Learning, leading and teaching opportunities repeat throughout career paths

  • Published
  • By Col. David Penny
  • 436th Airlift Wing Program Integration chief
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Recently, I heard a quote, "What you do for yourself dies with you...what you do for others lives forever." 

The quote brought up some interesting memories for me on mentorship and leadership I have learned throughout my lifetime. 

In high school, my band director offered me a position as the baritone sax player in the jazz band. I had planned on quitting the same day prior to him making the offer; however, I accepted. Somehow, he knew giving me the opportunity to lead the bass section would enhance my leadership ability; consequently, I learned. 

In Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, my professor of Aerospace Studies offered me a chance to take the lead in two organizations. I had planned to just coast through college. Somehow, he knew I was the right person at the right time and that giving me the opportunity to lead those groups would enhance my leadership ability. I accepted, and I learned more. 

At my first flying unit, it was a little different. On the flight back from a major exercise, my aircraft commander spent three hours chewing me out for being a lazy follower.
When he was through sputtering every expletive he could conjure, he said, "So I guess you don't want to be on my crew for the operational readiness inspection, do you?"
My response, "Why not?" 

Over the next six months, he taught me the meaning of aviator and instilled in me a dedication to excellence I never thought I could attain. Almost overnight, I was the preferred co-pilot for pilot check-rides - 15 in one year! 

Later, I went to the Air Force Institute of Technology and was introduced to an economics professor only recently hired by Air Education and Training Command. Fifty eight years outside of the DoD, he had a lot to learn about the way the Air Force functioned. At first it seemed he had little to instill in our class, but we all soon began to realize his life story was far more than supply and demand curves. We listened, he listened and we all grew from it. I learned that it doesn't take a "true-blue" person to teach future leaders. 

Finally, after five years on staff when I returned to fly, I became the mentor for a whole new batch of future leaders. Suddenly, I was playing the role of that band director, aircraft commander and professor - all at the same time. It was then that I realized the meaning of the phrase that sparked my memories. 

As I look back on a long career, I see the truth to the parable: mentorship is neither fad nor cliché. Over and over again, I have been lucky enough to have mentors take me under their wing and teach me what it meant to be a leader and what it meant to lead. Later, I was awe-struck by the odd coincidence as I became them: mentor, leader and teacher. 

That's not just the way life is, that's the way our Air Force is. In a couple of short decades, each of us transitions from student to teacher, taker to giver, protégé to master. 

Every one of us either is, or will be, a leader in the greatest Air Force in History.
So remember what you do for yourself will not live on, but what you do for our future leaders will live forever!