalition partners are involved in.
And so, we gotta have kids that line up and say,
"You know what?"
First kid in line says, "You know what?
I've been talking to this guy named General Raymond
and I want to go into space."
And that kid's got to see themselves
in the United States Air Force.
And we gotta embrace that kid.
And bring them in.
And our culture's gotta be inclusive of that kid.
And the next kid in line says,
"I want to be at JTECH."
And our culture's got to embrace that kid.
The next one wants to be a pilot.
The next one wants to be a cyber operator.
The next one wants to do all the things
that we do as an Air Force.
We have got to embrace them.
And they gotta see themselves in us.
And so, for me, celebration of diversity
and making sure that
we understand the flesh colored bandaids.
It's not about being politically correct.
It's a warfighting imperative.
Because the challenges we face as a nation
are wicked hard.
And it's gonna take folks with different backgrounds,
different life experiences, and different perspectives
to be able to come in and sit down together
and provide the creative solutions that we,
as a nation, need to be able to fight and win.
- You know, the video that we watched earlier
was centered around squadron commanders.
But there's a group of individuals sitting in this area.
You're a MAJCOM, command chiefs,
and a few other senior chiefs across our Air Force
that are also working to make sure that
we develop our squadron superintendents.
Very, very important to that triad that I talked about.
First sergeants, squadron superintendents,
and squadron commanders.
I want to tell you about my first squadron superintendent.
Next slide.
This is the infamous Joe Winbush.
And Joe Winbush started to mentor me
the day before I arrived at my first duty station.
So, I graduated from tech training
and I had seven days of leave.
And I decided seven days is not enough.
So, I called my unit and said,
"Hey, I'm supposed to be there tomorrow.
But I think I'll show up some time next week."
(laughter)
Whoever answered the phone said, "Okay, hold on."
And they gave the phone to Joe Winbush.
He picked up the phone and said, "Hey, who is this?"
I said, "Sir, this is Airman Wright.
And I'm supposed to be there tomorrow."
And, before I got it all out,
he said, "I'll tell you what.
You better have your blank here tomorrow at this time."
And so, I got my blank on a Greyhound bus
from Columbus, Georgia.
And I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina
at the time that I was supposed to.
As I was coming down the steps of the bus,
Joe Winbush grabbed me by my BDU collar at the time
and read me the riot act.
And then he read me the riot act
all through my time as an airman.
All through my time as NCO.
All through my time up until today.
If I got him on speakerphone right now,
he'd read me the riot act.
(laughter)
He was very tough.
But he was fair.
And he treated me like his son.
If you ever hear me today referring to my Pops,
it's Joe Winbush.
When I went on my first deployment,
he knew the type of.
And I think I've talked to you about
the type of airman that I was.
Not in very good shape.
He knew the type of airman that I was.
So, he decided, "I think I'd better
get on this deployment and go with him."
And he beat me up on that deployment.
And my biological mother
actually passed away during this deployment.
And Joe Winbush was right there when I got back.
He all but adopted me into his family.
He allowed me to be mischievous.
He's from the inner city of Pittsburgh.
So, he knew my type.
He allowed me to be mischievous.
He allowed me to be slick.
But there was always a knife.
I didn't even know what a knife hand was back then.
But there was always a knife hand.
There was always a teaching moment.
There was always an opportunity that
he allowed me to grow.
What I will tell you is everything that I am today,
as a professional, as a man, and everything that I am not
is because of Joe Winbush.
And I can only hope that, for all of our enlisted airmen
and for all of our junior officers
and for all of our senior officers,
that you have a Joe Winbush,
a courageous leader and inspirational man,
in your life like I did.
I would not be here today had it not been for this man.
And I want to personally and publicly thank him and my mom,
Miss Diane Winbush, for everything
that they've done for me throughout my career.
(applause)
- So, this may be surprising for you to hear from the chief,
but a couple of words that I
rarely ever use is safety first.
