Monday Musings -- Time, Tests, & Triumphs

Across the past 19 months, I have sent strategic communications to the part of the Air Force enterprise I lead. (They are named Field Communications, but are strategic-minded missives). The effort was to collapse the communication distance between those operating at the front end of our business, distributed across the globe, to those at the strategic most levels here in The Pentagon. Tighten the teamwork, be relatable and relevant, provide clear pathways for where we are headed and why, and reconstitute the sense of pride within the management engineering teams. (The Air Force calls this Manpower and Organization).

This undertaking was one of the two key challenges my boss wanted me to get after when starting this position. As I head to retirement from Active Duty this coming Friday, I call success. While there is still more to accomplish and advance, I retire from military service knowing that we have made purposeful progress in this area over the past 22 months since I came into this position.

There are, of course, some specifics pertaining to this enterprise, so readers won't all know what our "Five Truths" are. They are the five key tenets under which we operation and guide the delivery of our workforce solutions and delivered analyses. Sharing the original, unaltered, message here as it does capture where my head and heart are as this chapter in my life closes.

Mighty Manpower & Organizational Enterprise!

Writing to you this month is a bittersweet effort.

Bitter being my last Field Communication prior to retiring Friday, and my last opportunity to engage the entire community.

Sweet in knowing how much I’ve witnessed you accomplishing across the Department of the Air Force and beyond.

Within this month’s missive, we focus on Time, Tests, and Triumphs.

TIME

Reflecting on three decades of military service over these past few months, the speed at which they have gone by, and how richly rewarding they have been has given me pause. Pause to really stop and appreciate the opportunities the Air Force provided. The people with whom I’ve worked. The experiences I will carry with me the rest of my days. Many years ago, my father said to me that I could be in rooms with doctors, lawyers, well known people, captains of industry, but because of what you have done, are doing, and will do in uniform, you are likely the most interesting person in the room.

Certainly, some mornings I feel every bit of those years and the ardor of many of them given all we’ve experienced and efforted over those same years in defense of our Nation. It is not at all lost on me how important the next few years will be to the continuation of what we have all come to appreciate within our Constitutional Republic, free society, and the blessings of liberty. Time is a resource, but one that is expended and elapses whether or not we choose to use it wisely. Some days, I am a much better at using it for best benefits. Other days, I wonder where the minutes went and what, if anything was accomplished.

Very much like how the cartoonist, Bil Keane, most famous for his comic Family Circus, thought about time. He wrote, “Yesterday’s past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” A gift or present is not really either if we don’t accept it and put it to use. Through this lens, not only is time a precious gift, the reminder of it as a present is a call to action. To consciously use the 86,400 seconds we have every 24 hours.

TESTS

During a conversation with my wife just days ago, I was wondering aloud if the right time to retire is now. Not because we’re not personally ready, we are. Rather, when considering this era of Great Power Competition, what’s continuing in Ukraine, and most recent activities in the Middle East, there is more I think I can contribute to the team. Alas, these challenges are no longer my tests … directly. In my next chapter, I know for certain I will be continuing to support our Air Force, and the Department of Defense, just as a civilian in the private sector. My upcoming tests will be different from those faced in years past. For members of our enterprise who have more than a few weeks or months remaining, your tests will continue to be pressing.

Winston Churchill is someone whose leadership, particularly and most notably during World War II, I have specifically studied. In that era of Great Power Competition, he opined openly about tests being continuous rather than finite. Speaking to the British House of Commons on 13 May 1940, just three days after becoming Prime Minister, and about 8 months after Britain had declared war on Germany, he shared; “Every day you make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” I implore you, as you continue providing leaders with data-driven, risk-informed workforce solutions at the speed of relevance, and as you continue embracing, embodying, and executing our Five Truths, you do so understanding we have limited time, and we will continue to face tests necessitating both our expertise and endurance.

TRIUMPHS

General George S. Patton, when talking about “tests”, or what he refers to as challenges, cleaves to the heart of why accepting them is so beneficial. He wrote, “Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory”. Stated differently, when we embrace and endure the difficulties and deadlines before us, the triumphs on the other side are all the more enjoyable than accumulating only easy successes. Across the past 30 years wearing this uniform, I have experienced that over and again. Some of the darkest and most demanding days led me to new sunrises, awaking awash in the light of the most triumphant, and cherished, accomplishments. Use your time well; tackle the tests, and you will reap the rewards.

Thank you for choosing to serve. The safety and security of our Nation is greatly impacted by the work you do.

Across the 22 months I’ve been blessed to lead this enterprise, you have meaningfully and mightily impacted, influenced, and improved me.

I can think of no better place or position from which to close my military career than with you.

My very best to each and every one of you.

With abiding appreciation,

Gen C

SHAWN W. CAMPBELL, Brigadier General, USAF