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In my 25 years as an Air Force officer, I have been amazed by two different cultures.
These two opposing cultures can be seen by those who embody the warrior spirit and those who only aspire to achieve mediocrity.
The warrior spirit is what makes aircrew members fly on night vision goggles on moonless nights, deep into enemy territory, in order to support the ground force commander. The pure adrenal rush of flying combat missions is indescribable and is what makes aircrew members do what they do. The warrior spirit is what keeps the security forces member razor sharp guarding the base. The warrior spirit is what allows paratroopers to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft, at night, deep in enemy territory. The warrior spirit is alive and well at Ramstein. Warriors accomplish the mission and can be found in every specialty.
There is also an evil twin lurking around Ramstein and the Air Force and I call it mediocre behavior. These timid souls might hide behind obscure references in regulations or “that is how we have always done it here” mentality. They attend commander’s calls and “sit through” the lectures on the evils of drinking and driving and alcohol related incidents without a thought of how they can help fix this problem. They are the folks that choose not to support the families of deployed members or look for why they cannot do a job … taking more time to think up excuses than just doing their J-O-B. Folks that have mediocre behavior add undo risk to the mission.
An Army friend of mine is preparing to deploy downrange and was loathing the fact that he had to visit Air Force agencies to fine tune some personnel actions … ID card renewal, power of attorney, etc. The service he received here by Team Ramstein “was outstanding” … a complete conversion to the AF. Why? Because of the warrior spirit.
As I am ending my time here at Ramstein, I look back over the past two years and look at what Team Ramstein has accomplished … Department of Defense installation of the year, every inspection “excellent” or higher … the world’s first U.S. Air Force Cat IIIA runway, Lebanon noncombatant evacuation operation support, World Cup support and most importantly world class Global War on Terrorism support … moving cargo, personnel and the wounded both in and out of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. We are doing some great work … but we can do better.
I encourage all commanders and supervisors to just not look at issues at the tactical level, but broaden their look at the operational level and to instill the warrior spirit throughout the KMC. Warriors accomplish the mission the first time, safely, on time and on target.
As leaders we should accept nothing less than the warrior spirit.