Because, you know what, what we do sometimes
is an inherently unsafe business.
I actually know how to do safety first.
It's not flying.
I mean, when you're at 160 knots
and you got 3,000 feet of runway left
and you got an engine that coughs on you
and you got three seconds to make a life and death decision,
that environment is not safe.
But here's how we get through it.
Here's the words I do use.
Discipline first.
Because, you know, if we're disciplined,
we're gonna be safe.
And here's the guy that taught me that.
Alright, so, there's probably some smiles
by some of the retirees in the crowd.
'Cause this guy's somewhat of a legend.
This is Lieutenant Colonel Billy Diehl.
And Billy Diehl was my first squadron commander.
And he's the guy that took me to war.
And, you know, sometimes we, as leaders,
have got to decide between what's the right decision
when we're either having safety issues
or something's going the wrong way.
Because, sometimes, the decision
is to throttle back and reset.
But, you know, sometimes the decision is to throttle up
and push it up.
And the person that has the best knowledge
and understanding of where the unit is
is the command team working together.
So, I want to describe for you
my first experience in combat,
because this is the guy who got me ready.
And he got me and my teammates ready
by teaching us about discipline.
And so, we're getting ready during Desert Shield
and we've done all these workups
and then it's time for our first mission.
And, like everyone.
This is the only guy, by the way,
who had combat time in our squadron.
He'd been a MiG killer in Vietnam.
The rest of us were all green.
And so, we're getting ready to go into combat
for the very first time.
And we're uttering that prayer that
airmen have uttered since the beginning of warfighting.
Which is "Please, God.
Don't let me let my buddies down."
And, you know, you're always sort of wondering.
How am I gonna react to the enemy?
What's gonna happen when I see my first
surface-to-air missile?
What's gonna happen?
How am I gonna react?
Is my training gonna come through for me?
So, there we were.
Full package going across day one of Desert Storm.
And we get across the line.
And, as you might imagine, heart rate's up a little bit.
And we're doing our work.
And, the next thing I know,
Billy Diehl comes across on the radio.
Like a walk in the park,
he says, "Hey, there's triple A."
Anti-aircraft artillery.
"There's triple A right two o'clock."
And all of us stare at them going,
"Wow, look at that.
Triple A right two o'clock."
And then the same calm voice comes across and says,
"SA-2, left 10 o'clock."
And we all, "Look at that."
Surface-to-air missile.
And we could see it, 'cause it's pretty big.
Like a telephone pole.
And it climbs up to about 35,000 feet above the formation
and explodes.
And we're looking at it.
And then we hear on the radio, "Splash, MiG-29."
Because I was far enough forward in the formation,
I see an aircraft hit the ground and explode.
And I remember that moment in my cockpit
like it was yesterday.
Because, all of a sudden, I realized none of this was new.
I actually had been in this environment before.
This exact environment before.
I'd seen these formations.
I'd heard these radio calls.
I'd seen the radar warning receiver screaming at me.
I'd heard that before.
I'd seen smoky SAM simulators.
I'd seen triple A simulators.
I've never seen an airplane actually hit the dirt before.
But I had heard all the radio calls before.
And I realized I was in an environment
that was actually not new.
I'd done all of this before at Red Flag.
Just months prior.
And what that experience taught me
and continues to teach us is
the importance of confidence under fire.
And this guy put us through the wringers.
And he was tough as nails on us.
And he made sure that we bled in training
so we were not gonna bleed in combat.
And I would offer to us, as leaders,
that there's a lot of things we do the best we can.
There is one obligation we have that
I would tell you is nothing short of sacred duty.
It's our mirror check as leaders.
And that's to ensure that every airman
that we send into harm's way is properly organized,
trained, equipped, and well led.
So they can go forward and do the nation's business.
And then, when they return home,
we've taken care of their families while they're gone.
That's sacred duty for us.
