00:00:08,409 --> 00:00:10,465 Well , hello everybody and welcome . Once again to your Avengers podcast from the Showplace of the Air Force Joint Base , San Antonio Randolph , Texas . I'm your host for this episode , Jet Fra from the 3/40 flying Training Group Public Affairs Team . I know it's been a good minute since our last podcast . Last year . We introduced you to our senior enlisted leader . And on this episode , we're introducing you to our newest commander , sir . Please introduce yourself . Hey , how's it going ? This is uh Colonel Straw go by Bravo took command a couple of months ago at the 3/40 previously commander of the uh fifth flying training squadron out advance . And before that , a member of the 39th , uh Cobras , uh , right here at Randolph . So , uh I'm excited to be here e excited for the Avengers and where we're gonna go and all the changes that are coming to how we uh train pilots and airmen . Well , sir , uh we really strive to give our audience a better understanding of who we are every podcast . And with our first question , uh I wanted to kick this one off by asking you what motivated you to serve and why you continue serving ? That's a great question . A couple of things that motivated me . One growing up , my , my family was very patriotic . My grandfather was a veteran of world war two army vet , uh , was actually , uh , in the second wave at , uh , at Omaha Beach in Normandy . Uh , so he had a pretty big influence on the formative years of my life . And my family were always , uh , very , uh , blue collar patriotic . So , uh military service really appealed to me and , and I had a , a love specifically of airplanes from the time I was uh as long as I can remember . So it , it was an easy fit for me when I had the opportunity to go to the Air Force Academy because I could go to college . Uh But at the same time , I could have the opportunity to serve my country , which is the greatest country on the , on the , in the history of the world and , and have the opportunity to , to go fly airplanes . So that was really what motivated me to join the service . And it's been absolutely fantastic . The most exciting things that I've ever done in my life have been in an air force airplane . So that's been an awesome opportunity and the chance to continue to meet and serve with the best people and now take care of those people . Has been why I continue to serve , sir . Thank you . I I asked Chief V this question as well . And I wanted to ask you as well , what , what was one bit of advice or , or two that you pass on to others who find themselves in a position to mentor equip and build the future of our force . So for folks that are in a position to mentor , really , you , you have to balance two things and that's uh the mission and what we're trying to accomplish for the force and the desires , needs and kind of capability of the individual and find where those things overlap because uh a lot of times there will be opportunities to continue to , to serve in a higher capacity uh or to develop a career that individual might not even be aware of . Uh So if you're able to present those options on uh how a member can continue to serve potentially in a higher capacity and make sure that they understand what the opportunities are that could benefit them while also benefiting the mission . Uh If you kind of attack it from both of those , the , the mission and the , the individual and marry those up , uh then you're gonna have a good opportunity to uh to mentor and to , to expose people to opportunities they might not know that they had . If you're doing that , it , it assumes that you understand the mission and the needs uh o of the Air Force and you know , o of the dod . So a lot of that is tied into not just uh what does your flight or squadron or small unit need , but what are the requirements and what are the needs of the , the large organization ? And , and then it requires you to actually know that person . So you have to take , you have to take a beat and sit down and understand what exactly that person uh wants to do , what they're capable of doing what their goals are . Uh So if you don't have understanding of both of those things , it makes it real tough to mentor and you , you put yourself in a position of giving cookie cutter answers , which I don't think resonate with most people . So understanding where folks fit in the bigger picture and what the bigger picture organization uh needs and is doing and then that individual airmen understanding them what drives them . Uh And then kind of figuring out where those , uh where those two things intersect , uh I think is a good way to , to mentor and develop people . OK . No . Well , thank you , sir . Appreciate your answer . And , uh , I , I was gonna just ask one question that just came to me . Uh , right now about , uh what makes , well , in , in , in your eyes , what makes the 3/40 Avengers , the organization as a whole ? What , what makes it so unique , let's say the thing that makes us unique is that the level of experience , uh that our organization brings . Uh , so as , as a reserve unit , we have the benefit that we get to go out and recruit and hire . So we aren't having people placed in our organization . So it , it , it develops more of a family atmosphere , uh , and it allows us to pick the best folks now of that . It , it's great because the large , uh , preponderance of the folks in the 3/40 of our members , uh , have a ton of experience . They've already been out there a lot , a lot of times in the regular Air force and active duty uh and have done the job , they've been there , done that . Uh So we have the , the benefit of not necessarily having to develop people from , you know , day one . We're getting folks that already have a lot of experience and know how uh and uh we get to pick our folks . So we have a great opportunity to pull in the right people . Uh And that makes us unique because unlike almost any other organization in the , in the Air Force and , and largely in Afric , uh we are many times subject matter experts where we are asking we are where we are asked to partner with our active duty . Uh brethren . Uh We're bringing folks that have already done it uh Sometimes for a decade , uh they've already done that particular mission set . Uh So it gives us the credibility uh and , and the experience a lot of times to mentor and to teach the active duty organizations that we're partnering with . Uh so uh being able to bring the right people in uh that have the experience and , and all the background already executing the mission is a huge advantage and that makes us different than uh than most places that have to grow their airmen from day one . And they are doing a lot of the , the baseline training . We , we don't really need to do that . We had , we're bringing in people that are already senior instructors that know how to do it uh that now can go into the mentoring and the teaching role . Well , sir , on another topic , I know the the group has a fall Commander summit and uh I was wondering , would it be possible to get a first person view of what these summits consist of and their value to citizen airmen ? Sure . So I've been to a , a handful of summits uh as AD O and a squadron commander . Uh This will be my first summit