Photo By Senior Master Sgt. William Buchanan | The Enlisted Field Advisory Council addresses a broad spectrum of enlisted Airmen from...... read more read more
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In an auditorium filled with chief master sergeants, Airman 1st Class Kyle Coggins, from the 188th Wing, Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, stood among his peers and addressed Chief Master Sgt. James W. Hotaling, the command chief of the Air National Guard.
Hotaling identified Coggins as the youngest Airman present at the event, and asked him if he wanted to make it to the rank of chief or general. When Coggins answered yes, Hotaling pointed to the presentation slide containing the secret he had learned during his 30-year career.
“There’s your secret to life,” Hotaling said. “Zero talent required, 100% effort. That’s it. Get your head in the game, do that stuff and the world is at your feet."
The slide identified nine things that require zero talent, such as having passion, being on time, and putting in effort, among others. Hotaling said this was the first level of professional development, and everything else grew from there.
This is exactly the type of unfiltered communication Hotaling desired from the hundreds of Airmen in attendance at the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base here, Apr. 17.
A broad spectrum of enlisted Airmen attended the event to voice their questions and concerns directly with the command chief master sergeants and other senior enlisted leaders representing the 54 states, territories and the District of Columbia.
"So often you find that people will ask you what you think and not really want the answers,” said Airman Tiffany Clark, a public affairs photojournalist with the 110th Attack Wing at Kellogg Air National Guard Base in Battle Creek, Michigan. "I got to stand up and speak my mind and say stuff that I was really feeling, and they accepted it with an open mind."
Hotaling said this professional development was designed to ask the hard questions of the Air National Guard, and to help answer those questions. He invited Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James A. Cody to specifically address how the Air National Guard fits into the United States Air Force.
Cody spent an hour fielding questions from Airmen about professional military education, performance evaluations and the challenges Guardsmen face as citizen Airmen.
"I worry about the collective impact of what we’re asking people to do – the service, the sacrifice, the toll it's taking on that individual and their family,” said Cody. "The mere fact that you’re sitting next to a man or a woman that by five o’clock this afternoon is committed to getting on an airplane and go anywhere in the world that we would ask you to go, taking a weapon and putting your life on the line for somebody you don’t even know…that is a phenomenal, phenomenal thing.”
To address the real-world challenges voiced by the 91,000 Airmen enlisted in the Guard, Hotaling also invited members of the Enlisted Field Advisory Council to speak.
The frank environment allowed Airmen of all ranks to speak candidly on the issues they cared about most. By putting aside rank, the forum encouraged honest dialogue and helped unearth issues that leadership can now resolve.
"It was a very humbling experience to witness the senior leaders really care about their corps and the troops,” Clark said. "It’s an experience that I will never forget."
| Date Taken: | 04.21.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2016 09:32 |
| Story ID: | 196096 |
| Location: | MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 421 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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