Everything else, hey, we'll do the best we can.
That one, as servant leaders, we gotta get right.
And it was Billy Diehl who taught me.
(applause)
- Again, we just wanted to share
some of the individuals in our lives
that have inspired us.
But what we're really here to do
and what we like doing most
and what helps us inspire the changes
and the improvements and helps us do our jobs
is hearing from you.
So, we'd like to squint with our ears
and turn it over to you
for any questions that you might have for me or the chief.
- Thank you.
Thank you, General Goldfein and Chief Wright.
Got some really good questions, obviously.
So, let's get right into the first one.
In an era of great power competition,
why is innovation important?
- Yeah, so, was that Spark Tank pretty cool or what?
That was spectacular.
And what's neat is it's happening all over our Air Force.
Wing commanders are doing this.
We've pushed innovation money out.
We've got the second tranche of that.
And, hopefully, what's happening across the Air Force
is that airmen are realizing
we're really serious about this push
and decision authority and resources
down to the squadron level.
Focused on and built on a foundation of trust
and the fact that we trust our commanders
and our command chiefs and senior NCOs to get after it.
You know, the story that always come to mind.
And I've used this before.
But it's the story of the F-117 and how it came to be.
So, as the last guy to actually check out in the F-117,
what I really enjoyed about that experience
was meeting and spending time with the community.
Both those in Skunk Works and also those who, for years.
Most folks don't remember.
We flew that thing for nine years
with the highest levels of classification.
And many believe that the former Soviet Union
sort of spent themselves into oblivion
trying to figure out how to counter it.
And so, how did it came to be?
So, there's this guy named Denys Overholser.
He's a young engineer.
And his idea of a good time on weekends
was reading technical journals
that have been translated into English.
And he's reading this Russian journal.
And he sees in there the math equation
for what now we call stealth.
And he walks into Ben Rich, the CEO at Skunk Works,
and he says.
And he puts a model, a wooden carving,
of what now would look like a Hope Diamond.
And Ben Rich looks up and he says, "What's that?"
He said, "Well, this will return the radar cross section
of part of an eagle."
And he says, "You mean an eagle?"
And he says, "No, an eagle's eye."
And then Ben Rich said, famously,
"Well, can you get it airborne?"
And he says, "Well, I can try."
And so, then they started working on it.
And they came to the Pentagon.
Came into my conference room now.
And Ben Rich came in and had
the chief of staff and the secretary of defense.
And Ben Rich pulls a marble out of his pocket
and he rolls it across the table.
And the secretary says, "What's that?"
And he goes, "That's the radar cross section return
of what I'm about to build you."
And then the rest, of course, is history.
And so, the question for us, as an institution,
is are we ready to accept the marble?
Can the marble get to leaders
who can then make decisions
at the right level to take action?
Or will it die 100,000 bureaucratic deaths along the way?
And so, what we're trying to establish across the Air Force
is an environment where good ideas get a hearing.
But not only a hearing.
They get immediate resources to go forward
and solve our toughest challenges
at the right level in our Air Force.
- Okay, chief, it's interesting.
There's a lot of folks in this crowd
that want to replace you in a couple of years.
So, that's probably a good thing.
But here's the question.
Both you, Chief Wright,
and our chief of staff of the Air Force,
General Dave Goldfein, are Dallas Cowboy fans.
(laughter)
This is a real question.
And I want to be the next Kaleth Wright.
General Goldfein, do I have to violate my oath of integrity
(laughter)
and everything in the name of decency
(laughter)
and good judgment
(laughter and coughing)
and become a Dallas Cowboy fan
if I want to replace Chief Wright?
(laughter)
- Let me think about this for a second.
Yes.
(laughter)
Chief, why don't you take that one?
- Hey, that was the only reason I got the job.
(laughter)
- Okay, we'll let that one go.
Alright, with the increased emphasis
on mental health and work-life balance,
what should service before self mean
to our airmen in garrison today?
