Standards and the moral courage to follow them Published Sept. 10, 2009 By Col. Greg Tims 90th Missile Wing commander F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. -- About 12 years ago, I read a book called "Military Leadership in Pursuit of Excellence." In the book, the editors Robert Taylor and William Rosenbach said "leadership is one of the most widely talked about subjects and at the same time one of the most elusive and puzzling." They go on by outlining what encompasses great leadership. One of the keys they state is moral courage. They characterize it as not swaying with the masses when you know something is wrong. Do not look the other way when you see a problem. Do what is right and have "uncompromising integrity and inculcating values and standards." In the world of nuclear deterrence, these are important principles. We, along with a few other occupations, are trained to run toward danger, not from it. It takes a special breed to do this. As you already know, today marks the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11. This afternoon we will have a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony to honor those who died in New York, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania and all those who ran toward danger in an attempt to save those in peril. We must never forget days like Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 7, 1941. Our nation is counting on us to ensure we prevent these types of attacks, and, equally important, if attacked, have the guts to run toward danger -- not from it. Uncompromising standards and the moral courage to enforce them -- this is the toughness I look for in our leaders. I'm pleased on how the wing embraced the safety focus day Sept. 3. As I'm sure you do, I don't believe the focus on safety begins on Memorial Day and ends on Labor Day. Safety is a year-long mindset. I appreciate everyone taking the opportunity to come together to look and reflect on what we can do to continue our superb safety record. I know a lot of you, including my family, took the opportunity to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we had this last weekend. What's impressive about this is that we had no reportable incidents. The wingman concept is alive and well at FEW and this is a very good thing. And talking about standards, this past week while driving around, I could not help but take a second look at a few yards that caught my attention. I just wanted to say thank you to Capt. Tim Newell, 90th Operations Support Squadron; Tech. Sgt. Wayne Blankenship, 321st Missile Squadron; Tech. Sgt. Andrew Kenton, 153rd Command and Control Squadron; and Airman 1st Class Derek Case, 90th Missile Maintenance Squadron. No doubt, a lot of hard work has been put into your yards. Wow! Thank you for helping make this base look sharp. Our softball team had another tournament at Greely, Colo., during the Labor Day weekend. The tournament was a tune-up for this weekend, where they play at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., for the Rocky Mountain Military Championships -- comprised of base teams from the Academy, Peterson, Fort Carson, Schriever and Buckley. Wish them well when you see them this week. I took the opportunity to visit a 320th Missile Squadron pre-departure briefing led by Lt. Col. Eric Brown last week. The pre-departure briefing is very comprehensive and ensures the crews are ready to take the alert. It covers the various activities that will be encountered for that particular day and includes a thorough risk management assessment. We have come a long way to get to this point in our nuclear operation pre-briefs, and I am pleased to see that we have embraced a mindset that the alert starts when you arrive at the operation group building, not when you arrive at the missile alert facility. Additionally, Labor Day morning, I sat in on the 90th Operations Group's pre-departure briefing. The briefing was given by Capt. Sunil Nair, a 319th Missile Squadron flight commander. Well done Sunil! I can't say enough about the dedication and professionalism of our crew force. I pretty much made a point to go by and say, "thank you." They come to work every day and prepare to fulfill a nuclear deterrence role that many outside the gates of Warren do not fully comprehend. This is a job that is given very little fanfare, but I just want you to know how proud I am of you all for giving 100 percent, maintaining your professionalism on and off duty and for holding each other accountable. By all of you having the moral courage to demonstrate the standard of perfection, shows that the Mighty Ninety gets it, and it isn't business as usual here. Go forth and conquer.