COVER STORY
CMSAF #12 Eric Benken — After serving my first four years of service and on [what was going to be] my last day in the Air Force, my old chief, Lewis J. Lee, called me into his office to discuss what I was going to do next. He then asked me three simple ques- tions: Do you like wearing the uniform? What about the mis-
sions that we do to protect our great nation, our liberties, and our freedoms—do you feel it’s an important job? What about these people you have come to work with, do you like them? After answering positively to each of these questions he simply said, okay then why are you getting out? I thought about it that night and the next morning I tore up my plane ticket and re-enlisted. And the rest is history. You as leaders—especially First Sergeants and Command
Chiefs—it’s that simple conversation you can have with somebody as they are coming to that fork in the road and making important decisions. It’s that one little conversation that you can have with someone that can truly mean a lot. It can help them continue to serve and realize they are part of something bigger and greater than themselves.
CMSAF #8 Sam Parish — Best advice for advancement is simple: Work yourself out of a damn job. Challenges are always going to be there in the future. You can meet them, if you meet them head-on.
CMSAF #15 Rod McKinley — I have many old timers who come up to me and say, “Tis is not the old Air Force, it’s not the old Air Force that I’m used to.” And, my response to that is, thank God. I came in the Air Force in 1974, my base pay was $326.10. An Airman Basic today makes more money than Paul Airey made as a Chief
Master Sergeant of the Air Force. In 1974 it was a much different Air Force, I came in wearing khakis. I lived in the dorms with roommates and metal beds. You had to buff the floors every night and get out the Brasso® to shine the door- knobs. My first sergeant lived right next to me. He was single and at that time, single NCOs lived in the dorms. Dorm life was very different, when you got up in the morning you went to the gang latrine, and when you went in the showers you saw more of your first sergeant than you wanted to. You also did a lot of things other than
CMSAF #15 Rod McKinley celebrates Senior Airman Whetstone’s promotion.
your job as an Airman back then. I never smoked a day in my life, but you had to sit in these offices with smokers all over the place and at the end of the day as a young enlisted Airman you had to empty every- body’s ashtrays. I absolutely hated that. We had to go out and mow yards, trim and clean. Believe it or not, when we had DVs coming, we were out there painting rocks white. We had to pull all of the grass out of every crack. You never saw grass in cracks at any base back then. And, at the club we had topless dancers, just try and imagine that today! Tings have evolved and I say, thank God we’re not the same Air Force that we used to be. We had about 3,700 chiefs in 1974; out of those 3,700 chiefs, only 12 were female. And look where we are today: Our Secre- tary of the Air Force is female. Women can now do any job out there, we have some fantastic MAJCOM Command Chiefs who are female, and someday we’ll have a female Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. Not because she’s female but because she’s the best Chief for the job.
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