(This is a shortened edit from an original post far below)
“OPEN JET!"
Lt Col Kaiser boomed at the 50th Flying Training 'Strikin Snakes' on the PA across the squadron.
"GOT AN OPEN JET FOR AN OPS CHECK COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30 MINUTES”
FOB Tillman with Burners and Ice - 9 hours in the Jet
"Can't say I've ever been here before, KEGI*."
"You can say that again, JJ.
Can't say I've ever seen a Hawk battery looking at me quite like this, either.
I think maybe they like us!"
KEGI Cole and I were in a steep 45 degree right turn now, rounding the sharp corner over the Straits of Hormuz behind the big KC-135 tanker.
We were looking at the Persian coastline right down there... where those Iranian surface-to-air missile batteries, supplied by the US way back in the 70s during the Shah's time, were watching us with their radar as we passed.
Underneath Shag's jet over on the far left wing of the tanker, we could see the brown coastline of Iran near Bandar Abbas.
"This makes me queasy down in the cockles of my heart, KEGI," I joked.
I was referencing a Dennis Leary song we sang in the Rockets.
The Bagram Bing
I could hear Crawfs holding court.
I had parked my beat-up white crew-cab Chevy Silverado in the lot by the B-Huts, and I could smell the smoke from the fire as four of us walked home across the grey gravel. It was late evening, and we were all tired after driving home from the squadron over on the east side of Bagram Air Base. We had just debriefed a 6-hour mission over the cold white mountains of Vinoland in Northeast Afghanistan. Feb 2008.
Duck Hunting With the Dawn Patrol
In my right mirror, I saw two two bright FLASHES and could see Shorty wrenched around back there, looking over his right shoulder at something down our 4 o’clock wing line.
The fading orange light was moving shadows upward on my canopy as the flares Shorty had instinctively popped were falling to the ground.
“Boss! I just saw ...muzzle flashes; right!"
Shorty losing his chill shocked me more than the words he was saying.
Shorty Bone never lost his chill.
BINGO FUEL--> EMERGENCY FUEL.
Twice in my flying career I nearly ran my jet out of gas.
Both experiences were as painful as they were permanently instructional, and Lt Col Brugh helped me with both of them.
My second act of gas buffoonery was in a Strike Eagle, flying in Area 12 way out over the ocean in the Whiskey MOAs off of Cape Lookout, North Carolina - near where the 'Big Rock' deep sea tournament guys fish the Gulf Stream.
I was pulling hard, and we were down low, at the floor, Afterburners blazing and burning a ton of gas for a few seconds after we heard the clear "BINGO FUEL" warning from Bitchin' Betty in the helmet telling us to go home.
Billy Mengers Taught Me Servant Leadership
As a brand-new 4th Classman at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, I was a long way from home in November 1986. I was 18 years old, barely 150 pounds, I was getting yelled at by upperclassmen morning, noon, and night, and my life was a profoundly unpleasant experience.
LEAF RUN November 2025
November 2025 West of Martinsville VA just north of the NC/VA line.
Videos Here:
Leadership Development Session with Jenn Giordano and the Nautical Advisory Group - 2025
Tremendous experience with my friend Jenn Giordano (SmartfulWorks) and the Nautical Advisory Group!
We discussed Leadership, The Art of the Debrief, and creating Radical Candor to build an organization.
but most importantly -
We raised funds and awareness for an amazing local Raleigh support organization:
"ATD Best" Award for our PPD Team, Washington DC, May 2025
 |
| A proud day receiving this Learning & Development Team Award for our PPD TEAM |
First jet ride 1988: Austin Texas
 |
| My first flight in a jet, July 1988 at Bergstrom AFB, Austin Texas |
Cape Hatteras April 2025 - Easter OBX Run to Billy Mitchell Field
Looking Northwest at the Pamlico Sound
More Hatteras Flying Videos and Photos here:
"STOP THAT BALL!"
Mr. Sullivan was a Giant. To me.
I'm convinced our team won the Goldsboro Boys Club Little League "World Series" in 1979 because Coach Sullivan taught me how to stop a ground ball from going between my legs.
Civil Air Patrol Annual Banquet - Greensboro NC April 2025
Had a great time as guest speaker with the NC Civil Air Patrol in Greensboro.
I've never met a more selfless group of leaders and young adults.
Fantastic multi-faceted CAP mission.
I cant hear you!
I looked up high at the giant T-Tail over me as I stepped off the big white bus and waited there on the tarmac by the Red Cross.
