"You manage things, you lead people."
“If you don’t fund the State Dept, I have to buy more bullets” said General Mattis. #USGLC
As part of a US Global Leadership Coalition Group, we met today with staffs of Sen Thom Tillis, and also Representatives David Rouzer, Mark Walker, Patrick McHenry, and David Price (and others met with many more) to emphasize funding for diplomacy and global development programs, alongside defense, to keep us safer long term.
If you are a veteran, join us. #MCC. #USAID. #USGLC. Most every state has a delegation. Veterans For Smart Power:https://lnkd.in/eukBbY7
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| 22 October 2019 |
Learning as a Way of Being
"Since turbulent conditions appear everywhere and pervade our lives in both time and space, learning in permanent whitewater conditions is and will continue to be a constant way of life for all of us. There are no boundaries to learning. Learning as a way of being is a natural mode of being that is more important than ever in a complex and unstable environment."
They go well together:
"When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magic alchemy of great performance."
"Until you've changed a plan, a policy, a procedure - You haven't learned anything."
Jim Collins in "Good to Great"
"Until you've changed a plan, a policy, a procedure - You haven't learned anything."
Cujo Teschner in "Debrief to Win""
Leadership is Industry Agnostic
Never confuse leadership talent with job expertise. They are different realms. Both are required on the team, but both talents aren't required equally of the every teammate.
A great leader, empowered with the right freedom of action, can inspire and generate the highest possible performance from every expert member on the team - whatever that maximum level is for each person - and in so doing, create an environment of excellence & performance far beyond the leader's technical level of expertise, and far beyond whatever the team's collective level of expertise might otherwise generate without that leader.
We Fight.
“We fight with the Navy, Marines and Air Force. Our soldiers have never heard an Air Force pilot say ‘I can’t fly into that low-altitude area,’ These guys take incredible risk. If there are troops on the ground, they are rolling in hot.”
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley
At Association of the United States Army Symposium. Fall 2018
Film of this is rare, obviously, but here's a relatively lower-intensity daytime example.
F-15E StrikeEagle Close Air Support in AfghanistanFilm of this is rare, obviously, but here's a relatively lower-intensity daytime example.
Operation Airdrop - Hurricane Florence Disaster Response
This picture of my new friends in Lumberton NC captures the essence of Operation Airdrop, September 2018, in Southeast North Carolina.
Old South Aerodrome. Abingdon VA, Sep 2018
Annual flying trip to West Virginia with Bill Gideon & Ben Davis
The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model
I first encountered this excellent construct at George Washington University in 1998. This is the intellectual property the Center for Leadership Studies in Cary, NC, and is a great framework with which to consider leadership across a variety of circumstances, with different followers in mind.
Teamwork
“The wingman is
absolutely indispensable. I look after my wingman. My wingman looks after me...wars are
not won by individuals. They're won by teams.”Lt Col Francis "Gabby" Gabreski, USAF.
28 victories in WWII; 6.5 MiGs over Korea
David Johnston on Leadership, PPD, 8 March 2018
Key Attributes of a Leader:
A focus on Empathy, Servitude, Intellectual Curiosity, Ability to Flex, Active Leadership, Customer Focus, Goal Orientation, Respect for Others, Mentorship, and Fun.
A focus on Empathy, Servitude, Intellectual Curiosity, Ability to Flex, Active Leadership, Customer Focus, Goal Orientation, Respect for Others, Mentorship, and Fun.
How does a Servant-Leader Think About Leading?
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| A Servant Leader Can Transform a Team with a Change in the Leader's Mindset -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Missiles in the Air
Combat Archer Aug, 2000. Tyndall AFB, FL. AIM-7MH Air-to-Air Missiles over the Gulf; 336th Fighter Squadron Rocketeers.
I was flying the far jet.
At UNC Chapel Hill. Horace Williams Airport.
Leadership: Organization as a Family
Inclusiveness-Cultivating team success and feelings of belonging-is one of the advantages...to leadership. Deploying this skill helps not only us but the people and organizations around us too. The positive cycle you create leads to greater success..."
Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston in
How Remarkable Women Lead.
Lake Crabtree, Raleigh NC.
Seymour Johnson AFB Airshow May 21 2017
Our POW/MIA recovery team in Asia
Proud of my friend Lt Col Woosh Pritz and his awesome team, who have worked months to bring our missing American servicemen home
Memorial Day.
"She's good to me."
Josh looked off to the left of the Suburban out at nothing as he drove, clearly thinking about her.
We were making our way north in a convoy on a cluttered nighttime road, headed back from General McCrystal's main headquarters in central Kabul up to our operational command headquarters at the Kabul International Airport.
