Engaged Leadership: “Ready to fight, anytime, anywhere” Published Aug. 13, 2010 By Col. Scott Fox ?90th Missile Wing vice commander F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. -- As I hope all of you are aware by now, the vision of the 90th Missile Wing is to be "ready to fight, anytime, anywhere." Our mission is to "provide preeminent combat capability across the spectrum of conflict." Those statements are simple; they are concise - five words and nine words respectively - and they are easy to learn and remember. What might not be simple or completely understood though, is why we have separate vision and mission statements and what they should mean to each member of the Mighty Ninety. Mission and vision statements are written and used by organizations to guide actions and define future conditions or states. More specifically, a mission is what an organization does and a vision is the desired result of those actions. Said another way, a vision is forward-looking while mission looks at what we do today. Where do you, and those who work with you, fit into our vision and mission? How are you and those around you providing preeminent combat capability across the spectrum of conflict? Those are questions each member of the Mighty Ninety should be able to answer, but there are two other related questions that are equally important. How combat ready are you today and how do you know? As most of you know, one way we measure combat capability is through inspections by teams from our higher headquarters and in the nuclear arena; those inspections seemed to have come every couple of months and there was always a lot of build up or "inspection prep" that came along. Today, however, the playing field has changed. Some inspections, like our last Nuclear Surety and Operational Readiness Inspections, are conducted no-notice and others on a limited-notice basis. Some would say, we need to change the way we do things in order to be ready to perform in a no-notice inspection. While I agree we should be ready to perform our mission at any time, I disagree the reason is based on an inspection. Here, we generate strategic effects - deterring & assuring - every single day. Additionally, our alert force and those who support it are ready every day to execute our global strike mission, should we be called on to do that. That is why we need to be mission ready every day - not just to pass a no-notice inspection. One of my favorite combat leadership books was written by retired Army Col. Dandridge Malone, "Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach." Though Colonel Malone's original target was company-level leaders (captains, lieutenants, and sergeants) leading squads and platoons on the battlefield, the common sense topics he discusses are just as applicable in our mission areas - you just have to broaden the lens with which you look at his concepts and ideas. One of my favorite quotes from his book is Colonel Malone's very clear message that there are only two things a small-unit leader should be doing: 1) Leading soldiers and small units during battle, and 2) Preparing soldiers and small units to fight the battle. Hopefully, you can see the linkage with our mission and vision statements. Every day, leaders here on base and out in the missile field should be leading Airmen as we provide combat capability and deterrence, or training their organizations to do that mission. With focus like this, we should have no trouble maintaining our combat readiness on a daily basis, but the question of validation is still hanging out there. How do you know how combat ready you are? What processes do you have in place, other than the weeks and months of preparation we have done prior to previous inspections, to be able to confidently say that today we are combat ready? There are many different ways to answer that question, but all have one thing in common. Every assessment of combat readiness requires someone to specifically evaluate the standards or expectations. Someone must take the time and effort to verify what everyone thinks is being done with what is actually happening. Someone needs to know the requirements and ask the tough questions. In other words, leaders at all levels need to engage! Every unit in the wing just completed a semi-annual self-inspection. This is one tool that hopefully provided a snapshot-in-time look at each organization's readiness. Checklists should have been run and observations made - both positive and negative. The effectiveness of that tool, however, is directly related to the effort put into the assessment. If people simply looked at the checklists and answered questions without checking into the true status - the results may not truly reflect that unit's readiness. Another tool is the exercise program. No matter what organization you are in, exercises are a way to help leaders evaluate the readiness and capabilities of their unit. Exercises can be large and impact multiple units across the base, or they can be as simple as a single scenario run by a supervisor during a visit to a work location. Take advantage of exercises and observations of real-world operations. We should never do things one way for an exercise or inspection and a different way in an actual event. If your shop or section has never conducted an exercise, ask your leadership why. Don't wait for a real-world situation, especially an emergency, to see if you are actually ready to respond! Maintaining a mission-ready focus every day is challenging. There is no doubt about it, but it is achievable. We've actually done that for decades. The 90th MW has been on combat alert since the first ICBM achieved alert status decades ago. The real challenge today is to ensure that "mission ready" and "inspection ready" mean the same thing. There is one key ingredient required to overcome that challenge and to be able to answer the questions of how combat ready we are today and how do we know - engaged leadership. We need leaders who don't assume, but who ask the tough questions. We need leaders who trust their Airmen, but verify too. With that sort of engagement at all levels, I am confident we can maintain daily mission readiness and be "ready to fight, anytime, anywhere."