Mentoring builds tomorrow's Air Force

  • Published
  • By Maj. Paul Stroud
  • 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight commander
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  On July the 3rd I celebrated an important personal anniversary. It is the anniversary of the day that I enlisted in the Oklahoma Air National Guard some seventeen years ago -- July 3, 1990.

For some, that may seem a small lifetime ago, but to me it seems like just yesterday. If you told me 17 years ago that I would be in Afghanistan in command of an Aeromedical Evacuation Flight, I would have called you crazy.

Life has changed immensely for me and for our great nation during these 17 years. One of the things I reflect on during this important personal anniversary is how I got here.

With that said, how does anyone get to a position of responsibility? Some may attribute it solely to talent, intelligence, wisdom, timing or luck. Granted, these are elements in anyone's success, but I suggest there is something else, something that is one of the cornerstones of leadership: stewardship, or a more common phrase in our Air Force lexicon, mentoring.

I am not speaking about Air Force Policy Directive 36-34, "Air Force Mentoring Program." I am speaking of the type of mentoring that is not documented, that occurs informally everyday. It's the mentoring that helps improve continuity and efficiency, and helps people prepare for tomorrow.

I was very fortunate in my career to have exceptional NCOs and officers who would take the time to help me develop. They would often sit down with me, usually over a cup of coffee, and talk with me about how things were going. We often would discuss how the mission was going, what we were doing and some of the challenges we were facing.

This often would lead to a mentoring session with this NCO or officer. These mentors always conveyed some type of wisdom or insight into any particular challenge or issue we were facing. Each one of them helped me grow into the NCO, and later officer, I have become.

Everyone who is in a leadership position, from sergeant to the highest-ranking general, has had some type of mentoring to help prepare him or her for that leadership position. In the final analysis, we will all leave the Air Force eventually, either through retirement or moving on to different goals in life.

The true test of how effective your leadership will be is the type of legacy you have left behind. Have you mentored your Airman, NCOs, and junior officer to take on the challenges of tomorrow? Do they have the leadership tools they need?

I challenge all of you to take every opportunity to mentor as many people as you can to make better people and a better Air Force for tomorrow.

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