Page 2 - Nellis Creech NTTR Bullseye 5-13-16

2 May 13, 2016
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Empowerment: More than just a word
By Airman 1st Class Ryan Sparks
319th Air Base Wing Public A airs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE,
N.D. — I am a first-term Airman at
Grand Forks Air Force Base, North
Dakota. I am approaching one year
time on station and getting close to
achieving the next skill level in my job.
At this stage in my career, my
number one focus is on training and
mastering my job. All Airmen are
expected to “check the boxes” in order
to complete their training, but how
those boxes are checked is a matter of
opinion.
I’ve always been the type of person
that looks for new ideas and new ways
to approach old procedures. The ques-
tion is, will I be empowered to imple-
ment any of my ideas?
Empowerment is probably one of
the most commonly used words in the
business world and that is the case in
the Air Force as well. We always hear
leaders talk about empowering our
Airmen to succeed, but what does that
empowerment really look like?
One of my first big stories after my
arrival was about a group of Airmen
working together to train for battlefield
After ve decades of warnings, tobacco use still kills 1,300 Americans every day
By Senior Airman Matthew Vondrasek
170th Operations Support Squadron
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb.—In 1964, the
U.S. Surgeon General released a report linking smok-
ing to ill health.
The report highlighted dozens of studies from
various scientists that all linked tobacco use to vari- will die from tobacco use this century.
ous diseases including: Lung Cancer, Bronchitis and
Emphysema, Larynx Cancer, Oral Cancer, Esophagus
Cancer, Stomach Ulcers, Circulatory Disease, Liver
Cirrhosis, Bladder Cancer, Coronary Artery Disease,
Heart Disease, Hypertensive Heart Disorder, Kidney
Cancer and Arteriosclerosis.
Since this groundbreaking report was released more
than 20 million Americans have died from smoking
In 2014, The U.S. Department of Health and Hu-
man Services released a report marking the 50th
anniversary of the release of the Surgeon General’s
report.
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Commentary BULLSEYE
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Airmen career fields. It was a great allowed me to grow as a public affairs Why do all these examples matter?
story idea and I had a general plan of professional and gain confidence as a These examples show how empower-
action, but I wasn’t truly prepared for new Airman. ment can be used to train and help Air-
the story. My coworker, Senior Airman men gain a better understanding of the
Xavier Navarro, mentioned that we had My most ambitious idea was to processes necessary to affect change.
underwater camera gear. He taught me launch an account on the social media I feel that I have been blessed with a
how to use it and gave me some ideas platform Vine. Very few, if any, bases group of servant leaders. From Senior
to think about for the story. While he are currently using this platform be- Airman Bonnie Grantham telling me
liked my original idea, he pushed me cause one of its biggest appeals is the about a great study tool for my career
to develop it into an even greater story. use of comedy. We are still learning development courses to 1st Lt. James
and exploring all of our options, but the Fisher showing me the process of ap-
My main interest involves our social important theme to recognize is that I plying to officer training school, I have
media strategy. have been placed in a position to have a team that cares about my development
ideas and see them through from start as an Airman. They have empowered
To have a successful public affairs to nish. me to succeed and my recent selection
shop we must embrace the population’s as Senior Airman Below-the-Zone is a
dependence on social media. At almost It’s important to realize that empow- product of their support.
every shop meeting, I started pitching erment isn’t just about letting people run The Air Force needs as many servant
different approaches and ways we could with their ideas, but instead challenging leaders as possible. They make it their
improve. them to develop their ideas and provid- goal to lift up their Airmen and put
ing the mentorship needed to succeed. them in a position to succeed. Diction-
Staff Sgt. Brian Economides noticed ary.com defines empowerment as, “to
my enthusiasm and expertise on the Every idea I’ve pitched has been re- give power or authority to.” I define it
subject and suggested that I take over turned with questions and ideas to help as finding satisfaction in the success of
our social media plan with him as my me think more critically. For example, I your employees.
supervisor. He empowered me to make wanted to invest in a social media man- If your goal is for your Airmen to
decisions and learn from our successes agement tool called Hootsuite because I succeed, then you will empower them
and failures. believed it would allow us to save time to become great. Allow your Airmen
when posting content. I was given the to become the great leaders that every
I had only been out of technical challenge of researching, testing and member of the United States Air Force
school for approximately six months compiling data that would support my is expected to be.
and was given the opportunity to truly belief. I learned how important it is to be
affect change in my office. I definitely detailed and thorough when presenting
had several ideas that were flops, but new information.
being able to learn and experiment
That report detailed that despite 50 years of prog- Many have argued that DOD restrictions on
ress, smoking continues to be an immense burden tobacco use are more stringent than ever and are
to our nation. Smoking still causes the premature adequate to solve tobacco problems. One look at the
death of almost half a million Americans annually data would clearly show otherwise. As the statistics,
and is also estimated to cost the economy $289 Bil- studies and research shows, the costs of tobacco to
lion every year. Under current smoking rates, more our nation and the U.S. military are staggering.
than five million children under the age of 18 will Our Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers and Marines deserve
die prematurely from smoking. If we look worldwide, commanders that will make unpopular but principled
the costs are even more appalling. One billion people decisions.
Banning the use of tobacco in uniform, on bases
The U.S. military has a high percentage of smokers and prohibiting the sale of tobacco on installations
with 24 percent of all service members’ report that is an obvious step forward.
they smoke compared to 19 percent of the general A few will argue that Congress has control over
population. some of these issues and it is out of the hands of mili-
Tobacco use costs the Department of Defense $1.6 tary commanders. Yet, any reasonable American will
billion in health costs and lost work time annually. quickly point out that Congress would be quick to
At current trends, 170,000 service members that support legislation that is virtually cost free, would
are currently in the military will die from smok- save lives and has the unified backing of military
ing. Smoking has also been shown to dramatically leaders.
increase rates of suicide among service members. It’s been five decades, how much longer will it take?
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