Here's how we Can Better Use Airpower, Integrated with Limited numbers of Ground Forces, to Defeat ISIS in the Middle East
DEFEAT ISIS: Massive Airpower Integrated with Limited US Ground Troops. (One Stryker Maneuver Brigade Combat Team)
Proud of these guys: 23 Sep 14 - Syria Strike
"For All the Rocketeers..."
What an honor to be invited to a Roll Call in Washington DC yesterday with one of the two greatest Fighter Squadrons on the planet - the 336th FS "Rocketeers." The Rockets were in Washington DC to honor former Rocketeer Operations Officer, Brigadier General Robin Risner at his Arlington Cemetery funeral with their presence and with a flawless 4-ship "Missing Man" memorial fly-by.
How Does Airpower Happen?
"Not Once In My Life Have I Ever Worried About Anything Up There." - MG Jim Boozer, US Army
USAF Airpower - With the Snoopy Patrol Over Ramadi
Servant Leadership. (Maxwell)
Fall Leaves, Oct near Robertson Virginia
Flying out of Potomac Airfield Maryland for a leaf run west of DC.
Del Rio Texas - Lake Amistad at Sunset
Hard not to see a gorgeous sunset over Lake Amistad on the US-Mexico border.
Transformational Leadership
"Success in its highest form is people working together with mutual trust and respect."
Hal Shook, WWII P-47 Sq Commander and retired AF Colonel
Life Management Services
Hal Shook, WWII P-47 Sq Commander and retired AF Colonel
Life Management Services
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, Speech at USAFA, 1 November 2011
- General Mark Welsh, Speech at USAFA, 1 November 2011
Moral vs Ethical and making tough decisions: Rushworth Kidder's view
"...Right-versus-wrong choices are very different from right versus-right ones. The latter reach inward to our most profound and central values, setting one against the other in ways that will never be resolved simply by pretending that one is “wrong.”
Training vs Education?
Difference between Training and Education?
Training prepares us for certainty
Education prepares us to lead during uncertainty
Brigadier General Thomas V. Draude, USMC (retired), during discussion at CGSC Foundation Summit, 13 April 2011
Training prepares us for certainty
Education prepares us to lead during uncertainty
Brigadier General Thomas V. Draude, USMC (retired), during discussion at CGSC Foundation Summit, 13 April 2011
A rare feeling.
"There is nothing quite so exhilarating as being shot at and missed".
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Everyone is a role model. Be a good one.
"To be a role model, you have to believe in being genuine, sincere, fair, respectful and consistent in your actions."
- Marsha Bjerkan
Kandahar Flag: A Memorial Day Story.
I was finally boarding the big Canadian midnight-blue C-130 for a short trip back to Kabul, after a long wait in the warm Kandahar sun inside the fence at the passenger terminal. My role was to help solve ops coordination challenges for Air Force units all across Afghanistan and I had been visiting a nearby Forward Operating Base in the southern part of the country.
As I stood in my tan flight suit on the noisy flight line, last in the queue of space-available passengers, the Aircraft Commander smiled down at me out the left cockpit window and waved. She said something to her flight engineer who was standing just behind her.
I stepped quickly up into the plane, eyeing the circled Maple Leaf on the dark fuselage, and the loadmaster on headset tapped my shoulder to ask if I wanted to join the crew upstairs.
"Absolutely!" I was grateful to have a chance to look out the front window again. No fighter pilot enjoys riding in the back end of any airplane, and I was happy to see how the Canadians did business.
Nearing the east side of the airfield, We heard the tower radio chatter as an unmanned Predator drone entered the taxi flow in front of us. I could hear the Predator launch crew receiving clearance for it to taxi forward, and simultaneously, I noted a two-ship of grey British Tornado fighters moving towards us from their parking revetments across the runway on the north east side of of the airfield.
"Wow," she said, "it's not every day you hold number three behind a plane with no pilot and a couple of Tornados."
"Wow," she said, "it's not every day you hold number three behind a plane with no pilot and a couple of Tornados."
I took this picture just prior to the helo's arrival
As we pointed at the approach end of Runway 23 and taxied forward, our progress was formally and surprisingly halted by the tower as movement froze on all Kandahar taxiways. The Predator in front of us, Tornados across the way- now all still, were holding position.
| Runway 23 looking southwest. This story happened at bottom left corner. |
I looked northeast, noticing a dark Blackhawk helicopter, approaching the airfield as it maneuvered south towards the ramp on our right, then moved in slowly towards us from the east. Leaning way forward in the straps to look hard right out the side window, I caught sight of a tight formation of 7 USAF Airmen in utility camo uniforms, 6 men in a close group with a 7th standing to their side on the tarmac off our wing line.
Holding in reverent formation, they waited for the Blackhawk to land.
One by one, each crewmember in our cockpit saw the grave picture, observing the same scene collectively, putting it all together and falling silent while looking right as the inevitable event unfolded.