- That's actually a really good question.
You know, sometimes, I've been in situations personally
and I've heard from many of our airmen
about this idea of service before self.
That, when an airman wants to take care of
him or herself or their family,
sometimes a supervisor or commander
or a flight chief or whatever will say,
"Hey, service before self.
You owe it to this Air Force
before you take care of yourself."
And I'm not certain that that's what that means
as one of our core values.
And I'm not certain that that's what was meant
when it was written.
Today, and I've been a huge proponent
over the last couple of years
about this idea that you can't take care of
any of your airmen if you don't take care of you.
You know, I've talked about the importance
of putting your mask on first.
And so, when you talk about service before self,
obviously we're in the service business.
Obviously, we voluntarily raised our hands
and joined the Air Force.
And we want you to be dedicated to your job.
We want you to be dedicated to our mission.
We want you to be dedicated to the people that you serve.
But I also want you to be dedicated to taking care of you.
Because, all too often.
And I know somebody mentioned this morning
about the folks in the front row.
I think it was General Raymond.
Those of us who are a little bit older.
When you get our age and you start
trying to take care of yourself,
sometimes it's too late.
I mean, it's really simple.
You can't take care of them.
You can't be your best on the console, in the cockpit,
in the warehouse, on the gates.
You can't take care of the mission
if you don't take care of you.
And so, when I think about this idea of service before self,
again, obviously, yes, mission first.
But don't ever neglect and ignore yourself.
And certainly don't ever neglect and ignore your family
when it comes to being effective.
- I have several questions along the same subject.
And it's for both of you.
Chief Wright, I know you recall
you and I had the pleasure of doing
a mentorship, leadership session with Andrews
a couple weeks ago.
And it was really a great event.
But one of the questions we got over and over.
The audience, as it seemed, knew both of our stories.
Which means neither of us were model airmen
when we initially came in.
Although it's hard to imagine now looking at us both.
But both of us had hair that was too long back then.
And we had mustaches that were too long.
But that was back in the day.
And those days are past us now.
But the question is what would you both say to airmen
who have stumbled and who didn't start off
maybe as coming out of the gate really quick,
but now they want to continue on and have a great career?
What would you say to an airman
that wants to be the next
Chief Goldfein or the next Chief Wright?
But didn't have a great start.
- Good on you.
That's what I would say to those airmen.
Good on you.
I think we need.
That's the way, I think, that you learn.
The way that you grow.
That will ultimately make you a better leader.
Stumbling out of the blocks.
Having some challenges.
Having a little bit of trouble.
We all need that.
You know, when you go to the gym to work out,
if you lift five pounds and you don't shred those muscles,
they won't grow.
And I'm not saying that you have to have
the career that I had.
That you have to stumble and get in trouble
and be undisciplined and curse everybody out
and do all the things that I did.
But I actually appreciate
and I actually look for individuals.
And I have the fantastic opportunity now to hire my staff.
Like most senior folks in the Air Force.
And that's something that I actually look for.
Hey, tell me about some troubles you've had in the past
and how you overcame them.
Because I think that says a lot about people.
And, for those of us in the room who are leaders,
you have to learn to appreciate that.
You have to learn to appreciate someone
that got an Article 15 when they were a young airman
and now they've made it all the way
to be a tech sergeant or a master sergeant or a chief.
You have to appreciate some of the mistakes
that airmen make
and what it ultimately means to them,
their resilience, and their ability to be effective
as leaders in our Air Force.
- Thanks, chief.
You know, I went out to.
Had a chance to talk, a couple weeks ago,
at the Air Force Academy
to the National Character Leadership Symposium.
And I shared the story with the cadets
that I had two completely different experiences
as a cadet at the Air Force Academy in my six years there.
(laughter)
And the first one, of course, when I arrived in the academy,
my older brother, Steve, who's just an incredible officer.
Great airman.
