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PERSPECTIVE Journal Vol. 2019
Propagating Air Power to the Masses 11

I still remember the time when I first entered the hollowed grounds of the Philippine
Air Force Officer Candidate School (PAFOCS), after a long and arduous application
process. Coming from a purely civilian life, with little to no background about mili-
tary, everything was new to me. It was a terrifying experience, especially the first 45

days of my training dubbed as the “Beast Barracks”. In this phase of the training, the
School tries to break every Officer Candidate (OC), remove their civilian antics, and
mold them back having only the principles and values a military officer should have.
This is also when the School introduces every OC to various “knowledges”. For me,
one knowledge stands out among the countless knowledges, because it explains
the rationale behind every aspect of our training, and the role of the School to the
attainment of the Philippine Air Force’s thrust to promote Air Power. That knowledge
is Essence of Cadetship. It reads:

They built your basic character. They mold you for your future role as the custodians
of the nation’s defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak,

and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.

PAFOCS accepts and trains qualified individuals to be a better version of them-
selves. The School trains us through holistic development – mind, body, and most
importantly, character. And when we graduate, we are equipped not only with the
necessary knowledge, and strength, but with the values needed for our role as the
leaders of the Philippine Air Force.

They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle

in success; not to substitute words for actions, nor to seek the path of comfort, but to
face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge.

Being a leader, we are exposed to the extremes of life. We experience highs and
lows – successes and failures. And in PAFOCS, we learn to treat these two just the
same. When our morale is high, we try to be happy but not too happy that we forget
about our actuations. And when our morale is low, we try to be strong and resilient,
to be on top of everything.

To learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to mas-
ter yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal

that is high;

The first step in leadership is to know yourself. This is imperative before being
able to lead others. And in leading others, a great leader has empathy – the ability to
understand the feeling of others. In PAFOCS, we are trained as a class, not individu-
ally. If one suffers, everyone must share his or her suffering. We try to be sensitive to

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