One by one, each crewmember in our cockpit saw the grave picture, observing the same scene collectively, putting it all together and falling silent while looking right as the inevitable event unfolded.
The Blackhawk grew larger, sweeping in slowly.
Then, pointed our way, it settled down on the wide-open tarmac to the right of us, giving us really the only good view on the entire airfield of the impending, solemn ceremony. Wheels touched, struts compressing under the weight of its cargo. The formation began to march slowly in step towards the helo, gestured emphatically there by the gloved gunner who had hopped out onto the concrete from the left side door.
Reverence filled the cockpit.
All eyes were fixed on the Blackhawk.
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| Kandahar Carry Team was similar to this one- but without hats and without the box. |
Airmen began carefully pulling a long rectangular plywood board, with a loosely-moving material over it, concealing the fallen US serviceman.
An American Flag, tacked to the board, was whipping - violently - in the downwash of the rotor blades. The formation stepped back together from the door with great care, holding the American hero and firmly holding the Flag, re-adjusting their grip.
They then marched deliberately, in step, away from the aircraft as the helo gunner quickly jumped up from the tarmac and slammed the left side door shut. The thrashing American Flag, rippling under the rotor wash, contrasted sharply with their lock-step precision and firmness of the plywood board the men carried.
The tight formation of focused Airmen then marched their way, slowly, onward to the edge of the ramp. The Flag covering the Soldier became limp, revealing his still form underneath as they disappeared from view. The Blackhawk pilot increased power, lifted off and moved nose-down, up, over, and in front of us as the helo flew west then north, disappearing back to its next mission.
Respectful cockpit silence sustained.
Reverence held until the craft was gone.
Assertively snapping her crew forward, the Canadian Aircraft Commander sharply announced, "Takeoff Checks Complete!"
Tower promptly cleared the pilotless plane ahead of us onto the runway for takeoff, and we followed afterwards with a dramatically low, high-speed departure off the end of the runway southwest of Kandahar to avoid small arms fire - then she zoomed the giant C-130 up and right towards a safe altitude.
We inched closer to Kabul over the mountains up high, following the slower tiny remotely-piloted-aircraft diverging north just left of our nose. It was a quiet flight, and my thoughts turned with great heaviness to that soldier's wife, still sleeping, far away and back home, who would soon hear a dreaded knock on her door.
We pondered together the immense gravity of the scene, the soldier, and his family.
No one on the flight deck spoke of it again
(May 2010)
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Return to Three Capes Website
Fort Leavenworth - Sunset over Kansas, Jan 2011, 500' over the Missouri River
Winter sky in Kansas is unlike any other I've seen.
I - Me - My?
"George H.W. Bush, always afraid of sounding egotistical, took the I's out of his speeches. We called his edits "I-ectomies." "
- Peggy Noonan
- Peggy Noonan
Joint Air Power Competence Center article published Fall 2010
NATO's Joint Air Power Competence Center published our article below in the Fall 2010 JAPCC Journal. Pages 51-54.
http://japcc.de/fileadmin/user_upload/journal/Editon_12/101026_Journal_Ed-12_web.pdf
http://japcc.de/fileadmin/user_upload/journal/Editon_12/101026_Journal_Ed-12_web.pdf
Delivering Fixed-Wing Airpower Effects in a COIN Environment
Major General Jochen Both (German Luftwaffe) and I wrote this article in an effort to encourage ISAF nations to consider additional airpower contributions for Afghanistan.
Airpower, used to its full potential, is a vital element of NATO’s effort in Afghanistan. ISAF’s campaign design is based on a significant uplift of troops, coupled with an increased level of partnering between Coalition and AFG Security forces, spread widely across Key Terrain Districts throughout four Regional Commands. It is generally accepted that this design will consequently lead to an increasing operational tempo with higher intensity of offensive operations across the ISAF Combined Joint Operations Area (CJOA) as greater insurgent interaction causes corresponding upturns in violence in contested areas. Within this Counter Insurgency Fight (COIN) fight, the Air Component significantly will contribute to ISAF’s mission in a fully integrated role across all lines of operation.
Airpower, used to its full potential, is a vital element of NATO’s effort in Afghanistan. ISAF’s campaign design is based on a significant uplift of troops, coupled with an increased level of partnering between Coalition and AFG Security forces, spread widely across Key Terrain Districts throughout four Regional Commands. It is generally accepted that this design will consequently lead to an increasing operational tempo with higher intensity of offensive operations across the ISAF Combined Joint Operations Area (CJOA) as greater insurgent interaction causes corresponding upturns in violence in contested areas. Within this Counter Insurgency Fight (COIN) fight, the Air Component significantly will contribute to ISAF’s mission in a fully integrated role across all lines of operation.
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