Mentoring

Mentoring is a relationship in which knowledge and skills are shared between members in a way in which everyone benefits. Often a more senior person is mentoring a junior person, but mentorship can happen between any two individuals. Mentoring will help Airmen and Guardians discover their strengths by achieving their full potential through a structured, trusting mentoring relationship.

Find a mentor and become a mentor! It’s easy to do both by registering in MyVector. In 2021, we completely redesigned the Mentoring platform in MyVector based on your feedback. New features include:

Ability to self-identify as someone seeking a mentor or someone who wants to be a mentor
Track the status of their mentoring requests
Updated Resources page
Enhanced messaging capability that allows users to send messages to mentors
Additional search filters:
ethnicity, race, disability, Exceptional Family Members Program (EFMP), MAJCOM, organizations, and ranks
Ability for mentees to share documents with mentor
Sister Service mentor/mentee enabled capability
CFM ability to assign mentors to mentees (Spring 2022)

Log into MyVector, check out the new capabilities, and find your mentor today at https://myvector.us.af.mil!

Interviews: 173rd Airborne Brigade Leads Multinational Airborne Operation During Swift Response 2025 in Lithuania

173rd Airborne Brigade

Video by Capt. Jennifer French

May 16, 2025 | 3:02

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade exit a U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules over Memel Drop Zone at Gaiziunai Training Area, Lithuania, during a joint forcible entry operation as part of Swift Response 2025, May 16, 2025.

The airborne operation integrated 1,650 paratroopers from five NATO nations—including Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands—demonstrating the Alliance’s ability to rapidly project combat power without notice.

Staff Sgt. Wesley Carlson, Infantryman
“Any jump you walk away from is a good one,” said Carlson, infantryman. “We have to keep that partnership strong,” Carlson said. “We’ve got to keep those alliances strong and the only way to do that is by training.”

“Anyone can do it,” Carlson said. “All you do is walk out. Gravity does the rest.”

Spc. Donavan Smith, Infantryman
“The weather is alright. The ground wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be,” Smith said.

“I think airborne operations are important to continue to show our nations enemies that we have capabilities to do it,” Smith said.

“I jump out of airplanes because it’s really fun,” Smith said. “It’s not for everybody, but it’s for me.”

Capt. Dylan Vannostrand, Field Artillery Officer
“Show our enemies what we can do, and we can do it with multinational forces to show them that we are partners,” said Vannostrand.

“Show our enemies that we are a unified force and that if they mess with one of us, they’re going to mess with all of us,” said Vannostrand.

As the U.S. Army’s only Airborne Brigade forward-stationed in Europe, the 173rd serves as the Contingency Response Force for U.S. European Command—able to deploy on short notice to deter aggression and defend NATO’s eastern flank. Swift Response, linked to Lithuania’s national exercise Iron Wolf, validated multinational warfighting readiness with combined air-land operations and medical support.

(U.S. Army video by Capt. Jennifer French) More

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Interviews: 173rd Airborne Brigade Leads Multinational Airborne Operation During Swift Response 2025 in Lithuania