- Roger, 3087 approaching runway seven, bravo. - The Air Force has announced the creation of a new information operations technical training school. - The first command, simply must arm our airmen to out-think, outperform, out-partner, out-innovate any potential adversary. - Air Force basic military training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and lethality. - The first command, The Air Force Starts Here. (banging) - Hey everybody, welcome in episode 34 of the podcast on the second of this two part series on developmental special duties. And thanks for the subscribed stream or download, however you might be listening into The Air Force Starts Here. We're out there on Spotify, Google Play and Apple podcasts. So no matter where you are, you can give us a listen. You can also catch us on the AETC website as well. I'm Dan Hawkins from the AETC public affairs team and your host for this professional development podcast dedicated to bringing total force, big airman insight tips, tricks, and lessons learned from the recruiting, training and education worlds. And like I mentioned, we're piggybacking a bit today on episode 33, finishing our look into developmental special duties specifically at the 37th Training Wing, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, of course, home to Air Force basic military training, as well as a wide range of other technical training and even an international aspect with the IAAFA Academy being right there at Lackland, as well as DLI. So lots of different aspects to the 37th Training Wing, which of course is why they need military training leaders, which is what we're gonna talk about today. Our last episode focused on the military training instructors. And so for today, we turn our attention to the MTLs who play a key role in renewing our air and space forces, and the critical of course, to our ability to defend the nation as we generate our new airmen. Of course the Gateway Wing got a new commander. We mentioned on the last podcast, Colonel Rocky Wilson took command a few weeks ago, and he uses the word TRAIN as the wing's mantra, which stands for "Trust Our Resilient Airmen to Innovate and Nurture." And of course the Warhawks, train to win. And so valuing force generation being such a hot priority right now, as we look to enhance our lethality and readiness here at AATC, and from General Webb on down to Chief Thompson and everyone in our leadership positions, ensuring the men and women who are recruiting, training and educating our exceptional airmen, and making sure that they feel valued, and that the assignment in a role such as military training leader or a military training instructor is valued in one's career is very high on the priority list. And so to dive deeper into what being an MTL is like at the 37th Training Wing. And for the second consecutive episode, I might add, we have a super sub on the interview, Chief Master Sergeant Stephen Blazer, the Command Chief for the Gateway Wing, sat down with some of his MTLs to talk about their experiences in this critical DSD assignment. And to recap again, the DSD assignments which are for staff, technical and master sergeants to give them an opportunity to develop through service and roles outside of their core Air Force specialty for up to three to four years. And it's such a wonderful opportunity to grow and meet people from different AFSCs, and to really have such an impact on these airmen who are coming in just like sponges, soaking up knowledge about the Air Force in their first venture into our Air Force family. And to ensure that we get the highest quality airmen to serve in these roles, the DSD process requires a nomination where commanders go through their respective MAJCOMs to nominate their best airmen to fill in these critical positions while providing those airmen a developmental career path. And so Chief Blazer will talk with his MTLs about how they learned about the importance of the role of being an MTL, not only for them, but for their airmen as well, as well as how the DSD assignment as an MTL has directly resulted in their leadership growth. The lessons that they've learned from a mentorship perspective along the way, and much more. So let's go direct to our military training leader, professionals, episode 34 of the Air Force Starts Here launches right now. (whooshing) - Well, hello everybody. This is Chief Blazer here, 37th Training Wing Command Chief. And I have with me a group that I'm just super excited for them to kinda share their experiences, share their stories, and that is some of our Warhawk military training. There's our MTLS. Our blue ropes, I mean, that's (audio breaking up) five, but I will tell you, these are just amazing NCOs. And what I wanna be able to do, is for those who maybe are outside of that different communities across the Air Force, and you maybe thought about becoming an MTL or thought about submitting yourself or developmental duty. I want you to hear directly from people who are doing it. So we have a group today. I'm gonna ask you if you could just please introduce yourself, the squadron you're in. So let everybody know kinda what the technical training school that is, what your hometown is, and then favorite food. - Staff Sergeant Matthew Don. 37th training group. Grew up in Tavares, Florida and Linden, Texas. I'm gonna say a barbecue. - Barbecue. And who are you with? - 37th Training Group. - 37th Training Group. What school specifically? You're at the group