Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Warhol's "15 Minutes"

Someone tipped me to this blurb published at AFCENT's website (the post title is all about SN1 getting a lil bit of his fame allocation, and nothing else):
Leadership lessons linger

Lincoln with military officers at Antietam.

Commentary by Capt. Kristen D. Duncan
451st Air Expeditionary Wing Chief of Public Affairs

12/7/2009 - KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- It doesn't take much to find leadership in a deployed setting, whether on the battlefield, in a maintenance back shop, or among the seasoned SNCO's and officers of our Wing. I stumbled upon a meeting of the minds however, true leaders studying to become better. Better officers, better Airmen - all thanks to lessons from former President Abraham Lincoln.

The 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Group officers met Saturday, non-alcoholic beer and cigars included, to discuss the humble genius in honest ol' Abe. Led by one of the youngest ranking in the group, 1st Lt. Christopher Anderson, HH-60 HMU officer in charge, kept the briefing to only four main slides, to foster discussion and discourse.


[...]

Communication
Master the art of public speaking. Influence people through conversation, and preach a vision and continually reaffirm it.

"At my first assignment as a two-striper, we never had a doubt of the priorities," said Maj. Buck Pennington, 451st EAXMS maintenance operations officer. "It was preached over and over and when something came up, we looked at how it met each of those priorities."

Colonel Hopkins shared his vision for the Maintenance Group: people, planes and processes focused on aircraft availability and munitions support. To him, keeping a level balance between the three equals success.

To me, bringing his officers together to talk about becoming better leaders is one sure way to achieve that vision.

Next book: "Cigars, Whiskey & Winning" by Al Kaltman - Leadership lessons from Ulysses S. Grant
Heh.  As I told the "someone"... the FIRST lesson to be learned from ol' Ulysses S. would be REVOKE GENERAL ORDER NUMBER ONE!  (Sorry.  Didn't mean to shout.)  I dunno if this misguided directive is a result of Lessons Learned in Vietnam... a war that ran on booze, and lots of it... or is simply a carry-over of Gen. Schwarzkopf's GO1 from Desert Shield/Storm.  I strongly suspect it's the latter and although Stormin' Norman is/was undoubtedly correct in the universal sense I doubt the impact on morale is worth the politically correct sop to Muslim culture.  While GO1 might be entirely appropriate in Saudi Arabia, it looks pretty damned stupid when one reads of Iraqi entrepeneurs opening up booze boutiques.  The tide may be turning in Iraq, but leave us not digress.  The Wiki tells us alcohol is still banned in The Af... except for foreigners.  And I read that some military folks... most notably the Germans... could have it until recently.  Gen. McChrystal put the kibosh on that.
Oh, well.  Enough of this.  "Not Your Father's Air Force," yet again.  And it most certainly ain't Your Grandfather's Air Force, either.  All that said... it's a great good thing that "the management" can get together and discuss the finer points of leadership over a few (non-alcoholic) beers and cigars.  I'm all for that. 

(note: photo not included with original AFCENT release... embellishment by YrHmblScrb and obtained from Iconic Photos.)

10 comments:

  1. I don't know about tossing GO1 cause it is more than just a ban on alcohol (that's the one that keeps them from adopting dogs/puppies too) I think Porn and Pork products are banned with GO1 as well. With all the Weed and various stages of opium laying around the Helmand area, I could see where a couple of knuckle-heads already half in the bag go out to harvest something "extra" and get into more trouble. Maybe the sobriety is a good think in parts of the AF. But, I have never been a heavy drinker.

    BT: Jimmy T sends.

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  2. Don't get me started about our neo-prohibitionist Brave New World, Buck, I just thank God I'm not part of it. Little did I know I was living in a "golden age" when I was in--sure like night and day compared to the here and now.....

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  3. That was me Buck, damned thing went all sensitive on me...

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  4. Yep -- the Bush Surgeon General put the kibosh to honor bars on most Army posts a few years back. I hate being treated like a child; being denied substances that are perfectly legal in some real world.

    On the other hand -- cool 15 (seconds!) minutes quote for SN1!

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  5. Jimmy: I think you're right about the porn, but not about the pork. I can't EVEN imagine the military would tolerate breakfast without ham or bacon. That said, I'm not talking about getting shit-faced where alcohol is concerned, either. More like a few beers at the end of a hard day. But there always will be abusers... the point being most people handle alcohol responsibly and there are "means" of handling abusers.

    Virgil: We're on the same page, if not the same paragraph and sentence. But I saw the AF launch its "deglamorization" program just before I got out... and it was firckin' ugly. The main result: deserted O/NCO clubs and a surge in DWIs. But that was then... this is now. The clubs are still deserted, tho.

    Moogie: I hear ya. And thanks!

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  6. Can't speak for the other services, but Uncle Sam's Navy has reached the point where any percieved "offense" where alcohol is involved can be a death knell.

    Towards the end of my days, I wouldn't touch a drop of the stuff at any "command function". Didn't help that the last CO was a teetotaller.

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  7. BR: My sense is that it's the same in the AF as you speak of the Navy. There ARE exceptions, but the guys who are "Old School" are fading fast.

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  8. Buck, pork is on that list we were asked and given hand outs that told us what we could send to the Boy's there in the AF and it includes all products with alcohol (even bug spray), porn and any pork products. I did cheat and send in both spam and Vienna sausages with their wrappers removed. Jon said they were great!!

    BT: Jimmy T sends.

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  9. Blame Admiral Mahan.

    Have they banned unit parties yet? I used to love those; I never drank much, but the wives did, and the wives did some serious flirting. Mostly harmless, but lots of fun.

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  10. Jimmy: No kidding. I stand corrected.

    Gordon: I have no idea about unit parties these days, but I certainly hear your comments about same. It was kinda-sorta that way in my day, as well.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.