Soul Mx - Train Hard, Fight Easy

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Train Hard, Fight Easy
Original Publication Date: 24 February 2022

I took Airframe & Powerplant classes many years from an old RAF mechanic. He used to repeat the mantra, “Train Hard, Fight Easy.” That has stuck with me through the years and I’ve noticed that it applies to many things in life.

CMSAF Bass recently posted that one of the most important things about a leader is that “they care”. There was some pushback because caring means different things to different people, to some “caring” means hugs and singing songs, but I thought of two stories of people that cared in non-traditional ways, whose caring meant training, not coddling.

Herb Brooks coached the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team. The obvious team to beat that year was the Soviet team, which had been skating together for over a decade and had won the gold medal in the previous four Olympics. The rules specifically called for non-professional teams, so the USA team was comprised of college students who had never played professionally or even with each other. Herb Brooks pushed them so hard the team came together not just to beat the Soviets, but to prove that they were better than Brooks said they were. On multiple occasions while pushing them to excel in training, he would yell, “You don’t have enough talent to win by talent alone!” After agonizing preparation and team building and practice, the 1980 USA hockey team did go on to not only beat the Soviets, not only to win the Gold Medal, but to rise to the standards that Herb Brooks had set for them. He had cared for them by pushing them to be the best hockey players they could be.

In Vietnam, PFC (E-3) Sammy Davis (not the singer) was a cannoneer on Howitzer artillery. During the day his Sergeant, James Gant, would push them to train hard, often having them set artillery fuses with blind folds on, polish bullets so they wouldn’t foul in the newly developed M-16, and perfectly organize their shells, fuses, and charges, no matter how long they expected to be at a site—all in excruciating heat. Before a fateful night in 1967 Davis would describe Sergeant Gant as “the meanest sergeant I ever seen in my life…he was old, a bitter old sergeant of 27.” But then, on November 18th, 1967, the Artillery Site was attacked at 0200 by a reinforced enemy Battalion. During the battle 31 of 42 Americans were killed and all of the survivors were wounded. PFC Davis fought valiantly, firing on the enemy and administering care to the wounded. Then he came upon Sergeant Gant, seriously wounded, laying in the mud. As Davis applied a compress and a shot of morphine—remembering his training—he looked into Gant’s eyes and had the revelation, “I knew that he didn’t hate me – that he loved me. He shared with us the things that he knew was gonna help us survive.” Davis and Gant would survive the battle. Sammy L. Davis would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his work that night; you may have seen him receive his medal, as it was footage of him that was featured in the movie Forrest Gump when Tom Hanks was awarded the Medal of Honor. Would Davis have survived that battle, or saved his fellow soldiers, without the training and push of his caring, albeit uncouth, Sergeant James Gant?

In my faith background we said, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.” and, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time…later it produces a fruit of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Another way to say that is, “Train Hard, Fight Easy.”

Do you have someone pushing you to be the best? This doesn’t just apply to your military life, everything worth doing is worth doing well. If no one is pushing you, push yourself, and push those around you to be the best Airmen, Americans, humans, they can be. Is someone pushing you (in healthy ways) and it’s stretching you? Don’t think about the pain, think about the reward. If you feel stuck in a place where there is no challenge or way to push yourself, find a way to challenge yourself. If you feel stuck and have no idea what this looks like in your life, I’d love—as your chaplain—to help you find a way to excel in everything you do.

Soul Mx - Veteran's Day

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Veteran's Day Message
Original Publication Date: 12 November 2021

Let me start off by giving you my thanks for your contribution to defending the Constitution, to supporting our warfighters, and to working hard to make Ellsworth a great place to live and work. I hope you had an impactful Veteran’s Day and reflected on the meaning of the holiday.

As I was thinking about Veteran’s Day I was reminded that several very important dates in American Military history flank November 11th. November 8th, 1965, made famous by the song 8th of November, was one of the first major troop contacts of the Vietnam War. This was followed a few days later by that Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, made famous by the book We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, which became a movie of a similar title. The Battle of Ia Drang was a multi-day hellacious battle that both sides claimed to have won. The Air Force relentlessly provided air support and the battle cost the life of Air Force Captain Paul McClellan who remains MIA to this day.