now, right? - Correct. - But you were with security forces for a while. - I was for juniors. - Okay, part of Hula Nation, okay. Sergeant Horton. - I'm Technical Sergeant Nathan Horton. I'm at the 37th Training Squadron, and I work as the airman transition assistant. And I've also been an MTL at the 343rd security forces training squadron. I'm from Dayton, Ohio, and my (audio breaking up). - Okay, and for both of you, real quick, what are your previous professions? - I was the aircraft maintenance. - Aircraft maintenance. - Security forces. - Security forces. - I am Staff Sergeant Dustin Pavlenko from the 344 (audio breaking up). We're a school of 13 different AFSCs, everything from contracting to special mission aviation. I was originally from Gillette, Wyoming, a small town of 30,000, compared to the rest of the world. Favorite food is pork Tenderloin. - Pork Tenderloin. Okay, all right, fantastic. Ma'am. - I am staff Sergeant Erica Beavers. I am from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I am currently at the 737th training support squadron, and BMT as a hold over MTL. My favorite food would have to be lasagna. - Lasagna, okay. Cool, man, I realize that we have military training leaders in BMT, so we can probably talk about that a little bit more, right? - Yes sir. - But lasagna. - Lasagna. - Like white sauce, red sauce, what kind? - Red sauce. - Red sauce, okay, all right. (laughing) - Hello, Sergeant Tikia Christiansen. I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York. I currently work as a MTL, the 343rd training squadron with security forces, and my favorite food is meatloaf. - Meatloaf. Oh man, I'm hungry now. (laughing) Okay. I'm hungry to actually hear some more of your stories. So what I wanna talk about is there's people out there. How did you even get here, right? So how did you become training leaders? Did somebody have a conversation with you? Were you just anxious to do it? How did you go from where you were in your prior job to actually getting here today? - I actually got a email while I was on leave to go on tours of schools, colleges, and I came back from leave with emails saying I was working for DSD. And that's when the decision point, am I gonna stay in the Air Force doing DSD job as an MTL or continue on with education? - So you're thinking about getting out. - I was, yes. - Okay. - I kinda came in that window where I had to choose, pretty much I think I had about 30 days to decide if I wanted to become an MTL, or sit up where I was at Little Rock Air Force base for a year until my time was over. And I actually did have a talk with my superintendent, an aircraft maintenance squadron and he guiding me, the positives and the negatives, how's it gonna better my future, what am I gonna do with that when I get out. So pretty much had long conversation. He was the prior recruiter in MTL at Keesler. So he kinda gave me the in and outs and everything, and I kinda made a decision from there. - Wow. Yeah, it's I think a lot of (audio breaking up) these people they don't wanna leave the team, right? And the maintenance MS is one of those kinda very tribal, a lot of pride. Was it tough for you to leave? - It was. And it was actually pretty tough being here 'cause day in and day out I was on aircraft every day. Now I'm dealing with insane. Not just a couple of students, but I'm talking, we have 1400 in the squad- - Say that again, how many? - 1400. - 1400. I don't know if people realize like that's 1,400 students. I mean, you should see, they're like a sea of airmen that we have. The ratio is about anywhere from one to 60, to almost one to a hundred, depending on what school it's in as far as MTL to student ratio. So you're saying. - And whenever I got, there were flights of maybe two teams. I was pushing two whenever I got there after about a month or two, where we have a team of 100 airmen, and they're spaced out between training, you have each individual airmen and their arm is to PCS and what they need. - Staffs are doing this, yeah. You weren't used to that. - Was not. 'Cause (indistinct), still is. - Yeah, I think developmentally, I just want everybody to kinda pause and think about that, as far as this experience. I don't want to kind of expand on your experiences NCOs and that's been on you, but let me think about that in terms of leadership experience. I mean, you have to be able to be around people with different situations and different challenges to be able to get that experience, but I've met master sergeants who had never supervised anybody before, and these men and women around me right now, I have to be able to look very young airman in the eye. And I say young and their experience, maybe not young in their age and be able to be there for them and connect with them. And I think it's truly magical. And it takes a skill that you had to cultivate. So anybody else? For you to get here today, what was your story? - So my experience was similar to Sergeant Don's. I actually had my eye on an ALS position. I was shadowing the instructors there, had interview with a commandant. And when we went back to my office and checked my email, and surprise! Nevermind, MTL. - That was your thinking. (laughing) - Right. So that's kinda how I found out. And then someone who worked across the hall, she was actually an MTL as well at Keesler. And she kinda sat me down and showed me the ropes and kinda gave me that mentorship advise on how to be successful as an MTL. - How crucial was that