Be mindful of Air Force when making decisions

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Robert Johnson
  • 570th Contingency Response Group
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  
Recently, we were visited by the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Commander, Maj. Gen. Frederick Martin.  During his remarks at an all call with members from the Contingency Response Wing, he mentioned that he had enlisted in the Air Force in 1981, but joined the Air Force in 1989.

Intrigued, after the call was over, I asked him what he meant by that statement and if there was a particular moment or event that changed his mindset.  He said he just made the decision to stop serving himself and start serving the Air Force. This resonated with me, and made me reflect on my Air Force career and how my mindset has certainly changed over the time of my service to the Air Force.

I started off my career as a KC-135R Stratotanker maintenance crew chief.   Back then, we did not have civilian cleaning crews. When I was an Airman, my additional duties included cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping, mopping and waxing the floors, and taking out the trash.

When I actually went to the flight line, I was the pintlehook guy. As an Airman, that meant your job is to ride around in the maintenance truck and jump out and hook up all the Aerospace Ground Equipment that required movement.  It was often long days and tedious work and I struggled with my personal perception of the hard work I was doing versus what I saw others doing. I always thought that I was working much harder than the staff sergeant who stood around and watched me work. And he was getting paid more.  At this point, it was all about me.

When I was promoted to staff sergeant, I thought my life was going to be great. Within the first month of having the stripe on, I was put in charge of the floor in the KC-135R Isochronal Inspection Dock at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, and had eight Airmen working for me.

Due to my previous perceptions of NCOs as an Airman, I was going to make sure I didn't ask anybody to do anything that I was not willing to do myself.  With that in mind, I still did most of the cleaning, trash, sweeping and mopping, etc. None of the Airmen working for me ever volunteered to assist. 

In addition, my duties included making sure my Airmen completed their inspections, required parts were ordered, write-ups annotated in the forms and the computer systems updated.  I did this for about three months with a two-plus hour commute and helping raise three small children at home with my wife.  I was getting burned out and decided to talk to my boss to have him fix this situation for me.  I told him he needed to do something because I was out there doing way more than my fair share and it wasn't fair.  He was very patient and let me finish and then he said, paraphrasing, "I issued you eight Airmen, if you choose not to use them then that is your own fault. Now get out of my office." 

That was the wakeup call that I needed, and was the day I began to act more like a leader and an NCO.  I decided that I would have to start being a leader, not just a worker.  At first, I over did it a bit and had to reel myself in, and over time, found a happy medium between working alongside all my Airmen and leading them.  At this point it started to be less about me and more about others.

When I became a senior NCO, I started to realize that every decision that SNCOs make or, more importantly, don't make, can have an effect on the Air Force five, ten, even fifteen years down the road.   I realized that the Air Force needs people to care about both the people and the mission or the future of the Air Force would be in jeopardy.  At this point in my career it was all about serving my Air Force. 

In the transition from NCO to SNCO, I found one of the best ways to serve the Air Force is to take care of the Airmen and they will absolutely take care of the mission. That means giving our Airmen and civilian employees every chance to succeed and inspire them to be the best they can be.  Even now as a chief, I'm still learning new ways to inspire and motivate those around me.

Have you enlisted or have you joined the Air Force? You must do your best at whatever level you are at and, above all, make sure your decisions and the actions you take are to the best interests of the Air Force. With this mindset, you can't go wrong.