From the midst of that battle – where many men acted courageously – comes a quote that has shaped my life and motivated and encouraged me in many instances. Helicopter pilot Bruce Crandall, who would later receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during that battle, said,

I made up my mind during this flight that if the 1st Battalion lost this fight it would not be because of the failure of the helicopter support.

Crandall would go on to fly 22 resupply and evacuation missions and his Medal of Honor citation describes it best, “Major Crandall’s voluntary decision to land under the most extreme fire instilled in the other pilots the will and spirit to continue to land their own aircraft, and in the ground forces the realization that they would be resupplied and that friendly wounded would be promptly evacuated.”

The helicopter pilots that day were not required to fly those missions – the established standard operating procedures had led to a large number of medivac aircraft being waved off from the landing-zone – but they knew without their support, the battle was certainly lost.

So as we press on towards future battles (figurative and literal), let’s make up our minds that if the battle is to be lost, it won’t be for the failure of our support. Let’s make up our minds that our actions and attitudes may be the decisive factor in the success of our lives, our coworkers’ lives, our squadrons and organizations, our Air Force, our nation, and our world. Many men and women have gone before us to attempt and accomplish great things, and many will follow us; may our examples and words inspire them to act courageously and inspire and support others.

Soul Mx - September 11 Message

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

September 11 Message
Original Publication Date: 9 September 2021

Whether you remember vividly where you were, or if you weren’t born yet, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 have indelibly changed the world in which we live. Twenty years later it’s hard to envision a world without the changes that were started on that day. Many of those changes were negative, but by the resiliency of the American people, many of those changes have been positive.

I was in a public speaking class at Arizona State University in the Fall of 2001, I remember the theme of the speeches transitioned from water rights, public transit, and Statute 28-910 (affectionately called the “stupid motorist law”) to how to stay courageous in the face of fear, the goals of terrorism and how to overcome them, and the role of a citizen-soldier in society. The latter topic was delivered by an Army National Guard member who announced a few weeks later that he was being deployed and then stopped coming to class. 9/11 was definitely a seminal moment in my life when I realized the gravity of hatred, destruction, and suffering in the world.

At the end of that semester I visited my local Air Force recruiter and was placed in the Delayed Entry Program until February of 2003.

I remember hearing disparaging remarks made about some of the Airmen who had joined prior to September 11th being a “fair-weather force”, but I had the honor of serving with men and women who rose to the occasion and who expertly transitioned our strategies and tactics from Cold-War era to precision strike capabilities. It wasn’t the war they joined to fight, but it was their adept skills learned over decades that allowed us to fight two major operations (Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom) simultaneously.

As the years have passed, water rights and public transit are still important, but now we add thriving in the face of fear, of living in the face of extremist hatred, and of serving our country and fellow human-beings both locally and globally.

Courage not being the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

In my faith tradition we place a premium on spiritual and emotional growth; John Newton—the man who wrote “Amazing Grace”—put it this way, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be.” Every event is an opportunity for growth or stagnation, an opportunity to grow in ways that we would not have grown had we not faced the challenge.

As we remember September 11th this year I want to encourage you to remember what is important in your life and to look for challenges you can rise to the occasion to make better. In this world we will continue to have challenges and heartbreaks and we will continue to have the opportunity to stand against extreme hatred. Sometimes these will be on a global scale, but more often than not they will be at a very local level where you can be the voice of reason and outpouring of hope amongst neighbors, family members, and coworkers.

Finally, we will process the 9/11 anniversary and the Afghanistan withdrawal in different ways; take a moment to tell someone something positive you’ve seen come out of the last twenty years, ask someone to hold you accountable to making your world a better place, and resolve to choose courage over apathy in the face of fear. If you need a confidential ear to discuss any of these, please know that my phone is always on.