for her to be able to pivot you to say, listen, I've been there before, let me put you at ease on this. And then those same skills you wanted to kinda exercise. You could still make a difference to people. How important is it? - Absolutely, very important. I definitely think she set me up for success by telling me what to expect. She let me know that it's gonna be completely different. And she was absolutely right. Especially coming from a medical career field to security forces, completely different careers. So having that opportunity to sit down with her was definitely important. - Yeah. What's her name? - Well, she's actually Lieutenant now, Lieutenant Valdez. - Well, shout out to Lieutenant Valdez. Thank you so much. - Thank you. - Awesome. - My choice was actually a two minute phone call. I was about to leave my section to go do a couple of work orders. I'm CE by trade. The phone call was (indistinct). Hey, you leaving Cunson lines up perfectly with the DSD slot you're on the go. So I was going off a bit of a mentorship I received from an old supervisor of mine who funny enough is also an officer Lieutenant in the army. The best way to make rank in my career field, which is pest management, is to get out of the career field and take the dive because the best way to get recognition in a career field that is probably the third smallest in the Air Force, 200 people at most currently, the only way to get that recognition is to do something else. And that's a good bit of advice I've lived by. I've done (audio breaking up) contracts, ran based pride at Joys Bay Drew's during the presidential inauguration. And now I'm back here at Lackland dealing with 344 where we're dealing, we'll see airman at the 344th. There'll be here for two weeks. There are pipelines, they'll start two weeks at 344 and then they'll be gone off to Randolph, Presidio, Monterey, Goodfellow. So we see a rotation. For example, our brother squadron 343 will have airmen for three months. We have airman for two weeks. Our rotation is, we put out more airmen a year compared to 343. So that face time, first interaction, it's just fleeting. So we have to put an amount of time we try and do the biggest amount of impact we can possibly do. - Yeah, where am I kinda understands too, even though that might be a little jab to 343, but that's fine. No, I'm just kidding. But my point in that is both of them, the key is, it's kinda silly sometimes we compare missions, but it would be irrelevant to the mission you have. And both of you just taking the time to kinda realize, like to understand the dynamics of your mission. like you talked about Dustin. And that's a learning curve in itself. People realize there's a hundred persons on each team. And we got like 13 courses going through at a time at the Defenders Academy, right? To build student forces airman. And your point about the tech schools they have in the 44. So any given moment you could look up and you could have somebody who's maybe there for a couple months or a couple of weeks, and you gotta be able to very quickly 'cause any one of them could have an issue that you need to kind of be aware of. And you've gotta build a relationship with them. And I think that's key. One thing I wanna add on too brought up is, sometimes I think at the NCO level, they haven't yet been introduced to the idea of breadth, right? So we get to technical depth a lot, we talk about that, but breath, you guys know what that means. So having the experience. What does that mean right? - Like a variety. - Yeah, right? Now, we've heard the explanation Jack of all trades, right? Master of none, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, when I have somebody who's talented, I gotta continue to nature them, and then especially what I started to see. So when I was a technical Sergeant, if somebody told me that I did something wrong, how do you think I would react? When I was a technical Sergeant? They're like, hey, Sergeant Blazer, you messed that up. How do you think I would react to it? - Defensive. - Very defensive. That's exactly right. So you could read me very well. See how fast you can read people? I got super duper about it, right? 'Cause I considered myself a master of my craft. I was like, hey, nobody can check me on this. As a chief, if somebody says, hey, Chief Blazer, you did that wrong. What do you think I'd say now how? - How? - How, right? It's changed. It's a hundred percent change because I have many different responsibilities now, right? What's important is to understand that there's some career you realize you're gonna have a breadth of responsibility that's so much larger. So what I need to be able to do when I'm developing you to be an NCO, to be a senior NCO one day is introduce you to those different experiences, and allow you to realize that I don't want you to be, you've heard the analogy, a one trick pony. I need you to be able to do excel in different environments and not just to prove it to the Air Force, but to prove it to yourself, right? To prove it to yourself. And that's what I hear when I hear you talk about that. It's like, I wanna be challenged for me. In my time, how long have you been? - I've been, this September will be nine years. - Yeah, but I hear that kinda thirst to say, hey, listen, I wanna do things, I wanna do things that are meaningful and impactful. But I just wanna encourage you all. It's so important to be able to kinda get out there and challenge yourself. And I know for a