Page 2 - Nellis AFB Bullseye 9-4-15

2 September 4, 2015
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Money, manpower and minutes
By Capt. David Liapis
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash.—
I’m about to make a big statement, so pay
attention.
I believe anything physically possible can
be accomplished with the right amount of
money, manpower and minutes. That’s right.
Anything. Just look at some of the amazing
architecture and technology devised by the
Romans, Egyptians and others throughout
history. Look at where technology was 20 years
ago (can you say “beepers” and “VHS tapes?”)
compared to today and try to convince me
anything possible is impossible with the right
mix of people, cash and time.
However, the removal of any one of those
three components will severely hamper the ac-
complishment of whatever goal we undertake.
Take away two and it becomes nearly impos-
sible; three and the word “impossible” must be
added to our vocabularies.
We live in an era of less in the Air Force
— less money, less people and, seemingly, less
time — yet, we are still managing somehow to
get the job done ... for now. Our top leaders have
been trying to warn our elected officials that all
Remember past to help inform present
By Chief Master Sgt. ChristopherToney
60th Force Support Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Like
myself, I am sure most of you have heard the
saying, “Don’t forget where you came from.”
Several years ago, as I was looking through
some boxes of my military memorabilia, I ran
across a thank you note from Gen. Stephen
Lorenz, who at the time was a lieutenant general
and the commander at Air University. The
thank you note ended with the words “look into
their eyes” and was presented to me in 2006 for
protocol support I provided to him when I was
the protocol superintendent at Goodfellow Air
Force Base, Texas.
General Lorenz came to Goodfellow to speak
at one of the noncommissioned officer academy
graduations. At the end of his visit, I remember
driving him to the airport. We got into a con-
versation about taking care of Airmen and he
passionately spoke about how important he felt
it was for noncommissioned officers to take care
of their Airmen. This conversation lasted from
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Commentary
the fat and even meat has been trimmed and
we’re now shaving bone. Sounds pretty doom
and gloom, right?
At this point we have a choice to make:
are we going to take the motivational-poster
advice and not worry about things we can’t
control and do something about the things
we can, or are we going to give into the kind of
despair expressed by Frodo Baggins in J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Return of the King and say with him,
“The whole thing is quite hopeless, so it’s no
good worrying about tomorrow. It probably
won’t come”?
Most of us in the Air Force have little to no
control over budgets or manpower. Sure, we
can “Make Every Dollar Count” and try to be
the best managers of manpower resources we
can be (both of which are great ideas), but at
the end of day we only have as much of those
commodities as we have.
I know many of us also have little to no con-
trol over our schedules or the fact we have to “do
more with less,” but our time is really the one
third of the trifecta of possibility over which we
have the most control. If you disagree, read on
anyway. I hardly agree with myself.
We’re all bound to have those days every once
in a while where all hell breaks loose and we’re
the moment we drove through the South Gate
until we arrived at the airport, which is about a
20-minute drive.
As we were unloading his luggage from the
van, he never stopped conversing about this
topic and as he was about to board his military
aircraft, he turned to me and his parting words
to me were “don’t forget you were once them”
as he waved goodbye. Those six simple words
have stayed with me and every day I make an
effort to remember them.
The older I get and the longer I remain in the
Air Force, the more I focus on the patience and
caring attitude my early supervisors had with me.
They saw potential and they worked on develop-
ing and honing that potential into what, almost
26 years later, has turned into a fair and caring
leader who can make decisions and balance the
mission needs with those of the Airmen. ones home safe and sound and ensuring that isn’t over until our Airmen’s needs are met. It
As leaders, we are responsible for our
most important resources: America’s sons
and daughters. Their mothers and fathers
who do not know our names or who we are or
what we look like hold onto a prayer that we
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running around like decapitated poultry from sion, you’re preventing those “untrustworthy”
can ‘til can’t, but what about the other “normal” Airmen from earning your trust and learning
days? What can we do to work on our time man- how to replace you someday.
agement skills so we become expert time users?
4. Take a time management course. It’s well
Here are a few things you might consider: worth the investment.
1. Put the smart device down more often.
It could be making you dumb. Admit it, you 5. Don’t be lazy. Laziness is the number one
waste as much time as I do needlessly checking contributor to wasted time.
email, stocks, scores and updates. How many
“TPS reports” could have been done or staplers The above suggestions are by no means
found while you were working on that perfect scientific or found in an Air Force Instruction,
play on Words With Friends? How many but they are derived from real-world experi-
meaningful mentoring conversations could ence. There’s no perfect answer to how to better
have occurred while we’ve been enamored with manage our time, but realizing we need to do it
staring at a three-inch screen? is really the first step. From there you can come
2. Learn ways to multi-task. Try reading up with your own snappy little list of steps (feel
textbooks, promotion study material or other free to rip off mine).
professional development books while on the
treadmill or elliptical machine. It’s hard to get Archimedes supposedly once said, “Give
used to reading while in motion, and will prob- me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on
ably make you go blind ten years early, but isn’t which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
that promotion or degree worth it? I say, “Give me enough money, manpower and
3. Learn to delegate (and trust) your sub- minutes, and we can do anything. However,
ordinates. It’s true, most Airmen are fully since we’re constrained by budgets and con-
capable of doing so much more than we push gressionally mandated manpower levels, I’ll
them to do. Stop overtasking yourself and that settle for Airmen who know how to manage
one really good NCO and spread the wealth. their time well.”
You’re not only hurting yourself and the mis-
Keep making every dollar count and bal-
ancing manpower as best as possible, and let’s
all see what we can do about maximizing the
1,440 minutes we get each day.
will train, lead and care for their loved ones. the leaders and supervisors who took us under
Ourmostimportantresponsibilityasleaders their wings, took the time to care, looked us in
is taking care of our Airmen. Sometimes we get the eyes and asked how our weekend was. They
so busy that we lose sight of this. All of us are took the time to explain, care and shape us into
guilty of it. We get busy meeting suspenses, de- the leaders of the future. We must do the same.
ployments, exercises, computer-based training We should want our Airmen to succeed.
and numerous other things. The Air Force needs solid leadership and
But are these really excuses? Not only are we must find and develop this leadership po-
we responsible for putting bombs on target, we tential as early as possible. There will be times
also are responsible for bringing those loved it will mean some long days because the day
America’s sons and daughters are taken care of. means investing the time many have already
Airmen notice when their supervisors care invested in us.
about them. They remember when their chief Get to know your Airmen. Know their lives.
and commander visited them at the First-Term Know how to recognize if there is a problem
Airman Center or Airman Leadership School or a change. The simple message that Lorenz
or when their supervisor checked the quality conveyedtomewithhispartingwordsandwith
of their dorm or helped resolve a child care or those words he wrote on the thank you note
housing issue. They remember that pat on the was: Take the time to care about your Airmen.
back for a job well done. It pays huge dividends by fostering teamwork
Few of us who are leaders became leaders to get this nation’s mission accomplished. This
overnight. It took years of practice and some goes hand in hand with being a wingman. The
failures to develop into what we are today. We time we invest will pay off for our Air Force and
can’tforgetwherewecamefrom.Wecan’tforget our Airmen.
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