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COMMANDER'S COMMENTS

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Kyle Noel
  • 113th ASOS
Welcome from the 113th Air Support Operations Squadron. When I was informed that it was my turn to write the Commander's Comments for the upcoming edition of the Racer Flyer, I was not sure what I wanted to write about. After thinking on it, I decided to write about individual responsibility and standards of behavior. More specifically, how each individual's personal actions contribute to or detract from the mission of the USAF and ANG.

During my career as a pilot, I have been expected to memorize flying standards for each organization that I have been a member of. Flying standards are common to all military fighter pilots and dictate tactical execution and employment of your weapons system. At any given time, when employing a combat aircraft, be it an F-16 or an A-10, I knew in almost any situation what the man or woman in the other aircraft around me were going to do and what they expected of me based on the flying standards.

The knowledge of exactly what I expected from each pilot in the flight greatly decreased my work load and freed up time and brain bytes to concentrate on the things that were happening that were not "Standard." This in turn made myself and my flight more lethal, and increased our chances of successfully accomplishing the mission.

While I was intimately familiar with flying standards, when I came to the ASOS last year, I found the ASOS had a set of standards, as well. They were, however, different from what I was accustomed to. Rather than tactical execution standards, they had 113 ASOS TACP Standards of Behavior. This was something I had never seen before and was very impressed with the concept.

As a member of the military, we all subscribe to the Core Values of our service, but in the ASOS they went one step further to refine individual standards expected, which align with our Core Values. I have been humbled by the men and women of this fine organization and their individual commitments to the mission we execute. I believe that a big part of our success is that from day one each member is taught exactly what is expected from them to make the entire enterprise successful, and see that our mission is accomplished.

Based on this I thought I would share what our standards of behavior are in the ASOS, and what they mean to me as they are transferable to all organizations.

1. If you don't have a job or task, find one or help someone that does. This simply quantifies your membership in the team. Just because you are not busy does not mean that there is not work to be done. Rather, seek out something to do to or help someone that is busy to further the accomplishment of the mission.

2. Expect to make mistakes, learn from them and drive on. Don't be afraid to take the lead and make decisions. This is the only way that we learn, so push the envelope, but ensure that you and others learn from any failures that may result.

3. Maintain 100% accountability of your personnel and equipment. In our mission, this quite frankly, is a life or death standard of behavior as loss of accountability of personnel or equipment can have catastrophic results; however, in any mission, this holds true. As members of the team, all have a job to do, and the equipment the tax payers entrust us with is necessary, or we would not have it. Thus, loss of accountability deteriorates the accomplishment of the mission.

4. Be responsible for maintenance and accountability of your equipment. Again, we are stewards of funds that the tax payers of our great nation provide us. Be responsible for taking care of the tools they provide you to accomplish our missions. This also implies that we are all responsible for following through with maintenance of equipment even when the process is outside of our lane or handed off to another agency. None of us in the Wing can fall into the trap of using "the system" as an excuse for failing or not following through.

5. Trust your junior leaders and encourage their innovation. I have had the great pleasure of working for some fantastic leaders and commanders in my career. I am confident that they were not born that way. Rather they have been mentored by Senior NCOs and Officers to develop them to what they became. We all need to give responsibilities to, and place trust in, our young NCOs and Officers in order to develop them into great leaders. A senior NCO or Officer that has simply followed orders for their entire career, and suddenly finds themselves in a position where no one is telling them what to do will fail, and are a detriment to the mission. Management can be taught in a classroom, but making tough decisions and truly leading is a skill that must be learned through experience and continually honed.

6. Ensure all are trained, prepared, and have the correct equipment. This is a tenant of leadership. Take care of your people and ensure they have the training, and equipment required to do the mission. Again, this is an area where we cannot allow "the system" to be an excuse for failing to provide for our Airmen.

7. 1-up / 1-down cross training at all levels. Ensure those appointed over you and your subordinates are able to do your job. This mentors and prepares your subordinates and ensures no single points of failure to the mission. The problem that this standard addresses is more common to the ANG and AFRES than the Active Duty Air Force based on our limited full-time force, but the impact on our Airmen is the same. We cannot afford to bring the machine to a halt every time one key player is out of the office.

8. Rehearsals, back briefs and Pre Combat Inspections are mandatory. This may come across as specific to Battlefield Airmen, but has applicability to all career fields. Rehearsals are practice. Train like you fight, so when the fight comes you are prepared. No one should plan to rise to the occasion in a crisis. Rather, they should plan to default to their highest level of training and readiness since that is exactly what happens. Back briefs are simply making sure your leadership and subordinates are informed. Pre Combat Inspections means knowing the status of your equipment and resources at all times.

9. Identifying an issue or LimFac is only step 1 of 2, step 2 is fixing it. Don't be the guy or gal that simply points out what is wrong to your leaders and view that as doing the job. Rather identify issues before your leadership does, take ownership of the problem, and fix them at the lowest level practical. If you cannot fix the problem at your level, then do your best to give solutions or courses of action to consider as you elevate the problem.

10. Hold yourself accountable before anyone else needs to. Be your own biggest critic and constantly evaluate how you can do better. If you fail or make mistakes, take responsibility for your actions, and ensure you and others learn from them.

11. Morale is a resource, manage it effectively. In the profession of arms we are asked to do difficult things. Long hours, discomfort, and unpopular decisions are a source of consternation and can degrade morale. As leaders, evaluate your decisions to ensure that if you are placing a burden on your people that it is reasonable and necessary for the mission to be accomplished, rather than the easy solution or arbitrarily.

12. Be ready, always. As citizen soldiers we are to be prepared to answer our nation's call anywhere at any time. Stay fit, constantly improve your knowledge, and stay trained as you never know when you will be thrust into action and you must be prepared.

13. EVERYONE FIGHTS, NO ONE QUITS. This line may come from Starship Trooper fame, but is meant literally. We are an instrument of power for our nation. Regardless of what drove your decision to serve, deep down inside you must have the fire to be prepared to fight and risk your life, if necessary, in service to our nation. No matter how difficult the task, never quit as long as you have breath in your lungs.

Throughout my career I have always been told that people are our most important resource. I believe this to be absolutely true. No matter how advanced the technology is that we use to complete our mission, without highly trained and motivated personnel maintaining and operating these machines, they become useless.

Envision yourself as a cog on the wheel of the big machine we call the military. If you individually fail or don't give your all, the machine begins to break down and becomes that much less effective. Take the time to individually examine your "standards of behavior" to see if you are living out our core values, and being the best you can be. By continually evaluating ourselves in greater detail than we evaluate others, to make positive modifications to our own individual behavior, we can strengthen the machine as a whole and complete our mission to "Fly, Fight, and Win."