Integrity in the New Year

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Bryan Watt
  • 60th Operations Support Squadron commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  No, I am not going to convince you to adopt another New Year's resolution, but rather to focus your priorities on mastering the bedrock core value ... integrity.

Ask yourself specifically, "Will I make decisions and perform actions this year that consider integrity first?" Are you making the right decision always, or just the most expedient - perhaps the decision that is going to keep you out of trouble, or bring about a "better" outcome for you?

Recently, I was on an overseas mission as a C-5 crewmember. A situation presented itself that had two very plausible solutions ... one right solution, and one wrong.
It was then that the aircraft commander spoke up and said something that I wouldn't soon forget.

He indicated that this decision had a lot riding on it, and he would not make it lightly, and further, that he had learned long ago as an Air Force Academy cadet the value of integrity, and that there was only one way to proceed in this case.

He chose rightly that day. And as I think of the dozens of decisions that an aircraft commander makes during a mission, or the countless decisions that I make as a squadron commander each week, it seems a daunting task. To make each decision and perform each action with integrity.

Knowing in your heart the right thing to do and then doing it. I'll admit, as I sat there in the cockpit with the rest of the crew that day, my immediate wish was that I had spoken up first, but it was the captain's day to shine - and I do mean shine.

As every one who comes in my office knows, those who sit through my "God, Family, Country" in-brief, I put a very high emphasis on the Core Values.

Integrity being first, and upon which the others are built. In other words, there is no selfless service without integrity, no excellence in what we do without integrity.

You have to get that right. Further, I stress that each person in the 60th Operations Support Squadron is an expert at what they do, whether they be a Life Support technician, KC-10 formal training unit instructor, or Air Traffic Controller.

I appeal to them that if they fully adhere to the Core Values, the mission will be accomplished with excellence, the enemy defeated.

My charge to you is the same, whether you are a maintainer on the flight line, a lab tech in the hospital, or a civil engineer making repairs to the base infrastructure: Perform your duties and make decisions with integrity this year.

Ask yourself the hard questions and make the tough decisions, the right decisions.

This New Year's message comes from someone who knows that he has not "arrived," but is still striving each and every day to conform to the ideal ... to do the right thing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!