fact, this job is doing that. So hold over airmen. You wanna talk about that a little bit. MTLs and BMT. - MTLs and BMT. Yes, sir. We do basically everything that the MTIs do of getting them in process, out process, running their PT, doing their living area inspections. We do it from time (audio breaking up) from the time they leave to make sure that they're either gone to tech school or they're being ELs to go home. And it's very different being in BMT as MTL. - Now, you were an MCL somewhere else. I was at the 343rd. - You were hooked up. - Yes, sir. Being a 343rd MTL and being a 737th trust MTL is completely different. For the 343rd, you're hands on. You're deep into it all. As to where being at the 737th, you're in it, but you have to scale back to some degree because you're not in that tech training environment- - Right, 'cause they're still at basic military training, right? - Yes. - And I know we talked about this last week a little bit. Is that, just for those who are listening in, holdover airmen or airmen who are basically out of training in BMT, who for some reason, right. It could be administrative, it could be disciplinary, it could be medical review going on, but the (audio breaking up) a pause, we have up to maybe a couple of weeks, to many months at a time, right? - Yes. - And if somebody, 'cause injuring themselves, so we have responsibility to get them back to health and you maybe are with that person for a period of time. But I think it's kinda a great example too is, every airman you have there that's in holdover, right, has a specific issue. - Yes, sir. - How is that different from your time when you were a tech training? - So right now our longest airman that's been there is close to pushing 200 days. And right now there's a few airmen that's being put up for exception of policies to see if they'll be able to be retained in the Air Force. - Right, we're trying to fight to keep them in, right? - Yes, sir. And then there are some where they're like, no you're going home. Because of whatever your medical situation is, you're disqualified from being in the service. - How much do you have a voice in that as far as the recommendations? Kinda see the ones who are still fighting to stay in. - As for myself as an MCO, there's not much of a recommendation. We can say, hey, this is what we recommend, but it's mainly up to... - The squadron leadership. - The squadron leadership, and once it gets pushed up to the General to see, based off their medical history and their requirements if they've seen enough. - Right. So you don't necessarily get in the higher up aspects, but the day-to-day care of that person, you're there side-by-side with them, yeah. - Yes sir. - And here's the thing, I think it's kind of how I think of, so y'all are familiar with first sergeants, right? First sergeant program. I actually think MTLs are like first sergeants of NCOs. Like at the NCO level, you're our first sergeants. How do you think of that comparison? Do you think you feel like a first Sergeant on some days as far as staff? - Yes. I've written, in most paperwork I've ever written in my whole career. (laughing) But aside from that, the airmen are coming to us with their personal problems. Whether that be death of a family member, suicide ideation, issues with pain, they're kinda coming to us as that subject matter expert to kinda help them navigate through those challenges they're experiencing. And those are the same issues that, if I was having, I would go to my first officer about who can definitely understand why you would say that. - Yeah, I mean, cause everybody was coming to your door. I mean, they're either looking to face up, right? They got something going on. But there's a need attached to that, right? - Correct. - And how much do you think you've kinda picked up on non-verbals and all those other kinda, or hey, that airman's (audio breaking up)? Say that you've grown in that capacity here? Do you think you'll be more likely to pick that up when you depart? - I think so. From my perspective, with all the airmen that we are around, you get to know them, and you can pick up when they're not acting like themselves. Hey, what's wrong? Nothing Sergeant. No, something's wrong, I can tell. And then they come the waterworks, 'cause you have that relationship, you have that connection with them. - It's (audio breaking up) question they want sometimes. - Absolutely. - Yeah. So how do you all think this has made you better leaders or better at NCO's? - In some aspects, there's microfilm, 200 across the board. It's hard to have. My interaction with them is more one-on-one in this career field, but in this career field, I have that breadth of problems, issues, that found solutions to this. Things I never find. I've had everything from an airman who had issues because they couldn't validate his home address 'cause it was a village in Africa that was wiped off the map by child soldiers to an airman that was just from a simple suburbs who was afraid to go to Japan. And it's just such a beat. Interacting with those different sets, engaging, trying to help them see them through, or even just to get them to leave your door with a smile on their face is a challenge in itself sometimes. Even if you can't give them a solution, if you can give them the next step, that's really what I found myself doing more and more. I don't know the solution. Where do we go for the next step? And honestly, most airmen, if they just can see the next step they can take, they'll find their own path. It's just to give them that step. - Yeah, man. That is a hundred percent what being an NCO is all about right there. To be able to detect what's going on, to be able to see and also be able to provide a path. 