Understanding big picture strengthens Team Travis Published May 8, 2008 By Col. Steve Arquiette 60th Air Mobility Wing commander TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Yesterday I said good-bye to my wife and son and hopped on a C-5 Galaxy mission with a 22nd Airlift Squadron crew to deliver new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles into Iraq. These vehicles will help saves the lives of our troops currently serving there. As always, my spouse Deb was there to help get me ready to go as well as take care of things during my absence. Lots of other spouses were assisting their husbands or wives make this mission possible as well; whether they were part of the crew, maintenance, operations, medical or mission support groups, we owe a great deal of gratitude to our military spouses for their dedication, sacrifice and their tremendous impact on our mission success. Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day, so please thank our spouses for all that they do! In the big picture of things, it's often easy to not "connect the dots" and appreciate the significant impact each and every one of us has on the success of Team Travis. Last week I mentioned the many projects on Travis and how we're starting to see the positive results of all the hard work from years of planning. Of course, nothing is ever easy, and getting where we are today required many people looking at the big picture. In fact, seeing the big picture is very often the critical first step in understanding what must be done when either solving a problem or starting a project. That being the case, how many of us have often found ourselves like blind men standing around an elephant? The first man touches its side and says "this is a wall." The second touches its tail and says "this is a rope." The third feels its legs and says "this is a tree." The fourth feels the air from his flapping ear and says "this is a fan." The fifth touches the trunk and says "this is a boa constrictor." The sixth man touches the tusks and says "this is a spear." Who's right? Obviously no one. Like these blind men, we all in some way never see clearly what is before us. Consequently, each of us may occasionally have trouble discerning what is real about our work and how what we do contributes to the many successes we have had at Team Travis. It's often hard to visualize that we do reach out 8,000 miles away on a daily basis with our global mobility mission. Gaining this insight comes with education and experience. It begins at basic training. We then build on that foundation with additional professional military education and our own experiences as we advance in our respective career fields. Deployments also enable us to understand the bigger world in which we work, perhaps even more so than what we may find here because we see up close and personal the results of what we do. Gradually we come to understand more of the Air Force. As we do, we begin to share our insights with others and become much smarter as Airmen than we might ever be as an Airman. Aircrews refer to this as situational awareness; the constant sharing of information which contributes to a successful mission. The same analogy applies whatever your contribution. Whether you work in communications, engineering, the medical center or security: seeing what you do as part of the whole truly strengthens your contribution to it. However, like the blind men touching the elephant, our limited perceptions influence what we see. To correct that, it helps if we have the right attitude toward what we do. You can achieve that with five steps: -- Learn more about what the Air Force is doing on a daily basis, -- Look for ways that what you do at Travis touches someone on the other side of the world 8,000 miles away, -- Help young Airmen and Spouses understand where they fit in and why what they do is important, -- Hold yourself accountable on small things as well as large ones, -- Pay attention and question when something appears wrong. These are simple steps, but they require a personal commitment. At first you may not see the entire elephant. With practice, you'll find it right in front of you where it was all along. And that will make Team Travis and the Air Force even better!