He had been the cadet wing commander
when General Wilters and I showed up.
And, unbeknownst to me, when I was getting ready
to start off as a young freshman,
he had restricted the class of '81,
the upperclassmen, for four weekends in a row
for doing just terrible things.
Not staring straight ahead when they walked
and putting their hands in their pockets.
I mean, it was just terrible things this class did.
And they got restricted for a month.
And then they became upperclassmen and I showed up.
And I had no idea that my name
was actually pronounced, "Goldfein, drive on out here."
And so, I was trying to make my own way in the world.
And, you know, if you're trying to make your own path
and your older brother is perfect,
the only avenue available to you is anti-perfect.
And so, I shared with the cadets and I share with you
that I spent my first two years fighting the organization.
And then we made a mutual decision
between the Air Force Academy and Cadet Goldfein
that maybe I ought to leave and get my act together.
And so, I left.
And rode a 10 speed bicycle,
because that's how many speeds there were available in 1980,
around the country for an entire year.
As I traveled around the country and people took me in,
total strangers who would come up and talk to me
and bring me in, take care of me,
I came to the conclusion on my own
that this nation is worth defending.
And I came back with a newfound love of our country.
And I went back to the academy.
And my last two years were
a completely different experience.
And the only thing that changed
between the first two years and the last two years
is I embraced what the academy was trying to do.
And I realize that the world didn't actually
revolve around Dave Goldfein.
That, actually, I was part of something really big.
And that there's opportunity to serve others.
And, once I embraced what
the academy was trying to teach me,
man, the whole world changed for me.
And so, I offer that story to you.
And let's, all of us, do our own mirror check here.
Where are we on our journey?
Where are you on your journey?
You fighting the institution
or are you embracing the institution?
And, as leaders, are we looking at this
business of leadership from the eyes of a servant
or from the eyes of someone who feels entitled?
And I think, if we embrace the institution of values
that we stand for,
our airmen are gonna want to follow us.
Because leadership is a gift
and it's given by those that we serve.
(applause)
- I think I'll just pile on a little bit.
You know, most of us and maybe most of you in this room
who don't have a bump or a bruise in your record
doesn't mean you didn't have one in your career.
Sometimes it means you just didn't get caught.
(laughter)
- So, in keeping with our theme of.
(laughter)
I resemble that remark.
- That would be the difference
between a Dallas Cowboy fan and a Washington Redskins fan.
(laughter)
- Last year, keeping in our theme of innovation,
there was a lot of talk about the frozen middle.
And there's a lot of questions about the frozen middle,
because the theory goes airmen have all these great ideas.
And, particularly, as we watch Spark Tank,
you get the senior leaders on the stage
and they're all saying, "Yeah, let's go.
Let's go."
And there seems to be something in the middle
holding those good ideas from reaching the top
where they can get approved or get resources.
So, the basic question is
does the frozen middle still exist?
And, if it does, how do we break it up?
- Yeah, so, we talked about the frozen middle
a little bit last year.
And, the thing that I would want everybody to know,
this is not necessarily always a bad thing.
We have a little bit of.
I always talk about our group of chiefs.
We have our own little kind of frozen middle.
And, actually, we need it to some extent, because.
Let me tell you about how we operate.
We think about or get a new idea,
like eliminating waft testing.
And here's me.
Alright, let's do it.
I'm jumping off the cliff.
And we'll figure it out on the way down.
(laughter)
And then we have some folks in our group that says,
"Hey, wait, chief.
We need to do some data.
We need to do some research.
We need to make sure that this makes sense."
To a certain extent, they operate in our group
as the frozen middle.
And I understand why this part of our Air Force exists.
Because we come up with the grand ideas
and we say, "Go forth and prosper."
But somebody actually.
Many of you in this room actually have to do this work.
Has to do this research.
Has to accept this risk.
Have to make sure that we stay out of hot water.
So, it's not altogether a bad thing.
