Rejoining Team Dover

  • Published
  • By Col. John Knack
  • 436th Maintenance Group commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  My family and I are thrilled to rejoin Team Dover, to live and serve and share life with the many proud professionals who call this base home. We served here from 2000 to 2002 and I have been pleased to get reacquainted with many of you who continue to serve with distinction and contribute to our nation’s defense.

I am excited to command and lead professional Airmen who each day embody the Air Force’s Core Values of Integrity, Service and Excellence; these demanding standards are foundational to our success. At my recent commander’s calls, I elaborated on what our Core Values mean to Port Dawgs and maintainers, and I would like to share with all of you how I envision us living them out.

I picture the following core competencies as five pillars whereby we will strive to not only live out the Core Values but also execute and sustain Air Mobility Command’s Rapid Global Mobility. We will live up to the Wing’s motto and will Deliver Excellence through:

SAFETY – We are America’s warriors and professionals, responsible to each other and to the American people for many billions of dollars in resources. We will assume the appropriate risk at the right level in order to keep Airmen in the fight, preserve these resources, and maximize combat effectiveness. Sometimes that means we have to know when to stop a task and request assistance, seek engineering disposition, or request the appropriate commander sign their name to a risk management decision. I have already done that a couple times in my first two weeks to ensure safety and continue to move our mission forward.

COMPLIANCE – As logisticians and maintainers, our Airmen are disciplined. We are responsible for critical daily compliance issues like following technical orders, tool control and obeying all lawful orders, directives and policies. Because we work in a busy industrial complex, these requirements are non-negotiable. Repairing and generating our aircraft and preparing and certifying cargo as airworthy are literally matters of life and death for ourselves, flight crews, passengers and other customers, and everyone can count on us to do the job right every time.

READINESS - By being safe and compliant in all we do, we will maximize personnel and equipment availability and be ready to respond to any tasking. I do not know when our next combat, contingency or humanitarian tasking will come, but I must expect that it will come today. We will be ready to deploy individually or together because we stress readiness through Comprehensive Airman Fitness (physical, mental, social and spiritual), superior competency through training and education, caring for families and striking an appropriate work/life balance.

INITIATIVE – The 436th Maintenance Group has a reputation for groundbreaking innovation. We just shared the results of recent Continuous Process Improvement events with other groups around Air Mobility Command so they can learn from our tried and true principles and increase equipment availability and decrease maintenance requirements. We have plenty more good ideas to share and projects underway, and I would like to share some of these with you in future issues. By continuing to seek out efficiencies and being true self-starters, we will boldly lead transformation and develop even more innovative logistics and maintenance concepts. By doing so, we will safely, effectively execute our mission and recoup Airmen's time.

FIERCE COOPERATION – I like friendly competition as much as anyone, but even more I embrace fierce cooperation. I know that I am part of a world class team of teams that fosters camaraderie and trust, and our Airmen will do whatever is required to help others thrive and succeed. We must continue to build trust at an individual level, between teams and shops, squadrons and groups. We epitomize Total Force integration among components and wings, and celebrate mutual respect and teamwork with our community partners. We value every Airman's vital contributions to our mission, friendly competition and strong communication. We will Deliver Excellence united here at Dover and around the globe.

Did I mention that Tricia, our kids and I are happy to be back at Dover? I know I did but I’ll say it again. I am proud to be an American Airman and to join this world class team of professionals. I hope you take time to reflect on how you can apply these principles, regardless of your work center or mission set. I look forward to meeting and serving with you as I am out and around the base!