'Cause you ain't trying to do everything for somebody, right? Like it is their life, their career, but you've got to illuminate a path that has hope attached to it, right? And you even talked about it, it's be able to get them, I see your head down, let me help you get your eyes up a little bit. Let's get you back on path. How about you? What do you think? - I think being an MTL has improved like the human capital piece that's not, it's there in the Air Force, but it's not here when the person is in the mission. And we're trying to build somebody that's gonna go out and do the operational side of it. And we're hoping to send them the best airmen that we can, and that comes with a lot of the connective tissue of lighting. Getting them I'm mentally prepared for what the environment they're in because they just got released from BMT, we kinda relaxed certain areas for their privileges and freedoms. As far as the tech training, it's different from being a trainee in BMT, and kind of showing them that like they're growing in the Air Force and what what they're capable of doing, capable of dealing with when they do have a point in their life when life hits them in the face, this might be the first time they're far from home. BMT might've actually, they might've realized they went through BMT. They might've just now realized that they haven't been home in six months or they're waiting on orders to leave and to try and teach them those moments of perseverance and telling them like there is another step forward. There is something that they can do to keep them in the game and to get them motivated is a big part of being an MTL, because you have airmen who have waited for orders for several months and you're trying your hardest to give them something that they know is their best, their next step. And then you're working really hard to get them there. And just to watch them persevere through that, and knowing that they're gonna be able to handle anything on a deployment or anything else after that. The human capital piece is such a big part of our mission. - That's good stuff. So families, y'all got families too, right? Some of you do, right? Some of you are like, so we talked about, you had a baby recently if remember, is that true? - Yes, eight months ago, and I have a two year old as well. - And two year old as well, okay. How many of us have kids? - I do. I have a three year old and I have one on the way. - One on the way, all right. - What about? - I'm married Mill. My wife's air crew training instructor and I have a son that's on the way. - No kids, just a four year old hyper dog. - Hyper dog, that counts. - It counts, I think. - Funny enough, I have a relationship for six years, but no ring in my finger. (laughing) Well enough, backstory real quick. I met her in a situation similar to this where she was public affairs. She came to interview me in my original field. She threatened me if I (audio breaking up). - That on an interview? - Yes. - Okay. - So she likes to say it, she poached on Job. But now I've been together with her for six years now and two hyper dogs as well funny enough. So Don and I went through MTLS bought boxer breeds. - Oh, okay, all right. Yeah, so let's talk about like doing this job and then also balancing family stuff? - I think I'll start on that one. - Take a deep breath on that one. - I'll start on that one. Whenever I started pushing my first team here about a month on-ground after a little bit of training, first couple of weeks were pretty rough. 4:30 and not leaving until 2100 some days. Going from PT, learning your team, getting lawful training, getting everything done during the middle of the day. And my first team, I had 102 with 58 MLCs. So that's a big transition trying to keep them here in training, and it's a bunch of airmen from Japan, Korea, Germany, (audio breaking up) just home. They're all 18, 19, 20 years old. But trying to focus on them before focusing on myself, I think that's what it was for the first eight months here. But once I pretty much learned my job, I started school, starting my job, slowing down a work to where I can take on time management, stress management, a lot better and kinda working with other MTLs to figure out how to improve on the squadron. That's pretty much whenever it started getting better for me is eight months in, started taking leave, and then started working on myself, my education, and I had a lot more time for myself. It was definitely learning the job first and then focusing on myself. - Okay. - As for me here, when I came here, I had just found out I was pregnant with my two year old. So it seemed like for me, I still had a lot of time on my hands, my husband (audio breaking up) here quite yet. And then once I had my child, how am I supposed to balance taking care of my child and work as well? So it became difficult, but the leadership helped me and made it work. - Yeah. Yeah, I try to tell people I think that's the... You hear the term balance a lot. And I think like in our business, I kinda describe it as, as an airman, you serve multiple families, right? You have your family at home, and you got your Air Force family, but you only got one heart, right? And you only got one you. Then you try to kinda divide that capacity as much as you can. And it is, I love how you said, but my team had me, right? That's where I think we just gotta continue to realize is that there is somebody usually that say, hey, can I help you with that? 