Taking care of our Team Travis family

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Michael Williams
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing command chief
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Friday, Friday, Friday.

Man, how I love those Friday's! Yesterday, I drove around base admiring its appearance; it's a beautiful piece of landscape.

A great deal of hard work goes into the maintenance and upkeep of the installation, and I thank each of you for your role in making sure our base looks great. I often wonder about what the people transiting through Travis or our newly assigned personnel think about our installation?

First impressions are lasting impressions. Therefore, once that first impression is captured it's sometimes extremely difficult to get it back.

Every Friday morning, I have the privilege of welcoming our newcomers to Travis. During my welcome, I primarily focus on their transition to the base. Specifically, are they encountering any issues with their in-processing checklist, their complaints regarding our customer service or their sponsor and were they appointed a sponsor and did their sponsor greet them upon their arrival at Travis? Those are legitimate concerns; concerns we should take very seriously.

Welcoming them to Travis and informing them that they are now an integral part of our Team Travis family may send mixed signals if we haven't addressed their immediate needs and issues when they arrive. Their first impression of our family would be a negative one, especially our first-term Airmen, as this is their first duty station.

Typically, for our first-term Airmen, the story goes like this: our Airmen complete basic training where our training instructors enforce our core values, instill warrior ethos and the importance of physical fitness. 

Six weeks later, they're off to technical school where we instruct them on the technical aspect of their profession and reinforce our core values; that warrior ethos mentality and physical fitness. Then they arrive at their first duty station. Some of our Airmen are met by people from their organization and many are not introduced to their supervisors until after completing the First Term Airmen Center ... not a great first impression.

For Airmen to be successful, supervisors must be involved from the start. I strongly believe supervisors should be the sponsors for our Airmen. During their initial contacts, supervisors must re-emphasize our core values, standards, and place our Airmen on the path to a rewarding and productive career. 

No one should be more concerned with an Airman's success than their supervisor. If supervisors are more engaged from the beginning, Airmen will have greater prospects for success.

We owe it to this great Air Force to take care of its most precious commodity: its people! We owe it to America to take care of her sons and daughters that she entrusts to our care. People are what make us the most formidable air and space force the world has ever seen. And, it will be the people not the technology that ensures our Air Force remains as such. America simply hopes we are dedicated enough, versed enough and care enough to take care of her children.

The next time you (supervisor) are appointed someone's sponsor, please take it seriously and make a positive first impression. Remember we're all family. Take care of one another, be safe, make responsible choices and I hope to see you around campus.