Soul Mx - Sharpen Your Tusks

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Sharpen Your Tusks
Original Publication Date: 8 June 2021

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to reach out to you. I’m on care-giver leave as I type this, taking care of my newest son Ryle. Despite being on leave I was spurred by CMSgt Hemingway’s retirement and farewell message to give a shout out while the moment is right.

CMSgt Hemingway often reminds us to “Stay Ready to Be Ready!” Every time I’ve heard her say this, I was reminded of one of Aesop’s Fables, called “The Wild Boar and the Fox”; because the copyright ran out about two-and-a-half millennia ago, here it is in full:

A Wild Boar was sharpening his tusks busily against the stump of a tree, when a Fox happened by. Now the Fox was always looking for a chance to make fun of his neighbors. So he made a great show of looking anxiously about, as in fear of some hidden enemy. But the Boar kept right on with his work.

“Why are you doing that?” asked the Fox at last with a grin. “There isn’t any danger that I can see.”

“True enough,” replied the Boar, “but when danger does come there will not be time for such work as this. My weapons will have to be ready for use then, or I shall suffer for it.”

Preparedness for war is the best guarantee of peace. (Source/Translation by the Library of Congress)

When I initially think of staying ready I think of maintaining our base, our B-1’s, and our munitions. But that is just a tiny piece of our mission and life. There is so much more to prepare for and grow into to get ready for the challenges that lay ahead. One way to get ready is to step up into the next higher position; as CMSgt Hemingway retires AFPC has long-ago begun the process of promoting a new Command Chief, and a new CMSgt, and a new SMSgt, and a new MSgt, all the way to recruiting a new Airman. We can’t wait until we’re promoted into our next job to prepare for that job, we should be preparing now. In my former career field (2A3), we always had the impression that promotion came slower than experience; it was/is popular after putting on the next stripe to answer the question, “How do you feel?”, with “I feel like I’m finally getting paid for the job I’ve been doing for the past year!”

We can prepare for our next challenge before it arrives a myriad of ways; one such way is seeking out experience from those who have done great things. I’ve never regretted time I’ve spent speaking with a senior leader like CMSgt Hemingway, in my almost two decades of talking to Chiefs I can name dozens who have shared useful and helpful information and who were diligent in making time for mentorship. We can also invest in taking college courses or reading good books/peer reviewed articles or listening to lectures from those who have studied and mastered difficult topics. When expecting a new baby you can be sure that I was reading parenting books and refreshing my past knowledge of raising tiny human beings.

A clear way that we see this—that I often emphasize in FTAC/ALS/etc briefings—is premarital counseling. Depending on the source you read, premarital counseling decreases the occurrence of divorce by between 10 and 50 percent. Preparation in this area has shown quantifiable results that getting ready will ensure you are ready when the need arises.

So as we keep Ellsworth AFB, our B-1s, our munitions, and our Airmen ready, take a moment today to consider how you can working to stay ready so you’ll be ready when you’re called upon to do hard things or when you’re the Wing Commander or Command Chief or civilian equivalent or other vital posiiton some not-so-distant years down the road.

I’d love to hear how you’re sharpening your tusks, and if you’re not, I’d love to help you find a way to start preparing so you’ll be ready to seize the opportunities that will come your way.

Big jobs usually go to the person who proves their ability to outgrow small ones. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Soul Mx - Be A Hero

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Be A Hero
Original Publication Date: 18 February 2021

Chief Vaden recently said something that really impacted me, he said,

People aren’t inspired by superheroes.

I had to step back and think about that, but I agree wholeheartedly. When I think about people who have inspired me, not a single one of them is a superhero, they are all human beings with less than super strength and super stamina.

But I’d say all of them are heroes in one way or the other. So how do you define a hero? I’ve always latched onto this quote from the movie, The Tale of Despereaux, the narrator says,

If you know anything about fairy tales, you know that a hero doesn’t appear until the world really needs one.