'Cause we can get too prideful in sharing some of that burden. But I think is that you're more and more is, we leave for a reason. And if we're not careful in balancing those kinda things, we gotta be careful 'cause we're gonna hand this uniform off to someone else someday. We're gonna hand the position we have off to someone else. But our roles we have with family, you don't wanna get off, like that's gotta be permanent. But I realized, especially in the business that you do, it's a challenge, it's a big time challenge. I appreciate that even at the peer level as NCOs, you just share, hey, how do you figure that out? How do you do that? What about you ma'am? - Chief for me it was very hard. Coming from medical field and my husband working a regular 7:30 to 4:30, he was used to that schedule for me. So coming here, working 1300 to 2200, I hardly saw him. I hardly saw my son. So it was a real struggle for me. It was a real strain on my relationship. But I think once we just kind of communicated a little bit better like Sergeant Beaver said, talk leadership, relying heavily on my team leaders. We were able to overcome some of those obstacles we were experiencing. - Was that hard to do in itself, to share that? - It was. - Yeah. - It really was. I'd like to think I'm a little private, especially with my personal life. So I did have to be transparent, realizing that the students can detect when something's not right with you. Just like we can tell when they're not right, they can pick up that up. - Were they asking you? Hey, are you okay? (laughs) No, they weren't. (laughing) - Okay. - But they talk. And sometimes I have to try my best not to let my frustration out on them. But definitely communicating with my teammates, communicating with my (audio breaking up), communicating with my husband, we were able to overcome those obstacles. And things change. My schedule now is a lot more flexible. I'm working nine to 1800, so I do have that time back. - Yeah. I think, the common thing I hear is, there's periods of stress, right? Where it forces you to challenge yourself like, okay, this is where I need to be, and I need to adjust, right? I'm gonna communicate, I'm gonna share with my teammate what's going on. You start to figure it. And I think it's just so important is to not just stay in that position. To realize like I gotta adjust, I gotta adapt to what's going on around me. I'm in a new job, I got a new schedule. Even as kids gets older, I'll tell you, you might have teens in here yet. Wait till you get teenagers. Like it is a completely different kinda tactical mindset as a parent. But I think it's just really important that you understand like communication is so huge, and then being willing to adjust as an individual, as a leader too, right? Whether that's at home or work. Okay, all right, so what's your favorite moment as an MTL? - I think I'll start. I think a favorite moment as an MTL is when you see your first team and you see them all leave. Some of them will thank you some of them won't. But I think that pride from going from (audio breaking up) all the way down 65, 13 weeks later when they leave, it's part of this work. Not because they're out of your hair, but they're actually trained defenders. They're out there, they're going to a new administration. - But they're winning, yeah? - Yeah, taking the influence from someone else. - Yeah, and that badge and Baret, that's a big deal. Anybody else? - For me personally, my best experience as an MTL is seeing an airman in particular graduate, an airmen that just can't get their stuff together. You're hopeful, but they're getting in trouble all the time. They set time once the tango flight, the disciplinary flight, you're always hearing their name in emails or oh, airmen so and so again. And them finally graduating. And after your mentorship sessions and you're like, you just feel so prideful that, wow, they actually listened. They actually did it. They actually earned that badge and Baret. So I think that definitely was very impactful for me and my best moment at the MTL is seen her come up to me, Sergeant, I did it. I cried actually. (laughing) I'm a big baby. - That's awesome. - But I cried 'cause I was just so-- - You (audio breaking up) though, huh? - I did actually. - Oh, you did, okay. (laughing) - I was so proud of her. - You about to cry right now thinking about it. (laughing) - Yeah, I was really excited for her cause honestly, I didn't think she was gonna make it. She was just a trouble airman and she pushed through, she stayed focused, she stayed motivated, and she did it. - That's awesome. Anybody else favorite moment as an MTL? - I got it, I got something. I think for me, when I got to tech training, I got to hear her a lot of you never get to see this after you push these airman out and get them on their way. So to try and do the best you can while you have them in your purview. But I think the thing that I appreciated the most was after I pushed my first couple of teams. I actually, physically getting airmen emails, excuse me, from some of my former troops, because they were now staff sergeants and they were supervising the airmen that I had just pushed through the forces training. And somehow during the conversation, we