Commentary: 45 Days and Counting until the UCI ... Where do we go from here?

  • Published
  • By Col. Scott Jarvis
  • 18th Civil Engineer Group
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Over the past several months, you've read articles by a wide variety of leaders across the wing all with the intent to motivate, inspire, and encourage us to focus our energies, leadership, and effort on the same goal: Ace the Unit Compliance Inspection.

Why do you think it's important for us to be focused on the same goal? As a focused, proud team with a winning attitude and attention-to-detail, pulling in the same direction, we can achieve our goal and continue the proud Shogun heritage of phenomenal IG inspection results. In short, we drive our own inspection outcome through effort, pride and attitude. If we're not focused on the same goal...we, as individuals and units doing our own thing, drift aimlessly..."hoping" to do well in August. It is never easy...but anything worth doing well never is. With 45 days to go before we begin the 2009 Pacific Air Forces UCI, it's time to head down the final stretch ... and control our own destiny. Where do we go from here?

Around the 18th Wing, there is a flurry of action as we continue to hone our compliance programs and "close out" any "open" findings from prior inspections and evaluations. All those efforts continue to require hard work and attention-to-detail and are vital to our core responsibility to comply with higher headquarters guidance and directives and United States and Japanese laws...and those actions are absolutely critical to our collective success during the UCI. However, we should quickly be coming to an end of this stage of our preparations and be moving into the final stage that is most affected by strong, active leadership. By that, I mean, reinforcing what we already have: 1. A fierce sense of pride in our Wing and its mission. 2. A legacy of a winning attitude.

PRIDE

It starts with you. It starts with me. Pride is personal; it is visible ... it is contagious. An individual displaying pride affects the morale and professionalism within their immediate workcenter...and can have a cascading affect on other workcenters and entire units. We see it every day in our emergency first responders...Defenders, Medics, Firefighters and Explosive Ordinance Disposal warriors ... they are always there...with outstanding uniforms, cool confidence, and professionalism ... in short, pride. We see pride every day as aircraft crew chiefs send their pilots out with a safe jet and a sharp salute. We also see it in far less visible places all over this wing amongst our military and civilian workforce.

As individuals, we do not need to wait on our supervisors to show us how to be proud and display a sense of pride. Trust me, supervisors can sometimes learn as much about pride and leadership from their subordinates as they can from their peers and superiors. Pride is not cocky ... it is not boastful, nor egotistical. Don't confuse pride with conceit as that can surely lead to overconfidence.

Pride goes hand-in-hand with integrity and professionalism and is essential in order to have a winning attitude. Pride is how we wear our uniforms and haircuts, how we execute military customs and courtesies, how our workcenters appear clean, organized and safe, how our facilities and grounds appear neat and free of trash and debris. Pride is how we greet our UCI inspectors by standing up when they enter our workcenters, it is how we have all our documents and programs ready and accessible for their evaluation. Be sharp, be responsible ... take ownership of your individual pride and it will be contagious in your unit.

Pride is a characteristic of champions ... of warriors ... and Shoguns. We have so much to be proud of as forward-deployed Airmen: we are amazing as we continue to deploy and fight our nation's wars, while at the same time ensuring the defense of Japan and stability of the strategic Western Pacific region. What we do is unbelievable to the average American. We are our "... nation's sword and shield, its sentry and avenger." Let your pride show...let our pride show ... and a winning attitude will follow.

WINNING ATTITUDE

Pride alone is not enough. A winning attitude is founded in a sense of individual and unit pride ... they co-exist. A winning attitude is not satisfied to rest on past laurels, but rather, keeps striving to improve and ensure we continue the "legacy of winning" on our watch. Enthusiasm and positive energy are as contagious as pride and directly affect our confidence and winning attitude.

Do you plan on having your sharpest Airmen ready to meet and greet the Inspectors when they roll up on your workcenter? What sort of first impression do you intend to set? What sort of attention-to-detail is apparent in your workcenter? Does your workcenter appear neat, clean and orderly or does it need a serious "Spring Cleaning?" Are your bulletin boards up-to-date? Do you intend and are you prepared to proactively fix potential inspection findings on-the-spot, whenever possible? Have you considered what potential "best practices" or "outstanding performers" you intend to showcase? As a supervisor or commander, have you taken a passive or active leadership role as you prepare for the UCI? I encourage you to be an active leader, now more than ever. All these questions are important as they collectively affect and display the pride and attitude of yourself, your subordinates and your unit...and the answers will be transparent to the Inspector General team in August.

In combination, pride and a winning attitude create the foundations for success in any organization. So when the PACAF Inspector General team arrives in 45 days...let our pride and winning attitude ring out from every corner of this installation. It's time to sharpen our focus. Make a positive difference and nail the UCI to the wall!