But we do need to figure out, as an Air Force,
how we unleash all these airmen
that were on this stage yesterday.
All these airmen.
Because we only had five or six groups of airmen yesterday.
There are airmen all across this Air Force
that have ideas that will save time.
That will save money.
That will allow us to do our jobs
as we think about how we might fight near peer adversaries.
Better, cheaper, smarter, faster.
So, how do we find the right balance
in allowing them to grow?
And, to me, it's really all about risk.
And how do we learn to take some calculated risk.
- You know, and I think we got.
I do think we gotta embrace the fact that
a little bit of resistance and a little bit of dissent
is part of our culture.
I mean, we led the great jihad of 1947.
That was a joke.
(laughter)
And I joke sometimes and say.
You know, if my buddy, General Miller,
the commandant of the Marine Corps was standing up here,
and he made an announcement
to the United States Marine Corps,
he says, "Okay, on Friday, we're all wearing white gloves."
There'd be some grumbling.
But, by God, on Friday afternoon,
United States Marine Corps
would be lining up wearing white gloves.
If the chief of staff of the Air Force
was to announce today, "On Friday,
we're all wearing white gloves."
The first response will be "What the hell?"
(laughter)
"Does he want white gloves?
I think he wants one white glove, not two.
I think he wants maybe gray gloves, not white."
So, a little bit of resistance and a little bit of dissent
is sort of part of who we are.
And so, the way I look at the frozen middle
and a question for us is how do you melt it?
How do you get through any layers of resistance and dissent
if it's actually a little bit of part of who we are?
What's the flamethrower?
What's the torch we can put on it
that actually can melt that?
And I think it's trust.
It's trust up and down the organization.
It's the two of us and the secretary of the Air Force
reinforcing this message that
we absolutely completely trust
the leaders in our Air Force at all levels
to make the right decisions because we prepared them well
and they know what they need more than anybody else.
It's trust across the organization so that
the org chart of the United States Air Force
has the chief and I and the secretary at the bottom
and squadron leadership at the top.
And understand that we actually all exist
to make sure that they can get the mission done.
That they can take care of airmen.
That they can establish, in the squadron,
the culture of that organization.
Where the right thing is really easy
and the wrong thing is really hard.
So, if we can continue to build on the foundation of trust
across our Air Force,
I'm absolutely confident that the frozen middle,
which is always gonna be part of who we are,
will get smaller and smaller over time.
- I mean, if we just have people in our Air Force
that are saying no for no's sake.
Just because I'm in the position and I can say no.
Or just because they want to save their jobs.
Then that's not productive.
But, again, if this type of dissent
forces you to think more deeply
about what it is you're trying to do.
Let's take the young man who was
the very first contestant yesterday on Spark Tank.
So, first, we work in practice mode
when we started Spark Tank.
Hey, let's have some fun with this.
And Mark Cuban was full game.
Laces tied up.
Hey, this is real.
(laughter)
Alright.
But look what happened when he pressed him a little bit.
He pressed him about no I'm not gonna give you a spark.
And he asked him some really tough questions
that we would sometimes equate to
you're just being part of the frozen middle.
And look what happened.
He thought a little bit more deeply about
why this was a good idea and then he pushed back.
And he came up with the reason for.
This is why we need to be able to do this.
When the frozen middle comes in that form,
man, it's good for all of us.
- So, a lot of airmen sent in a lot of questions
regarding social media.
And, more specifically, I suppose there's,
at least in my career, there's always haters out there
that tell you what you can't do
and what you shouldn't do.
But a lot of airmen are frustrated,
because there's a lot of folks out on blogs
that have a lot of negative things to say.
Sometimes about Air Force leaders.
And the airmen that wrote in aren't happy about it.
So, what is your advice to them
about how to sort of change that?
How do you address that?
They don't like all this negativity they see
on a lot of these blog sites.
- So, I think, whether it's on social media
or however people communicate.