were talking about the fact that I was there at the 343rd as a defender and the day appreciated the time and the insights that I was able to give them. And to see that other side, when you look around the spectrum and you find out that this one is from Japan and this one is in (indistinct) in Germany and this one in Milton hall and this one is somewhere else. It was like probably one of the best couple of days of my life to receive those emails and have somebody actually say thank you for what you've done for this airman, they're what we need in the fight right now. And that was one of the biggest days for me. It was like that feeling is just, there's no way to compare that in the Air Force. - Yeah. It was funny. So, I put together a Facebook post this past weekend and I talk pretty much about that exact same thing, right? And I know people are stressed right now with the mass airmen release coming out. And a lot of times as airman, we kinda look at that as the validation of hard work, right? But one thing I will tell you that for me as a chief, every time that you move up, I think sometimes when you're young, you think of those positions as being valued, right? So as you move up the rank structure, that person is more valuable, but as much as I do, all it is is different responsibilities, it's not value. And really, it is as each one of you has this very unique opportunity to make an impact on a life every day. And that's what's key, is what you do with the opportunities you're given to do just that. And I tell you. I had this little like folder in my Outlook box where when people send me emails and say, hey, that conversation you had with me or that time we spent together, that made a difference. And anytime we're losing hope, like am I struggling? I'll just look at that or I'll check in with those individuals and how you're doing. And there ain't nothing that like, there ain't nothing that's more significant than knowing that there's somebody out there that you helped in some way. So I learned that in a big way. And if it's also (indistinct) to also say too. Your point of most people don't realize that I think is actually foolish. My favorite students aren't the ones who are the ADC award recipient, the top graduates, they were the ones that just refuse to give up. That struggle, they wash back a few times. That's the one, and there was one in particular, like she ended up going on and winning at BTC. But I had to tell her like, listen, it's okay to fail, I just can't have you give up. Like stop being your worst critic. And I just loved it. Like you were rooting for her so hard that even brought you to tears when she finally graduated. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's what it's all about. That is what it's all about. You know what I mean? Just to let people like, hey, listen, it's okay, right? I just need you to learn. Life is about constant evolution and failure. Just don't give up on life, right? You're tearing up right now. You're getting me going. You're getting me going. You know what I mean? - It's the pregnancy, the hormones. - Yeah, you're getting me going. But I just think that such great lessons and I hope that MTLs can realize, that's what these responsibilities are all, to give these people access to these moments. Because we need them in our force. Like we need leaders and NCO is at the right levels, like being an eyeball to eyeball with airman, fully armed, to be able to see a caring and professional NCO, to know what that looks like, to model that. And to know that, hey, we're gonna have your back. And I can't wait till you all get out there and get out of back operational. 'Cause man, our teams of airmen, our missions are gonna be better. So anything you wanna kind of share, somebody who's thinking about becoming an MTL? Any parting shots? - I would say, just keep in mind, you can't pour from an empty cup. And as an MTL, especially as a 343rd NCO, like Sergeant Don was saying, 1400 airmen at a time. It's easy to just get caught up in taking care of everybody else. Trying to make time for your family. You lose sight of yourself. And it's hard to kinda invest and help yourself to professionally develop, but you can't pour from an empty cup. You can't mentor that airmen if you're struggling internally. So definitely, don't get too caught up in the jaw where you lose sight of what's important, which should be yourself and your family. - Yeah, and I think that's just great advice to figure out. - Absolutely. - I mean, no matter what mission you're a part of. Anybody else? - I can definitely say something. I can definitely say DST and its way works. The MTLs, NCLs I work with are some of the highest speed, most self-sufficient people I've ever seen. When I first came into the job as I was looking left and right, it looked like everybody was sprinting and it slowed down. Eventually I caught up. And having two more individuals that I can call coworkers at 344 that also came from a CE background, their first line, man, does it ever stop it? It doesn't. And they've caught speed on it. We are going in. And it's impressive. I can't ever say I've worked with a great team like this. I've been on rapid airfield damage repair. I've been on soil removal. I've seen so many different aspects, do some engineering background, but these are some of the greatest NCLs I've ever been with, and probably will, hopefully I will serve with great too in the future, but I can't imagine anybody