20 Years Done

In 2013 I was the aircraft section chief in the 308th AMU under the tutelage of a fantastic leadership team to include the best Chief I have ever worked for. At that time our squadron commander was Lt Col Dominick Martin. As a new section chief operating at the height of sequestration running the section was very difficult. At Luke we were experiencing a severe maintainer shortage and every day felt like a constant struggle just to meet the flying schedule. Often, myself or my assistant, had to ride redballs with the day shift expediter. I had taken over from a more laid back section chief and I saw that discipline was severely lacking. I did my best to straighten things out, and I was likely a bit overzealous. A few of the maintainers that didn't know me that well from my time as an assistant section chief didn't respond very well to my 'motivational techniques. One of these Airmen was Jerrard Rodgers. Rodgers showed his emotions in his facial expressio

If you've been reading for awhile you'll notice I write two kinds of posts. One type is about 'leaders' who place their careers, egos or whims above the well-being of their subordinates. The other posts are about great leaders that have learned to balance taking care of their people while achieving the mission. This week's post definitely falls into the latter category. When I arrived at Holloman in the summer of 2014 I was immediately greeted by a dysfunctional unit. Of course saying they were dysfunctional may not be fair. After all I was just leaving the best unit I had ever known. Moreover, the unit at Holloman had just stood up only a few months before. So sure the unit was dysfunctional but I likely had an unreasonable expectation of the unit. The first morning meeting I sat in on when I was in-processing was akin to a Lord of the Flies courtroom. It was disorganized and most people were interested in shifting blame and almost no one in att

A few months ago I wrote about when I confronted my AMU leadership with what I believed was the reckless treatment of exhausted personnel. However that wasn't the first time I stood up against leadership because I was concerned about exhaustion and safety. In the summer of 2006 I was a swing shift 7 level in the 310th AMU. If my memory serves me at this point we were essentially a single APG section with separate 3 and 4 expediters, likely caused by the manning draw down of the mid-2000s. Our swing shift section chief was an older TSgt named Eric Delonge. TSgt Delonge and I had gotten into a few disagreements in the past, as such I considered our professional relationship to be apathetic at best and strained at worst. In hindsight I realize now that I didn't respect him so I wasn't interested in his approval. I explored that concept when I wrote of a previous group commander I worked for. After I wrote that article I reflected on it even more. Why would I evaluate