Since we're talking about social media,
people have a right to their opinion.
And they don't have to like everything that we do.
Now, I would ask that, in your work environment,
that, when you're on social media, you be respectful.
I tell you what I'd do.
Things that I don't like reading, I don't read.
And I don't pay attention to.
The feedback that I think is useful for me.
I take it and I try to implement it.
If I don't, I laugh or I cry or however it makes me feel.
And I move on with the rest of my life.
So, I think all of us.
There are some very good social media sites.
There are some that are relatively negative.
And there are some that are somewhere in between.
And, just like I would encourage anyone
when it comes to watching the news,
make sure you have a variety.
You get it from all perspectives.
Some of the sites that typically have
some negative information.
Actually, sometimes they raise very good points.
Some raise very good questions
that we actually take back and address.
But I would never go out and say,
"Hey, you guys stop saying this or stop criticizing us."
We welcome that criticism.
We need that criticism.
But I think we've become pretty good.
And I say we.
And I'm talking about our public affairs teammates
that help us with this social media thing
have become really good at helping us understand,
hey, this is useful.
This is not.
- You know, and the other thing was we ought to look at.
In every echelon of command and leadership
right from the chief to a squadron flight commander,
we're in a new era.
Where social media is part of who we are
and it's part of the communication.
It's a communication tool.
So, the question is challenge or opportunity?
And I would offer a little bit of both.
Because there's an opportunity.
I mean, my experience, back as a squadron commander,
was my primary method of communication
was walkabout and all calls.
There was no social media, if you would, to communicate.
And so, today, here we are
where airmen can communicate directly
with squadron leadership.
And so, that's both challenge and opportunity.
Because the challenge, of course,
is that we are a hierarchal, disciplined organization
where we have rank structure and organizational layers.
And we need those organizational layers,
because it's how we fight.
It's how we employ combat power.
It's how we remain disciplined.
So, we have to have those layers.
But now we have this opportunity, as well,
for airmen who have a question about something
to get answers straight from the source.
And so, I think it's a double edged sword
that we have to think about.
How do we maintain the hierarchal nature
of a military organization that employs lethal force,
that's responsible for
the most destructive weaponry on the planet,
and who the nation holds to a very high standard
when it comes to our values
and the fact that we go to war with our values?
How do we use these tools
to become better as an organization?
And there's some great.
There was a, let's see, wing commander at 1st SOW,
Colonel Tom Palenske.
And we were joking a little bit.
His punishment for excellence was
we brought him up to the Pentagon to be an exec.
But he was in the wing commander.
We used to joke a little bit back and forth
about Facebook followers.
And there was one particular email that he put out,
or Facebook post that he put out,
that somebody sent me.
And he said, "Hey, wing.
Chief, secretary have been telling us
that we have decision authority
to stop doing things that
don't directly contribute to our mission.
And I want you to move out.
And I am your top cover.
Questions?
Here's my email account."
And I, of course, took that and reposted it.
The secretary reposted it to get out there.
And so, again, challenge and opportunity.
I think there's probably more opportunity than challenge
for us in the age of social media if we get it right.
- Okay, I know you all want about five minutes
for a couple of summary charts.
So, let me ask you one last question.
What does it mean to you both to be airmen for life?
- So, I'm second generation airman.
My dad served 33 years in the Air Force.
Flew in Vietnam.
My older brother retired as a two star.
My younger brother retired lieutenant colonel.
My daughter is a serving airman.
My nephew's a serving airman.
This is our daughter, our nephew.
This is family business.
And so, the opportunity to continue
as part of this long blue line
and to follow the incredible warriors of our past,
many of whom are here today.
And I would especially call out our Vietnam veterans
who stayed in and rebuilt our service
and rebuilt our military so that,
when Captain Goldfein went into Desert Storm,
we had unbelievable Air Force.
