Regulation compliance equals mission success

Published April 20, 2009
By Lt. Col. Paul Kanning
325th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. -- In July 1997, I cross-trained from my previous career field of air traffic control to become an aircraft maintenance officer; by November of that year, I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

I was miserable. I woke up one Monday morning was absolutely sick about having to go to work. As the saying goes, "it hit me like a ton of bricks!" I had suddenly become one of those people who loathe their job, the people who wish they were doing something else in life but don't have any other options. I wondered to myself how long I could go on serving in the Air Force in a job I did not enjoy.

It was not the technical aspects of aircraft maintenance I detested. I have always enjoyed working on cars and gadgets. And it was not the Airmen who I worked with either; they were fun and did an excellent job. It was my boss. I was in a new career field, and the Air Force had assigned me to the toughest, meanest supervisor they could find.

You know the type I am talking about - those bosses who are never satisfied, the ones who never stop asking questions. My supervisor had a particular knack for drilling into the areas where I was least confident. When I briefed her during the daily maintenance update, she would lock onto the slightest hesitation in my voice, and the grilling would commence. What about this and what about that... and on and on and on. Her favorite interrogation tactic? She would look me dead in the eye and ask, "What does the book say?"

She wanted to know what the Air Force Instruction said, what the Technical Order said and or whether there was a local base supplement. She pounded and pounded away at me about "the book" for three straight years. She was relentless!

What I did not realize at the time was there was a method to her madness. She made me focus on regulations, directives, and technical orders so I would do the same with other Airmen, in order for our squadron to develop habits of doing everything by "the book." Unfortunately, I did not learn this lesson until it was too late.

At my next assignment, one of the weapons loaders in my squadron had his hands blown off during a maintenance action. I will never forget watching the LifeFlight helicopter leaving the parking ramp as I wondered whether he would survive. Fortunately he did, because of immediate first aid after the incident and the outstanding medical treatment he received in the hospital.

As you can probably guess, the Airman lost his hands because another Airman in the maintenance crew failed to follow a technical order. He failed to comply with an Air Force written order. Please do not misunderstand though - the Airmen involved were all good Airmen, they were; however, they did the same thing many Airmen in our squadron had done before - they took a shortcut. They did not comply with the technical order, because it was part of the culture in our squadron, because we valued speed over compliance. They did not comply because I had not set the same standard my previous supervisor had set for me.

It's funny how life goes. I rarely think about that Monday morning when I did not want to go to work, but I think about that technical sergeant all the time. I feel completely responsible for his accident, because I failed to establish a culture of compliance.

So I have learned why compliance is so critical to the Air Force. I learned it that day and I learned it again later, but with much better results. During the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was deployed to Southwest Asia and saw how lethal and dominant our Air Force can be when complying with standards. Hundreds of sorties were executed each day with precision, more sorties than I thought possible, and it all was executed with a superb safety record because of everyone's compliance - all 8,000 Airmen, every standard.

We are the United States Air Force, the best air, space and cyberspace force which has ever existed in the history of mankind. You are the reason for that. You! We are not the world's best because of some anonymous capability; we are the world's best because of you! Because you are extremely intelligent, because you have had world-class training, and because you demand nothing but excellence in everything you do. You are the one who provides dominant, lethal airpower. It is you, the communicator, the Centurion, the aircraft maintainer, the health care provider, the American Airman who is the best this world has ever seen.

We must not rest though. We cannot; our families, friends and the American citizens expect more than that. Continuing our dominance starts and ends in complying with standards. We must demand it at all times, of ourselves and our fellow Airmen. It does not matter if it is sunny or raining, what time it is day or night, or if it is simple or complicated - in any case, we must comply with standards. Recently a master sergeant said it best when he told me, "We have to get it 100 percent right, 100 percent of the time. It's that important."

I agree, and I know my old supervisor agrees. I trust you do as well.