attended , attending as the group commander . These summits are crucial because the 3/40 is spread out . So unlike a lot of uh groups and wings that are co located , uh we have seven different uh geographically separated units uh spread out all around uh pilot training bases across town at J BS A lackland up at the Academy for their uh academy aviation programs . So because we are so spread out day to day , we leverage , you know , email uh teams calls , but we don't have the opportunity to get together to understand each other , to share best practices , to share struggles other than the Commander Summit . So these are uh phenomenal opportunity uh for especially newer uh senior enlisted leaders , D OS commanders uh to be able to meet their peer group uh because their peer group is , is spread out . So to meet the peer group , meet the people that are tackling the same challenges that they are that they are and figure out . OK , how did you attack this problem ? What did you do when you presented this ? Uh So it builds that uh it builds that network uh and corporate experience if you will , which is so incredibly crucial . Uh When you have , you know , one squadron in Enid , Oklahoma and another squadron in Del Rio , Texas , another squadron uh here at Randolph , another one in Columbus , et cetera . Uh So , instead of having folks lead out on an island and having to interact via email and teams , you know , the summits are incredibly important to develop that peer group uh so that we can collectively tackle problems and we can identify problems because what one unit goes through another one , it probably already has gone through or will go through in the future . Uh So the face to face interaction and being able to uh bring up those issues , tackle challenges , identify best practices is absolutely crucial uh in how we collectively lead our airmen and uh do the best we can to , uh tackle all the things that are required in order for our one , each instructor pilot or , or training instructor to go out and execute their mission to train that airman , uh , or to make that new pilot before we conclude the podcast . I wanted to ask if there's anything else that you'd like to add one . I'm , I'm excited . Uh I've been part of the 3/40 for over a decade now . And I've been a member of three different squadrons , the 96th , uh out in uh uh Del Rio in Laughlin Air Force Base is where I joined the Reserves . Uh after uh my active duty stint , uh transitioned here to the 39th as I talked about before , uh went up to the , the fifth uh to lead the spit and kittens . Uh and then , uh now here at the group . So in the reserves , the 3/40 is , has been , it's been my family . Uh and I've been able to uh be in , in three different squadrons . Uh and you get to understand the quality and the caliber of people . Uh And frankly , it , it made me want to take care of folks . So I , as I saw over the uh over the last decade , different uh different types and styles of leadership from both squadron command and the group , it kind of formed the commander that I wish to be . And I think that uh that resonates with the folks , the , the one each , uh , instructor pilot who is on the line , uh , who has to balance a family who has to balance a commute out to , uh , out to serve , who has to balance a , another job . These are all things that I've done and that I think having spent so much time in the squadrons kind of helps me and gives me the perspective that I think I can be fairly effective uh at leading people because I have that recency , I I've had to , I've had to do the traveling , I've had to balance uh another career , I've had to balance family . So II , I understand very well the challenges that our citizen airmen face . Uh and , and that's kind of shaped my perceptions and , and kind of my goals on what commander , what type of commander I wanna be uh specifically in regards to taking care of people to be able to communicate with them . There's a lot of changes going on . The Air force is reorganizing for the great power competition . We have tremendous changes going on in a TC . Soon to be airman development command uh in 19th Air Force with the way that we train pilots , uh and that we produce pilots to involve getting uh divesting the , the T one bringing on new fighter bomber fundamentals , which is in uh new way of training our fighter bomber , uh folks in the T 38 and then eventually on boarding uh the T seven . So all those changes at the same time are a pretty significant task . Uh And I consider my job to help uh to help alleviate some of the uncertainty to , to message uh what I can , good , bad and different to our folks so that they can make the most educated decisions about continuing to serve about what's best for them . Uh And make sure that they understand that through all throughout all these changes , the core needs of the Air Force is we still need reserve uh pilots , training instructors to show up and produce airmen to produce pilots to produce instructor pilots . Uh That doesn't go away . Uh The syllabus might change , the airframe might change . Uh But we still , we still need that . Uh so to help communicate those challenges to uh to our folks to , to give them the best information that they can to make decisions for their family and hopefully to , to continue to serve because we do have uh an important , it's a crucial mission because none of the reorganization efforts of the Air Force will work unless uh we at the 3/40 and our uh regular air Force partners continue to produce airmen and pilots that are ready to go out and execute that mission for the great power competition . So uh what we do is is critically important uh so that messaging to our folks to , to help them understand that they're valued that the overall mission is not going away . Uh There might be some , some changes but , you know , give them the best , the best information so that they can make uh the decision hopefully to stay in and continue to uh to serve . Uh that , that's , that's my goal going forward . And it's uh there , there will be challenges as we uh as we change to uh ideally uh present our forces better uh for the next war , vice , what we did for the past 20 years in the global war on terror , uh , which , uh , most of our folks in the 3/40 are veterans of that , we've experienced it . So as we kind of look at a , at a new threat , a new way of fighting that threat . Um , and a new way of training , what I wanna do is , is make sure everybody has the right information , uh , so that we can continue to , to be ready to go , uh , to go to war if we're , if we're called to do that . Well , sir , we're , we're , uh happy to have you here and appreciate your insight , uh , today . And , uh , we , we thank you for your time and , uh , thank you all for listening . Uh , be sure to check out the next podcast as we introduce our first sergeant and delve into the mission that he has at the group . And as a reminder , you can follow the 3/40 Avengers on social media via Facebook , Divis , youtube and linkedin so you can also catch up on the latest news across the command on our website at www 0.3 40 FTG dot A FRC dot A F dot Mill . And from our entire 3/40 Avengers team , I'm Jet Ferra and we'll catch up with you anywhere anytime .