The hero is someone who is there to meet a need, to fill a void, to correct a wrong, to stand in the gap to protect those in danger. This definition of hero doesn’t require you to wear a cape or be allergic to kryptonite or get bit by a spider; it requires you to be willing to act. In a former career I was a “Bystander Intervention Implementer”, which you may remember was also called Green Dot. I loved that we were inspiring Airmen to act when there was a void to fill, a wrong to be corrected, a gap to be stood in, and a need to be met. As I taught those classes I loved seeing people realize that they had power to help within their capacity, and that they didn’t need special martial arts or Psy Ops or hostage negotiation training to save the day. They just needed to be willing to intervene, because often any intervention is better than no intervention.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Case in point, one of my favorite movies is about a man who is a hero in his own mind, but no-one else would declare him a hero in any sense of the word. The movie is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. There are two versions, one from 1947 and one from 2013. It’s not so much the movie I really like: it’s the idea behind the movie. Walter Mitty’s circumstances change and he’s required to be the hero of the story. I very much enjoy the sentiment behind that movie because I know I am regularly the hero in my mind; when I hear of bad decisions my default thought is, “I could have done that better.” But then I think back to times when I was in similar situations and I didn’t do better. Instead of passing judgment I ought to think, “How can I do that better at Ellsworth? How can I help? What courageous thing do I need to do that if I don’t do it, it’s not going to get done?”

In my faith tradition we like to say, “Do not despise the day of small things.” The culmination of many of my heroes’ lives is what makes them heroes, no grand acts, no date to memorize, just a life of perseverance and an end goal. I recently read the biography of William Wilberforce, he fought from 1785 until 1833 to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Many of those years were very slow going with a great many setbacks and disappointments, but Wilberforce (and many others) pressed on, and the culmination of all of those years was worth all of the effort.

Is there room in your life for you to be the hero? What would that look like? How can you leave this Air Force and this world better than you found it? You can do it better than any superhero, because they’re not here, and they’re too busy worrying about supervillains than the real ills and needs of this world. One of the really simple things it means for me is answering the phone every time it rings. It may be spam or it may be someone who really needs help, I no-longer pause to think about whether I have time to answer or who it might be, it might be my opportunity to be the hero when someone really needs it.

Every person I consider a hero lived a life of steadfastness, of consistently doing the right thing, stepping up and confronting injustice and oppressors and filling needs, not despising the day of small things. While there are certainly flourishes of extraordinary courage, their courage was not in contradiction with their character, those flourishes were a magnification of who they were. I’d like to encourage you to live in such a way that you’re ready for that flourish of courage, but if it’s never needed, you’ll still leave a lifetime of hero-actions in your wake, that when added up will have done more than any superhero, because you will have inspired people.

Soul Mx - Stove Piping

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Stove Piping
Original Publication Date: 7 January 2021

In the Intelligence Community (IC) there is a term that gets thrown around a lot called “Stove-Piping”. Stove-piping is the idea of a stove that is making lots of heat but all of that heat is going right up the pipe and not warming the room. In the IC the picture is the same, it’s organizations that are doing awesome work but who aren’t telling anyone else, their efforts aren’t helping anyone else, and their knowledge is dissipated because it doesn’t reach the right people. The official definition for stove-piping is 

Compartmentalization and duplication of intelligence gathering.

Some of my most frustrating moments in the IC were when we were deep in a project and found out someone had already accomplished the same project, or another time talking with another agency and finding out that they were working the exact same project we were working. Conversely we once saved a ton of time when a senior leader saw what project we were starting and pointed us at another project that was so similar we only had to tweak a few details to complete our project, saving months of time and thousands of man-hours, as well as delivering a completed package to decision makers well ahead of schedule. (If all of this sounds cryptic, find me in ~2043 when these projects are scheduled for declassification and I’ll give you more details if I can)

Stove-piping, while endemic to the IC, is not limited to the IC. One of the things I love about PCA/PCSing is the transfer of knowledge to those that will come after. This is all of the techniques, contacts, tricks, and processes you’ve learned in your current position that you want to share with others so they don’t have to start from scratch. Some organizations have done this better than others with share-drives and pass-to-holder folders and continuity binders, but others have not. I inherited a program in 2011 that hadn’t had anyone open the continuity binder since 2006; to say that that program was out of compliance and out of date was a definite understatement. It’s easy to look back at those who came before and be frustrated with their stove-piping, but I’m always amazed and perturbed when I’m PCSing and I find out that I’ve retained so much information that I’ve never written down or passed on to anyone.