And, if we go to war this year,
we're gonna go to war with the Air Force
that was built by John Jumper, Mike Ryan, Mark Welsh,
and their chief master sergeants of the Air Force.
Such is the nature of lead time to build air forces.
I think a lot about Chief 24
who is a brigadier general today
and perhaps in this room.
And she or he will go to war in 2030
with the Air Force that we built.
That's the long blue line.
And that, to me, is what it means to be an airman for life.
- March 29, 2019 will mark 30 years
in the United States Air Force for me.
So, I've been an airman my entire adult life.
As I, at some point, transition out of this job
and out of our Air Force,
many of my friends, many of the folks that
I've had the pleasure of mentoring,
many of the folks that have contributed to my success
will continue to serve.
And I will continue to serve right alongside with them.
In or out of uniform.
Chief master sergeants of the Air Force
have a longstanding tradition
of continuing to be involved in our United States Air Force.
And I know many of you have had the pleasure
of being in audiences and hearing Bob Gaylor and Sam Parrish
and even one of our.
As the perfect example, we have here with us today,
and at every AFA, certainly, that I have ever been to,
our chief master sergeant of the Air Force number 14,
Gerald Murray.
So, chief, thank you.
(applause)
So, I'll continue that tradition
of being an airman for the rest of my entire life
and continue to contribute to the success of our Air Force.
- Wanna wrap up?
- Alright, next slide, please.
We'd be remiss if we, in terms of talking about
inspiration and great leadership,
we didn't talk a little bit about John Chapman.
I know all of you know the story of John Chapman
and his time on that mountain in Takur Ghar in Afghanistan.
And you've probably even heard
the chief talk about this picture
that he has in his office.
Where, a day or so prior to John's death,
the Afghan army was trying to get into this safehouse.
And the army wanted to kick the family out
and part of the family was this little girl.
And John stood his ground.
And he made sure.
Because the room that they were trying to kick them out of
was the only room in the house that had heat.
And John stood his ground and made sure that
this little girl,
who happened to be the same age of his daughter
at the time this picture was taken.
We've all been inspired by.
And I certainly personally have been inspired
by John and what he did for all of us.
And we posthumously promoted him
to master sergeant this year
and, more importantly, he received
the Medal of Honor this year.
(applause)
- So, for all the leaders in the room and leaders to be,
this is the kind of airman that we're privileged to lead.
And the question for all of us to think about
is are we worthy?
Are we worthy of the gift of being able
to lead John Chapman?
Are we worthy of the trust and the confidence
that the nation has placed in us
when they send their sons and daughters
to the United States Air Force?
If we get this leadership thing right, here's what happens.
You become a leader for life to that individual.
Whether it's squadron, wing, group, command.
It's happened here this week.
One of the blessings is that
folks will come up to you and they'll say.
Or they'll send you an email.
They'll find you on the global and they say,
"Hey, you don't remember me.
But I served in your squadron back in Aviano
or Spangdahlem or Holloman."
You name the base.
"And you probably don't remember this,
but you called me into the office
and I was going through a really rough time.
And, while I didn't appreciate the tough love at the time,
I got the help that you told me to go get.
And I kept my family together.
I was able to get my finances.
I got my act together after that meeting.
And I'm just contacting you
to tell you I just made senior master sergeant.
And I have you to thank."
Doesn't get any better than that.
That's the gift of servant leadership.
That's the gift that we've been given.
We can buy all the technology on the planet.
We can be the most technical force.
We can do all the things
we're talking about with acquisition.
And it adds up to very little
if we don't have the airmen we need
to take the fight to the enemy
and do the nation's business.
And so, we have to fly, fight, and stay to win.
And it's on all of us to ensure that
we build and rebuild and reinforce
the culture of an airman and the culture of an Air Force.
Because it's never been more important time to serve.
And I know, for the chief and I,
we are proud to serve with you each and every day.
God bless you all.
Thank you very much.
(applause)