18 Mar 2020

Letter from the 21st SW/CC #2

Knights,Detailed update of 21 SW COVID-19 status/actions follows. This is a dynamic situation and many of you will have unique situations. I ask that you please raise those concerns and enlist the help of our larger team. I know we have several of our teammates are overseas, expecting babies, caring for aging family members, experiencing financial

18 Mar 2020

Letter from the 21st SW/CC #1

Team Pete,As you’re aware, the COVID-19 Coronavirus is starting to have impacts in the local area such as school closures as well as here on base. Like many of you, I have young children, older family members and unique circumstances that warrant extra attention in light of COVID-19. Your entire base leadership team takes this situation seriously

13 Jan 2020

The Three W’s

Let’s go back to that moment when you decided to join the world’s greatest Air Force. For some of us, that was not too long ago and for others, like myself, that was over 24 years ago. I vividly remember the “why” behind making the decision to join the Air Force.I come from a very strong military background. My father, step-father, grandfather,

13 Jan 2020

Professional working relationships

I enlisted in the military right out of high school, and due to an advanced electronics program, I showed up to my first operational squadron as a very inexperienced E-5. After two years in the shop and a six month deployment, I was feeling very sure of my capabilities as a technician, but I had a lot to learn about being a team player. I knew I

10 Dec 2019

One decision—terrible consequences –moving forward

Have you ever wished you could change something you did in your past? If you had the ability to do so, what would it be and why?

19 Nov 2019

Barriers to seeking care

When our active duty members need medical care, there can be numerous perceived barriers that discourage them from seeking treatment. While folks may be struggling, whether with physical or mental health issues, they may be concerned with the unintended consequences that come with seeking care. Whether it is the space operator concerned with losing their clearance, the security forces Airman wanting to avoid a “Do Not Arm” status or the personnelist who has too much work to leave the office to be seen; the barriers to seeking care sometimes outweigh the desire to be healed. Across the Air Force and the Department of Defense, these perceptions can be one of the contributing factors to some of the highest rates of suicide we have ever had within the service community.

12 Nov 2019

Airmen immersed in resiliency at Challenge Day event

Hello! My name is Erica, and if you really knew me, you’d know that I’ve been going through a lot lately. Depression, anxiety, weight gain (and not a lot of weight loss), three new jobs in one new town, and a pretty devastating haircut (I don’t know who needs to hear this, but never cut your hair when you’re sad!). It’s not all downer stuff though, I have a ficus I have managed to keep alive and a therapist I really like (who told me not to cut my hair… but I didn’t listen). Sometimes balancing everything can get pretty overwhelming and isolating. It’s so easy to forget that other people, including those who work right next to you, are also struggling.

4 Nov 2019

Investing in Resiliency

A family member commits suicide; your friend gets grievously injured; you have to put your dog down. What if they all happened to you within the same month? My family experienced all of those things in August of this year. I want to share with you how we invested in our resilience before those things happened, and how we responded when the investments weren’t enough to overcome those challenges.

21 Oct 2019

Lt. Col. Highlander: Encourage your team to think for themselves

Since an early age I’ve always had an inherent curiosity about how things worked. How was this designed? How do these parts work together? I wanted to understand the how of everything. I quickly discovered I am one of those people who has “the knack” and understands how things work. Whether structural, mechanical or electrical, if something was broken or not working right (or in some cases, working just fine), I took it apart and figured out how to fix it. Naturally, a career in the engineering field became an extension of that curiosity and remains a key component of the person I am today. After all, engineering is the art of solving problems.

17 Oct 2019

Effective Communication

Ask any leader to summarize their experiences with communication, and be prepared to receive numerous examples of success and failure resulting from effective or ineffective implementation. The importance of effective communication is seen in our everyday lives across multiple professional disciplines. Despite the importance, most of us never give it a passing thought or place enough emphasis on the impact poor communications can have on our daily lives. An example of the potential impact loss of effective communication can have is easily seen by reviewing one of the worst aviation disasters to date: the loss of two Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Spain in 1977. After an extensive investigation, poor communication was identified as a contributing factor to the mishap. Internal flight deck communication suffered due to personnel experience levels, crew perceptions and language barriers between native and non-native English speaking flight crewmembers.