Leaders stress importance of excellence

Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. — Keeping the Air Force’s promise to America, to the joint team and to airmen and their families was the focus of Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, during an Aug. 22 visit to Malmstrom Air Force Base.

Acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley and General Schwartz visited base members, and the general said his decision to visit the 341st Missile Wing was no accident. 

Institutionally, he said, the Air Force has lost focus in the nuclear mission over the past 20 years.

“This business is all about precision. Perfection in this business is the standard,” the general said during an Airmen’s Call here.

“The reason we have buddies in this business is so the teammate can question the work and catch the mistake,” he said.  “This is teamwork. This is striving for perfection. This is recognizing that being the steward of the nation’s most lethal weapon is a profound honor.”

Airmen should never measure their worth by the proximity to the frontlines, and the people who support national defense from the homeland create the backdrop for all else that occurs, Gen. Schwartz said.

“This is a family business and we are all important,” he said. “No discipline or job is more important than the other. Whatever discipline you represent or specialty or job you may have; everyone matters. Every single one.”

It is important to refocus on precision, reliability, teamwork and respect for compliance, and that all these components are vital to the intercontinental ballistic missile mission; a mission the 341st MW has provided around-the-clock since 1961, to maintain the nation’s strategic deterrent capability, he said.

“We need to keep our promises,” Gen. Schwartz said. “This entails reinvigorating and reemphasizing compliance in all manner of things. There’s a level of excellence that we are going to strive for. Together, that’s what we must do. Everyone matters. Everyone counts and everyone’s in. Send me! Send me downrange or send me to a launch control facility. Send me ... because that is our legacy.”

The mission of the 341st MW was showcased to Secretary Donley and Gen. Schwartz during their stay. They flew to a missile alert facility and launch control center east of the base in a UH-1N Huey helicopter. They saw the above-ground working and living conditions of the crews, as well as the control center situated below the ground and ate a meal with crewmembers who were on alert.

Gen. Schwartz said he believes that “how you do it” is just as important as “what you do,” and that this focus or work ethic has been forgotten. The on-site visit to the Malmstrom AFB missile field showed the secretary and the chief of staff all the moving parts needed to make the mission succeed.

“I think of it like brain surgery,” the general said. “A surgeon would not be experimenting on such a very delicate procedure, and nuclear enterprise is one of those areas where a distinction must be made.”

Gen. Schwartz also stressed that everyone at each level of his or her career, even the youngest airman, is a leader and each person has a responsibility to him or herself, to his or her team and to the Air Force.

“We need to remember our oath because that oath changed us,” he said. “We swear an oath to the Constitution and with that, everything changes; including us. We made a solemn promise and it requires the best in each of us. And so, I consider myself unbelievably fortunate to share our service together.”