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Over The Coffeecups
Warren Mitchell - Editor
TODAY'S
PROGRAM
Ken Carrick will introduce Hannah Williams,
Executive Director of Parents in Education. Mrs. Williams
spoke to the Club approximately 2 years ago. Since then she
has changed her name by marriage. Ken will fill in more
details about her and the theme of her talk.
LAST
WEEKS PROGRAM
Past
President George Wilson introduced Colonel Tom Hall,
who spoke to us on "Leadership". Col. Hall is finishing his
30 year career in the Air Force at the Air War College,
Maxwell AFB, as Chairman of the Department of Leadership and
Ethics. George said he arrive at the Air War College the same
time he did, with him retiring in 1995 and Col. Hall going to
Europe. He caught up with Col. Hall since then when he
returned to the War College. George said Col. Hall has flown
just about everything the Air Force has in the way of
aircraft.
Col. Hall asked if there
were many in the Club who were retired military. He asked if
we knew of the War College. In the 5 years he has been on the
faculty teaching "Leadership", it has been a great privilege.
He has been able to speak directly to 1300 senior officers
from 70 countries. He has taught leadership at the War
College, which is a tough job teaching leadership to officers
who think they are leaders. They wouldn't be there; Lt.
Cols., Cols., and Navy Capts. from all services from different
countries, if they weren't good leaders. It was a real
challenge to keep ahead of them during this time. He said
"You have been successful leading as Lt. Cols. and Cols, but
there are other things ahead of you", that is they try to keep
them focused at an institutional level.
It being a little early, he
told us a story called "Leading Airman Edgar". It's a
favorite story of his 30 years in the Air Force. He asked if
everyone had seen the movie "The Right Stuff". If so it will
make sense, because there is a pecking order about flyers; a
pyramid, but it's really about American life. There is a
pecking order in everything you do in life. In the Air Force
at the top of the pecking order were the astronauts, below
them the test pilots, then the fighter pilots. In the movie
you always wanted to fly the hot stuff, to be at the top of
the pyramid. His first job in the Air Force was a B-52
electric warfare officer. In the pecking order you have to go
down a long way to the B-52. He was assigned to Loring AFB in
Maine. Even though he was far down in the order, there was
still someone else to look down on. You looked down on
tankers, because they, the B-52's, carried nuclear bombs and
were on alert. They looked down on the tankers that refueled
them, the KC-135 guys. The lowest of
the low were the enlisted "Boom
Operators" that lay on their stomachs and fed the fuel. One
boom operator was Airman Edgar, whom he would never forget.
Airman Edgar's wife worked with his wife, so they got
together. Edgar was short, and his hair, mustache and eye
brows were out of limits and he had an obnoxious laugh. You
could hear him laugh from one end of the facility to the
other. Everyday you had to walk past the boom operators,
sitting on a couch, doing nothing; flapping their arms like
wings. As a young Lt., he and his wife had dinner with them a
couple of times. After a couple of years they saw the Edgars
in the hall saying good-bye. It seems that Airman Edgar had
finished college in 4 years and was going off to become an
officer.
His first lesson for us out
of Airman Edgar's story is that is the job of a leader to
recognize and bring out the best in people. There were a lot
of Lts. up there; they had the best education. He had to get
2 years of education just to get qualified to fly in the
B-52's. They should have been the role models for the young
boom operators, but instead they looked down on them. Good
leaders create good leaders.
Andy Rooney wrote a story
about going back to his high school reunion. He said he met a
guy that nobody knew and no one liked. The only reason Andy
Rooney knew who he was, was because his name began with an
"R". He went up to talk to the guy and asked him what he
did. The guy replied he was a heart surgeon.
We judge people by a pecking
order. How they look, etc. and how cruel it is in our
society. The cruelest time was in Jr. High School when people
judged you on things that were not important.
When it comes to being your
best, your friends can be your worst enemy. Lt. Edgar had
gone through officers training and was now an air controller.
Now the boom operators would not talk to him, he said.
His job after War College
was in Europe and then for 2 years was the Group Commander at
Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C. He was in charge of
the honor guard and bands at Arlington Cemetery. All those
things you saw at President Reagan's funeral, he was in charge
of. They practiced that state funeral plan a lot.
He interviewed all the
people in the honor guard when they came in, and asked them
why they entered the service. They all said to get an
education. He found only 2% of the men in the honor guard
were enrolled in educational courses. He encouraged them to
get an education as the service was paying for it. The young
first line supervisors, Staff Sgts., came up to him and said
all the people signing up for classes. These people are
heading for a fall; they're not meant to go to college. He
should have told them that everyone should follow their dream
and try to succeed. When you tell someone
your dream, they
immediately tell you, you can't do it. The
bottom line for success is up to you.
He was a squadron commander
and had a pilot speak to them about the Stealth fighter in
1993. The speaker was Lt. Col. Steve Edgar. He had gone to
flight school and was selected for the fighters. He had gone
from the lowest to the highest you could possibly go in the
pecking order.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ken Carrick reminded
those who signed up for the RSVP luncheon, scheduled for
August 11th, it has been changed back to September 15th, the
original date. The Civic Center said construction will begin
after September. He asked for volunteers to sign up.
A Club assessment will be
held July 8th.
The next Board meeting will
be July 12th at Al McLellan's office.
ENTERTAINMENT
Al McLellan gave a
test for old timers, completing old sayings. "Get your kicks
on", Route 66, "When the masked man rode off, he left on", a
silver bullet. "In the might jungle", the lion sleeps
tonight. What takes a lickin and keeps on tickin? Timex. A
car with the engine in the back is a VW and it's called;
beetle or bug.
LAST
WEEK'S GUESTS
Frank
Wells had his wife, Jean, as his guest.
Warren Mitchell had
his daughter, Terri, join him for breakfast. She
assists him greatly in putting out the weekly newsletter.
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