And stove-piping doesn’t just occur at work, it happens with our friends, family, and neighbors as well. What have you learned about life, faith, finances, cooking, vehicle maintenance, driving, tips for living in South Dakota, base happenings, and anything else, that you haven’t passed on to your spouse, children, nieces and nephews, classmates, friends? What do you know that someone else would be benefited by telling them?

Isaac Newton spoke of his indebtedness to the knowledge and experience of others by saying, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Every great leader I’ve ever met or read about points to mentors who have made them the person they are today. CMSgt Benji Roberts at the 28th Logistics Readiness Squadron gave a speech this week where he named dozens of people who had invested in his life; now, because his past mentors did not compartmentalize their knowledge, we at the 28 MSG are privy to that great experience as Chief Roberts pours into us.

The IC has made huge strides towards reducing stove-piping, such as Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich at the Skunk Works battling over-classification, but it still happens. Which strides can you make this year to stand on the shoulders of giants and also be that vantage point for generations to come? I encourage you this year to spend time making sure you’re not letting all your hard work dissipate into the atmosphere, but that you’re using it to benefit others and that you’re investing in others, that with our shared experiences we can truly do great things!

Soul Mx - Conflict Resolution

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Conflict Resolution
Original Publication Date: 9 December 2020

One thing I hate is reactionary rules; rules that are implemented because of an event or trend. One example from my life is: “Don’t cut down trees while someone is standing in them.” I led a Hurricane Katrina clean-up team to New Orleans years ago and witnessed a volunteer start to cut down a tree while someone was still in the tree limbing it. Granted, he was adamant that he was only starting the process and didn’t intend to finish until the tree and fall area were safe, but I saw a dangerous trend and I addressed it.

Today I want to address another trend. I don’t have any specific shop in mind while writing this, I’ve seen this in shops across the base, and I’m hoping to both do something to curb it, and to prevent future outbreaks.

What I’m seeing is unresolved conflict. Disagreements and skirmishes that linger long after the original clash. It’s not that I’m expecting you not to disagree or see things different than your coworkers; I maintain that our diversity—used rightly—is one of our greatest strengths. Ronald Reagan said, “Peace is not absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” When we handle conflict in violence, or, more often than not, passive aggressive reactions, we don’t end up with a peaceful workplace or team, but a workplace devoid of morale and full of tension, mistrust, and individualism.

Are you seeing that in your shop? I spoke with several commanders recently about how an open-door policy is great, unless your people don’t think you can help, then it’s just an empty promise and an illusory safety-net against unresolved conflict. If we’re going to build world-class organizations that get the mission done and take care of our people while we’re doing it, then we have to be willing to work through conflict and work on building strong teams: tackling problems as they arise so they don’t linger and fester.

Conflict resolution is like a muscle, it needs to be exercised, worked, and grown to be fully effective. Let me tell you a true story, not to cast shade on any particular shop, but to make an important point. Many years ago I was working with Christopher Dixon, an avionics expediter on F-22s at Tyndall AFB, Florida. We were picking up parts and there was a new rule that everyone in the parts store had to wear their uniform blouse. It was mid-summer and maintainers don’t like wearing their blouses anyways, let alone when we would soak it through with sweat in minutes. The technician picking up the parts didn’t have their blouse on and got a verbal counseling for it from the clerk. Upon returning to the expediter truck, then SSgt Dixon, now MSgt Dixon, put on his blouse and went in to discuss what had just happened, and to find out who he needed to talk to about rescinding the new rule. Upon returning to the truck, the technician told Chris that he didn’t have to do what he just did because it didn’t matter anyways. Chris Dixon made a point I’ve never forgotten, “That was a little fight, I practice taking care of my Airmen so that when it really matters I’ll be ready.”

