Page 2 - Desert Lightning News, Nellis-Creech AFB Edition, April 6 2018

2 April 6, 2018 www.aerotechnews.com/nellisafb
What I
by Chaplain (Maj.) Molly Lawlor
Nellis AFB, Nev.
I was tired from my temporary duty travel and landed at my final destination after dinner time.
All I wanted was to get home and sleep in my own bed.
As I caught the airport shuttle, I noticed one of the passengers hang up a dress bag with an Army uniform in it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he had no ear on one side and thought, “He’s one of our wounded warriors.” His wife was with him. When I got a full glance at him, I saw that he had no ears, no hair, no eyebrows, and his mouth was lopsided. His face and hands showed clear signs of skin grafts.
A few moments later, a mom with two little girls (a baby and a three-year-old) got on the bus. The three-year-old at
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first sat down next to the Army troop, but when she saw him she went im- mediately back to her mom. You could tell she was a little scared and didn’t know what to do. My heart ached for the wounded warrior and his wife as well as for the mom because none of them had done anything wrong. There was awkward tension among the other three passengers.
And then something beautiful hap- pened. The wounded warrior leaned forward and said to the little girl, “I like your face painting.” She looked at him with uncertainty and he continued, “Who’s that on your shirt? Is that Min- nie Mouse?” At this point she had clearly decided that he was ok so she went on to inform him that it was Snow White and that she was almost four-years-old.
The rest of the passengers started smiling and commenting, too. By the
end of the short ride to the parking garage, the wounded warrior was ex- plaining to the girl that he had been in a fire. She smiled and waved goodbye to her new friend as we all got off the bus and went our separate ways.
What could have been a scary in- teraction for the girl and a depressing interaction for the troop turned into something positive — and all because he reached out to her on a personal level.
I think of the strength it must take to be able to do that over and over every place he goes when people look at him and react like that little girl first did.
So often the emphasis in people’s minds when we hear about “wounded warriors” is on the “wounded” part, but in reality we should emphasize the “warrior” part much more.
Some wounds are so visible they are impossible to hide; others are internal
and impossible to see. Either way hear- ing or seeing another person with an injury or a diagnosis can make people afraid to interact, afraid they might say the wrong thing.
Realizing that you may have some sort of injury or trauma can also make a person draw back, worried that others will see you differently or exclude you if they find out.
We have to remember that we are all in this together, just like I was with those other passengers on the bus. We can sit alone in silence as we make it through life day by day, never seeing beyond the outside appearances of those around us. Or we can reach out to those around us and find a connection, possibly finding a friend when we least expect it.
Choose to reach out to those around you. You may be surprised to discover how strong they — and you — are.
Dense planetary core stifles epic changes
by Lt. Col. Cory Damon
Travis AFB, Calif.
I am not an astrophysicist, an organizational psy- chologist or someone that thinks change is good for the sake of change. I’m a thinker who appreciates a visualization analogy every now and then ... so, yes, I’m a little bit nerdy.
My planetary analogy provides us all an op- portunity to continuously evaluate our inherent human condition to resist change. As an expe- rienced Air Force officer and commander, I find myself naturally “gravitating” back towards how I accomplished tasks as a young officer. Granted, some of those processes and principles still work and may not be worth changing. However, when I “gravitate” to antiquated processes, I get too close to the dense core of our organizational planet and change is stifled. Similar organizational density is seen in political and corporate landscapes, and, yes, in military organizations. Let’s visualize.
Please picture in your mind, a planet with, of course, the North Pole on top. Around the planet, picture a mountain on top of the North Pole and an atmosphere surrounding the planet. In the southern portion of the atmosphere, picture some of your best
and brightest critical thinkers with free-floating ideas, unbridled by the planet’s hard surface. For me, I like to picture the youngest of our amazing Airmen and officers in the 22nd Airlift Squadron. These are the people with the fresh ideas, new tech- nology prowess and in most cases, great energy to initiate and complete improvements.
On top of the mountain, picture our senior lead- ers that continually call for and celebrate innovative ideas and smart change actions. Our Air Force cul- ture has always been about transcending capabili- ties. As leaders at various levels ask for these ideas from our best and brightest, there are two primary, dissimilar ways to connect our Airmen’s ideas with our decision makers on top of the mountain.
The first option is to go straight through, A to B, right through the ground we walk on, and through the dense core in the center, emerging out the other side like lava from a volcano. It sounds spectacular, but you’ll need to dig through “crust” and “mantle”, similar to some Air Force Instructions, entrenched processes or even some leaders and functional staff members resistant to change. This path takes an exorbitant amount of clawing, digging and drilling, plus it’s really hot, you’ll break some drill bits and may feel uncomfortable as you may hear “no” at
various levels. I don’t totally discount this option because if successful, it will provide a consistent path to the solution with collaborative buy-in at all levels.
However, if your idea is intelligent and beneficial for rapid implementation, there is another option: fly around the planet. The Air Force obviously takes great pride in this, as if you are flying a C-5 from Antarctica to Alaska to climb Mt. McKinley. In my analogy, our leaders are asking exactly for that with programs like Phoenix Spark and the Air Force’s Airmen Powered by Innovation. In order to main- tain our competitive advantage, these atmospheric transports provide the less resistant path that is needed to get to the top of the mountain amidst our dynamic national security environment outpacing bureaucratic change and acquisition models.
So, I ask you all, up and down the chain, what is your density to change? Do you usually find your- self closer to the core of the planet or are you on the surface creating ideas, or assisting others to get to the top with their ideas? Now, tweak and apply this analogy to caring for your Airmen, develop- ing leaders and executing the mission. Do you see ways you can become a better atmospheric agent for change in all of these areas?
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