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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFLCMC) - For AFLCMC Command Chief Timothy Wieser, readiness is not a single action item. Rather, the Center’s top enlisted advisor thinks of readiness as both a mindset and a culture. Readiness is a priority that leaders and Airmen jointly must maintain and grow.
Wieser broke down readiness into two buckets: personal and professional.
++ Personal readiness
In Chief Wieser’s eyes, personal readiness means ensuring affairs at home and with loved ones are Settled. Given that Airmen may be called to deploy or take temporary duty assignment (TDY) with little notice, making sure family finances, childcare and related items prepared becomes vital.
Wieser also notes single Airmen need to have plans in place because a deployment or TDY affects their parents, siblings and other family members as well. “No Airman is truly alone - our Airmen with families and without all are part of communities that care about them and their wellbeing,”
Describing his first overseas deployment as “a one striper Airman” in the late 1990s, Wieser remembers how his Staff Sergeant and wife looked out for his professional and personal wellbeing, helping organize finances and other needs. “That resonates with me to this day. I thank them very much because they were looking out for me just like they looked out [for] their children.”
For the Center, Wieser wants younger Airmen to be boosted like he was. “I challenge the frontline supervisors, the commanders, the chief master sergeants” to look after those below them.
++ Professional readiness - physical fitness
Professional readiness, for Chief Wieser, begins with being in shape. “[B]eing physically fit is number one when it comes to professional readiness,” Wieser said in the podcast discussion.
Given that Airmen can be called to deploy or assigned to a TDY at a moment’s notice, which can include austere locations, Airmen “must be physically fit,” otherwise it can impact their fellow wingmen.
Wieser recalled a deployment to Iraq in 2004 when fitness became a real issue. “[W]e needed those wingmen to operate and take care of business,” but they weren’t physically prepared for the daily work in such a demanding environment.
Two decades later, in the fall of 2024, Chief Wieser joined dozens of other senior enlisted leaders to tour several of the austere and physically demanding locations that the United States Air Force is operating in the INDOPACOM theater.
“If you watch any movies on the Pacific, you see it rains a lot. It's very hot. It's very humid,” the Chief said.
“Whether that's the Pacific, the European theater, the Middle East theater, the Arctic theater, it all comes basically back down to, are you ready to go anywhere in the world anytime?”
++ Professional readiness - mental and technical fitness
The Chief’s second professional readiness priority is maintaining mental and technical fitness.
“We have to know our mission and our function very well so we can do what's great if we have to go downrange.”
“[R]eadiness isn't a checkbox,” Wieser said. He encourages Airmen to think of readiness beyond just completing a computer-based training module, or just spending time at the range to maintain weapon skills.
“We have to go fire at the range, but readiness is a mindset. It's a culture,” and it is directly connected to the mentorship and supervision from leadership, ranging from frontline supervisors and commanders in units, all the way to all senior leaders who hold the keys to encouraging readiness in their units, he explained.
“Creating, amplifying, instilling a culture of readiness on a basis of 24/7/365 will make sure our enlisted members and all of our members who wear this jersey [the U.S. Air Force uniform] are ready to go anytime, anywhere.”
| Date Taken: | 12.11.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.11.2024 14:04 |
| Story ID: | 487216 |
| Location: | WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 10 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, AFLCMC Leadership Log Episode 123: Command Chief Wieser on readiness “mindset”, by Joseph Danielewicz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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