So how can you practice your conflict management? Here are just a couple suggestions (there are whole libraries on this topic): 

1. Welcome conflict; conflict is a part of life, especially in diverse environments, it means you’re not living in a vacuum but you’re engaging other people  
2. See conflict resolution as a means to a stronger team, not a barrier or hurdle  
3. Be the calmest person in the room; take deep breaths, stay objective  
4. Listen actively; it has been said that if you can’t reiterate your opponent’s position, you don’t understand it  
5. Own your failure and give credit to your team for success  
6. Never diminish someone else’s position, no matter how misguided you feel it might be  
7. Care about the well-being and opinions of your individual team-members

Sometimes the simplest solution out of conflict is friendship. Raiders, did you know that the lead pilot on December 7th, 1941, Mitsuo Fuchida, and one of the first to drop bombs on Tokyo on April 18th, 1942, Jacob DeShazer, put aside their differences after World War II, found friendship—even brotherhood—in the other, and worked together to bring peace and reconstruction to Japan? Becoming someone’s friend doesn’t always mean accepting everything about them, but recognizing what you have in common, and caring about their growth, your mutual peace, and the good that will come from being able to work together. Martin Luther King Jr emphasized, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

Sometimes conflict has become so big that you can’t fix it on your own. The Air Force is prepared for this. You have resources that will help you mediate discussions and work on problems that look like they have no possible solutions. Carl von Clausewitz is famous in the Air Force for saying, “War is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” Before you choose the nuclear option, reach out to your chaplain, MFLC, or First Sergeant, or many other resources, to explore which means we have to mitigate conflict so no-one gets hurt and your shop becomes a better place for it. I’d love to stop by your shop, or bring you to an offsite, to discuss further. If you’ve read this e-mail and felt especially targeted, then I’d definitely like to talk to you!

Finally, this message has focused on your workplace, but during the holidays it is good to remember that these principles work with friends, family, and community as well. You’ll never regret becoming better at conflict resolution, so I hope that as conflicts arise, you’ll face them head-on and grow from the experience, not facing the consequences of ignoring or avoiding them.

Soul Mx - Gifts That Last

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Gifts that Last
Original Publication Date: 6 November 2020

Have you ever looked at what someone else is good at and wondered how they got that way? Is it natural talent, or is it practice, or some combination of both?

Consider what this world would be like if no-one stood out for their talents, if everyone was good at exactly what you’re good at and there was no need for AFSCs, specialists, artists, education, educators, qualifications, or certifications.

Our talents, combined, make us a phenomenal Air Force Base; there are things that you do that I can’t do, and things that I can do that it would take you a lot of practice to be able to do. This breadth of talent is not meant to discourage you, but to help you focus on your area of expertise and appreciate those around you. I have a classmate from high school who is now a registered nurse, he is fully qualified and I would defy you to find a better nurse to care for you in your time of need. But I remember a few years back he got a new car…why did he get a new car? Because a taillight had gone out and he was tired of pouring money into fixing his used car. Any mechanically minded person knows that a taillight a simple and inexpensive repair, but my friend is not gifted in maintenance, and while I would never take my car to be worked on at his hospital, I would take myself, or one of my children, or you, to see him in an instant.

So, what are you good at? What are your talents? Where do you need someone else’s help? If you could learn to do one thing, what would it be? (These are not exclusively rhetorical questions, I’d love to receive your response!)

As we are nearing the holidays it is not uncommon to think of gifts as physical presents—the newest game-system or smart phone or an ugly sweater or a fruit cake—but today I want you consider gifts in a much more intangible and lasting way, of where our aptitude is found, of what we’re the best at through either natural inclination or because of years of training. I hope you have some ideas of your gifting; if you don’t ask someone around you, or stop by the chapel and we can do a gifting-inventory!