else topping these NCLs. - Anybody else? - I would say that if you're going to be a military training leader, if it's something that you look at as far as the leadership capacity, that you might not get this in any other DSD minus maybe being an MTL because you're capable of leading airmen the way that you saw yourself or what was taught in ALS or as other courses in the Air Force. But you're actually doing and putting into practice, and it's gonna really just see what you're made up on your worst day, because some of the things that we deal with are hard, but it's also gonna teach you what you were capable of doing on your worst day, when you could get up and go to work and actually take care of people and take care of whatever you needed to at the same time. And shows you what level of perseverance as a human being, you're cable were doing. And leading troops, because that's the biggest part of being an MTL, is it's everything about it is the person. 'Cause if we don't have people in Air Force, we don't have a mission. Like to get back to the heart of it all is if you have taken care of the people in the aircraft you take care of everything, and that's the whole reason we're here. So I think that though being an MTL it's not an easy job, but the satisfaction you get out of what you do is far that anything I've done in the Air Force so far. So awesome. - Yeah, I tell you, anyone that's looking to become an MTL, or just want to be an MTL, take time for yourself so that you can take time and take care of your airmen because it definitely is a tough job. It's not easy. There's no job out there like it. Even with BMT, it's way different. We have airmen that can go off base at 21 and drink, pretty much get in trouble. We gotta teach people how to do laundry. You thought that'd be filtered down through BMT, but everyone is different. You need to learn how to talk to people differently. One airman, you might be able to yell at, one airman, you might have to sit down and have that conversation with them. You'll find out how to talk to people. Everyone comes from a different background. Everyone learns differently. So it's definitely, (whooshing) to get that aspect to become a better leader. - Anything? - I would say have some patients. Everyone has a different background as Sergeant Don was just saying. In your background is totally different from what you had, what you've grown from. There's people who you actually need to sit down and have that one on one conversations with, instead of giving that demand of, hey, stop what you're doing. They need that actual sit down one time. So I'll patience and just talking to be able to speak with them. - Yeah. I think the heart of all your responses. And why I think that an MTL is such a critical position is, and you all nailed it, right? People. People was the number one thing, that is your mission that you come to work every single day. And sometimes we actually hear in the Air Force, hey, are you a people person or you're mission first, right? People first, mission first. And I always think that that's all false. Because, just as you said, there is no mission without people. Like watch what happens when nobody shows up to work and see if anything gets done. And holistically, if you don't take time to actually make sure that person is over time, the mission will erode. Like there's a correlation. They are one in the same thing. And the greatest advantage we have from a national, like military perspective is our people. Across all the military services, we volunteer to be here. People come from America and they might've joined for one reason, but they stay for another because you believe like, hey, this is not easy work, it's meaningful work, it's purposeful work. And I think it's just so critical that every one of you, you realize that like the difference you can make and you're pouring into that. And you are advancing our most weapon system, that's our people, that's our airmen. So I thank you for the service that you give to airmen. I know it is not easy days. I don't take any of that for granted, but I see the products. I see them getting better underneath your watch from day one to graduation. I appreciate your hearts. I appreciate what you give and I appreciate you being Warhawks. Thanks for taking the time today to share with everybody else out there in the Air Force who's maybe thinking about this. I hope when this is out there, that you at least take this time to thank these amazing NCOs for what they give cause I certainly I'm honored to serve with you. So thank you. And everybody, you take care. - Thanks Chief. (whooshing) - Such great insight from the Gateway Wing military training leaders who trained to win every single day as we begin that process with new recruits of developing the airmen we need. Thank you to Chief Blazer and his entire military training leader team, as they talk about their experiences. And right now the DSD window, depending on what date you're listening to this podcast is open through August 24th. So get with your chain of command. You can also go to AFPCs website for more information on developmental special duties. As a reminder, you can follow air education and training command, and the AETC command team on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as catch up on all the latest news at www.aetc.af.mil. For our entire public affairs team, I'm Dan Hawkins. So long, we'll talk to you next time on the Air Force Starts Here. (upbeat music)