The question that I have been asked the most is “How were you able to achieve so much in your lifetime?”
I can list how much I have accomplished but how would the more difficult. Here is a list.
Promoted two Seaman Apprentice in the USNR on first attempt.
Promoted to Staff Sergeant (E6) in the US Army in less than five years.
Promoted to Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force.
Earned a Bachelors Degree in Business Management from University of Maryland. While on active duty.
Earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Troy University. While on active duty.
I got my education was still working 12 hours a day five and six days a week on the flight line.
All performance reports in the Air Force were outstanding. They were written over a 20-year period by different evaluators. Many were endorsed by general officers.
This is what I know about myself.
I was intuitive.
I followed my gut feeling.
I listened to motivational music.
I always exceeded expectations.
I never gambled. Where necessary I took risks.
I never took a risk where I was going to fail.
I built teams.
I expected everyone that worked for me to have my same expectations.
I listened.
I was spontaneous.
I was a role model.
I treated everyone with respect.
I was not a volunteer.
I did not reject being volunteered.
Incredible facts:
I was assigned directly from technical school to a C130 flying squadron. As a trainee I did not have a trainer. There was nobody around to train me. I had to train myself. I was also assigned as shop supervisor with 5 trainees. All of us were trainees. Typically, the airplanes fly during the day and they are fixed at night. To work on an airplane, you needed power and it was the responsibaility of the crew chief to turn the power on the airplane so you could work on it. Crew chiefs were not easy to find because they had their own job. Crew chiefs were hard to find. One night I stopped a crew chief and asked him to teach me how to turn the power on the airplane. His reply was a predictable “No.” He finally relented and taught me how to turn the power on the airplane. My airplanes were ready to fly right away.
One night I came in and I was told to grab my things that I was being transferred to the other squadron. I was transferred to the other squadron because they were having trouble fixing the airplanes. I walked into the new shop, and I ran into a bunch of whiners. I give them all three days off. Go home and don't come back for three days. While they enjoyed their three days off, I had a chance to find out why the airplanes were breaking. It was just an improper installation of the black boxes. It was an easy fix and the airplanes started flying clean, just like the ones I left behind.
My last segment was to Dyess Air Force Base where the B1B is stationed. I was sent here because there was a problem getting the airplanes airborne. I was no longer fixing airplanes. I now was making sure that the airplanes were fixed. There's a lot of difference between fixing one problem in one airplane and fixing many problems in a fleet of airplanes. In the Air Force we were taught to always do it by the book, always follow the book, that is the traditional Air Force way. Unfortunately, sometimes tradition is not your best choice.
My first assignment and my last assignment in the Air Force both have the same thing in common; People were doing aircraft maintenance the traditional way. Everyone was following tradition. As I explained to young men that colonel up there he doesn't give a damn how I fix the airplane, the only thing that he cares about is that the airplane is flying in the morning. That's all that matters. That's the mission of the Air Force - to fly.