Now that we’ve talked about you, let’s talk about your coworkers and friends. What are their talents? What can you do to recognize and bolster their gifts? Some of very best people I know in the Air Force are people who were sought out and invested in by someone else. Encourage someone this holiday season to hone their giftings, maybe pursue a class or a certification, or volunteer in a position where they can shine, to put their talents out there so others can see and benefit from them. Benjamin Franklin wrote a short poem encouraging us to use our talents:

Hide not your talents,
they for use were made,
what’s a sundial in the shade?

As a prior maintenance expediter I regularly had what was called, “Airman Drive Fridays”. It was the highlight of my week—maybe the highlight of my career—to put a totally unqualified person in charge of the radio and manpower for an entire shift. I was always close by to make sure they didn’t fail or get somebody hurt; in fact my call sign on Fridays was “4-Papa” and I told my Airmen that you could tell how well they were doing by how many times the superintendent called for “4-Papa” over the radio. Some days were more fruitful than others, but there was never a wasted experience. I was able to discover talent and know who was a gifted in time-management, who was a better mechanic, who was more suited for planning/records and—on occasion—who needed some special attention. Those Airmen are doing phenomenal things for the Air Force now, surely they would have without my help, but I hope they learned some things and grew through the experiences that I, and my supervision, sacrificed to give them. One of them sewed on MSgt last week, another commissioned last month, several of them are running shops all over the world. In my faith tradition it is popular to proclaim, It is More Blessed to Give than to Receive. I’ve learned that this is true from hundreds of Airmen, and I certainly am more blessed for having known them and invested in them.

But don’t let me make you think this is easy—if it were easy everyone would do it—it takes commitment and time and growth and patience. The pay-out is worth all of the sacrifice. The consequences for failing to grow ourselves and our Airmen is dire, because despite our talent, if we’re not using it and growing it, we may find out we’ve wasted it. President Calvin Coolidge was famous for saying,

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Isaac Stern, a renowned violinist, was once told, “I’d give my life to play like you!” to which he replied, “I did give my life to play like me!” As we look at those great leaders, those great mechanics, those great nurses, it’s easy to think they got that way through their talent, but if you ask any Colonel, any Chief, any Chaplain, any master in any trade, I’ll guarantee you’re going to hear the same thing: they have grown to be the people they are today, and that they can name dozens of mentors in their past who helped them to discover and increase their gifts so that they can do the same for those who are coming after them.

In closing, let me paraphrase Henry Ford,

What happens if we develop our Airmen and they separate?

What happens if we don’t, and they stay!?

This holiday season, make the effort to give an intangible and lasting gift: pour your life and your talents into someone else so that you’ll both be better for it.

Soul Mx - Love Your Workday

 This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Love Your Workday
Original Publication Date: 5 October 2020

With the start of the new fiscal year I want to take a moment to talk about loving your job and avoiding the pitfalls of Intensity and Extension.

What does your optimal workday look like? Set hours? Lunch break? Feeling of accomplishment at the end of day? No surprises? Lots of variety?

Some of us thrive at work and some of us just watch the clock until it’s time to go home. But what we all have in common—especially in the military—are those crazy days that require a non-standard work day to accomplish the mission. When that happens, we have two options:

Intensity – This is where you’re coming up on an immoveable deadline and your blood pressure is up, your focus is on the task at hand, and there is no room for breaks or breaths. On the flightline we used to call this “pinging” and it’s not a nice condition to be in. The likelihood of mistakes and oversights escalates significantly, and while you might feel like you’re getting more done, the quality of the work is almost certainly diminished.

Extension – This is where your deadline is coming up, but it’s flexible, so you work longer hours or weekends to accomplish the mission. I had the privilege many years ago of working three 16-hour days straight because the entire F-15(C, D, & E) fleet was grounded until every aircraft was inspected world-wide. Because of the gravity of the situation no-one complained about those long hours. But I’ve also faced the opposite where we were working 12-hour shifts for no discernable reason, and no-one was happy about those long hours.