Waiting for the medics to move their convalescent patients out the back door and up the ramp, the reality of transitioning my fighter-pilot mind from prepping to fly a sunrise Dawn Patrol mission over Afghanistan, to loading up, instead, on a Medevac C-17 bound for Germany at 10 in the morning hit me like an anvil. I turned around quickly to see jets ripping through the cold air, a two-ship of our very own Chief StrikeEagles - getting airborne over the runway next to us and driving the point firmly home for me.
It was January 21st 2008, I was leaving the war, and I was in shock.
Hurricane Helene Relief - By Air!
The best part of helping our Hurricane Helene victims was the chance to join with so many super volunteers at Statesville, Rutherfordton, and Ashe County airports.
The volume of supplies sent in short notice before government authorities could arrive was just tremendous, and those who helped deliver it over the week after the traumatic event were truly joyful servants. Such a fantastic experience! Prayers for all those impacted by this powerful event.
Walk the Walk!
"Teammates are always observing their leader, and as they do - they are constantly drawing their own conclusions about what the leader values based on the actions they see their leader living.
Leaders, therefore, need to remain ever mindful of these perceptions and take charge of that narrative by taking the steps to actively demonstrate the values they care about for their teams."
Jordan Kestenbaum
My good friend at Disney Institute
Leadership? Or Management? You can wear BOTH hats...
Too often, these words are used interchangeably, or they are misunderstood with one regarded as superior to the other. In truth, they're both different, and they are both essential for a team. When supervising any group, a person needs to know when to lead, and when to manage, and how to know the difference:
MANAGEMENT:
Optimization of those operations essential for function of the mission while minimizing disruptive change.
LEADERSHIP:
Inspiring the team to move from one place to another, by motivating essential and sometimes disruptive change required for the successful execution of the mission.
A great supervisor knows when to wear either hat.
How much can you empower a well-coordinated Team of Teams and stay successful?
We decentralized until it made us uncomfortable, and it was right there - on the brink of instability- that we found our sweet spot."
General Stanley McCrystal
Sunrise At SunNFun. Lakeland Florida - April 2024
Joined up with my friend Bill. Plane camping in Florida.
Sally from Kabul. November 2009 - March 2024
We said goodbye to my best friend today. 14.5 years old. She has caught 10,000 frisbees for me....
An amazing, beautiful, majestic, athletic, empathetic friend.
Here's her story (from a post far below):
Sally's story
Servant Leadership
Put yourself at the bottom.
It's a gift to be there.
Put your Team at the top.
Lift them up.
Serve your Team.
Home from Sun n Fun March 2023 (Lakeland FL)
From Bill Gideon's Cirrus at 7500' over central Florida.
3.6 hour flight from Lakeland Florida to Raleigh NC
Sun N Fun videos here:
Sun N Fun videos here:
Leadership is a Gift
 |
Leadership is a Gift. It's given by those who follow. But you have to be worthy of it. - General Mark Welsh, US Air Force Academy 2011 |
The STEP
The Step.
The one thing all aviators share, regardless of which airplane they fly, is the Step. The Step is anticipates. The Step transforms. The Step is confident. And the Step can sometimes be a fearful, courageous move. The Step is one of those few things that only aviators do. The Step is the glorious space of time between which an aviator makes the decision to go out and fly - that point when he or she commits to leave the ground in the machine - and the moment the engine begins turning. This short period is known as the Step, and every Aviator knows just what it means.
Afghanistan
With an Afghan elder near a runway northeast of Kandahar. We were working with him to use that runway to support a forward base with supplies so trucks didn’t have to risk driving on the treacherous highway from Kandahar.
Flag Day
Photo taken by and courtesy of my friend and former neighbor Beverly Church Wright at Plymouth Massachusetts. Thanks Beverly!
Towering Cumulus!
“OPEN JET. GOT AN OPEN JET FOR AN OPS CHECK COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30”
Lt Col Kaiser boomed at the 50th Flying Training 'Strikin Snakes' on the PA across the squadron.
.
50th Flying Training Squadron "Strikin Snakes" - Inactivated July 2nd 2025
Columbus AFB Mississippi
Leadership is Industry Agnostic
Leadership is Industry Agnostic.
Leadership is Change
Leadership is Action not Position
Leadership is Transformational not Transactional
Leadership is Service to The Team
Leadership is Emotion that Drives the Mission
Leadership Builds
Leadership Honors
Leadership is Grateful
Leadership is Visionary
Leadership is Selfless
Leadership Cares.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