The RAND Corporation, an organization that has a relationship with the Air Force as old as the Air Force, has done studies where they’ve found that when employees are expected to work longer than 9-hour shifts both the employer and the employee suffer. Productivity goes down, health is impacted, quality of life is diminished, and morale suffers when hours are increased without an emergency mission correlation.

The healthy response is to decide that when you’re at work, you’re all in, and when you go home, you leave work at work. I tested this on the flightline—because otherwise it’s just studies and statistics—and I promised my team that if they gave me 9-hours of hard, quality work, I would watch them walk out the door not a minute after their 9-hour mark. I’m obviously biased, but I believe my team worked circles around other teams that were staying to their 12-hour marks. In fact, we were the first flightline team at Tyndall to ever be nominated for the CSAF Team Excellence Award, and we did this without pinging or exhausting ourselves.

So as I wish you a happy new fiscal year, I want to encourage you to make some resolutions about taking care of your people and working hard for your bosses, but also that you won’t substitute a last minute sprint for what should have been a marathon, and that you won’t see extending the workday as a viable option to getting more work done. Sometimes that extension is inevitable, but make the resolution that it will only be when the mission is legitimately at stake and everyone impacted can see it.

And, as always, if you’re not sure how this looks, or how to accomplish it, or you hate your job, then this would be a great thing to talk to your chaplain about, because that’s what I love!

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ~ Aristotle

Soul Mx - What is Your Purpose?

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

What is Your Purpose?
Original Publication Date: 9 September 2020

If there is one good thing about uncertainty in our lives and routines it is that upheaval gives us an opportunity to look at who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going. Are we fulfilling our purpose? If our purpose can be defeated by uncertainty, is it a big enough purpose? Do I even have a purpose? If you’ve heard me speak for any length of time you’ve heard me say,

“Your purpose needs to be outside of the Air Force, the Air Force can survive without you, you need to be able to survive without the Air Force.”

The reason your purpose should be bigger than the Air Force is because you will most likely live a long life after your service ends. If your purpose is in your job then a single debilitating injury that leads to a medical retirement will not only end your career, but your purpose as well! A major downsizing of the military could have the same effect. Or, many of us know of a Chief or Colonel who died six months after retirement, because when they hung up the uniform, they hung up their purpose.

But we have to be careful as well that our purpose is not so far outside of the Air Force that we aren’t any good to the nation or our fellow Airmen. Some examples would be those who are ALWAYS out taking classes or volunteering or at a second job. Don’t get me wrong, I love classes, and volunteering, but if the Air Force is a hindrance to your purpose or merely funding your purpose, I want to recommend you reevaluate what you’re on this planet for.

I love being in Air Force Global Strike Command for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is the clarity of purpose in one of our past mottos (when we were SAC): “Peace is Our Profession.” This motto captured a purpose that had fulfillment both inside and outside the Air Force: the idea that the reason for many Airmen’s existence was to prevent wars or win wars so completely that peace reigned in their lifetime. Many Airmen from the days of that motto will tell you that the Cold War didn’t just end, it was won, and their efforts were the direct catalyst that no significant amount of blood was shed between Soviets and Americans.

This message is not meant to tell you where to find your purpose, only to encourage you to look outside of yourself and your job for meaning in your life. There has been debate for a long time on where to find purpose. A famous painting by Raphael called The School of Athens captures this debate, it depicts Plato pointing heavenwards for purpose, and Aristotle pointing earthwards. There are generally five places people find purpose:

1. In a Deity
2. In the Improvement of the Soul
3. In Pragmatics (what works for you)
4. In Quantifiable Achievements
5. In Acknowledging the Transient Nature of Everything

As your chaplain, I would love to help you search for and find your purpose: a purpose that will benefit you for the rest of your life, and that will benefit the Air Force for as long as you serve. Regardless of where you find your purpose, take some time during this uncertainty to evaluate where you have come from, where you are, and where you are going.

In closing, the United States Space Force recently posted a recruitment video with a pithy statement, “Maybe Your Purpose on This Planet is Not on This Planet.” Do you think Plato or Aristotle would agree with that more?