You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Six Learning Leadership as a Warrant Officer

Following my combat experience in Iraq, I went on to become a divisional helicopter flight lead, a maintenance test pilot, and maintenance manager for active-duty combat-helicopter units. Being a flight lead, briefing professionals, and running maintenance operations for helicopters and the associated support equipment taught me many important aspects of leadership.

I learned how to manage multi-million dollar budgets and allocate limited resources. In daily operations, I had to exceed mandated operational readiness rates despite limited budgets, keep my crew chiefs motivated (because there was never enough manpower), and prepare deployment packages to send helicopters around the world.

I also learned the importance of pride in belonging and pride in ownership. The platoon Sergeants utilized a great method to reinforce pride in ownership. They made each crew chief the "owner" of a helicopter. Crew chiefs were required to stencil their names on the side of their helicopter. They were held responsible for keeping their aircraft mission-ready. Their sense of ownership gave them the pride to dedicate long work days to ensure their bird was always mission-ready.

During an extended field problem, as a flight lead, I was tasked to plan a fifteen-ship air assault mission with eight Apaches providing security. Choreographing an air assault for fifteen Blackhawks is a fine dance. I identified landing areas to support large formations of choppers that effectively supported the ground commander's plan. Preplanned artillery would soften the target prior to the arrival of the air assault, making timing paramount. Reverse planning for H-hour gave me an accurate take-off time so we could meet our time on target plus or minus thirty seconds.

Developing a plan for the Blackhawks alone was a challenge, but adding eight Apaches made the equation more difficult. Air assault units and attack units use different tactics, techniques, and procedures. The training, aircrew mindsets, and missions differed enough to drive me to seek input from the senior Apache instructors. Working together we developed a plan and briefing for both units. The mission went off without a hitch. As always, I felt the tired thrill of accomplishment at the end of the debrief.

Pooling resources and including subject-matter experts is the best solution when developing new and innovative ways to do things. The real test comes when you execute and post-evaluate the plan.

On another occasion I was a team member in charge of prepping our Blackhawks for an air load out from Fort Drum, New York to Fort Polk, Louisiana. During air load outs we fold the blades on our Blackhawks to the aft positions and lower the struts so we can load them into large airplanes for long distance transport. On this deployment, the Air Force was supporting us with their newly fielded C-17 transport planes. We were one of the first units to use the C-17 for a Blackhawk Unit air load out.

This was problem solving 101 in action. Prior to the load out, the Air Force sent us draft manuals that included lists of required equipment to accomplish the load out. We quickly realized our unit didn't possess all of the required equipment for this operation.

My Platoon Sergeant and I read the manuals and listed out the required equipment we didn't own. After we completed the list, my Platoon Sergeant went to supply and immediately ordered what was available in the supply system. We had to quickly develop a solution to procure the equipment that wasn't in the Army's supply system.

I made a few quick phone calls requesting funds for a local purchase of the equipment. While the funds were being worked, I made my way to a few places off-base eventually finding a vendor who could meet the required specifications and timeline.

Meanwhile, my Platoon Sergeant assigned some of the mid-grade NCOs to develop a training plan for the C-17 load out teams. Within two weeks, we were ready for the load out.

Actual load out turned into a high profile event, as it was used to prove the capability of the C-17. A General was present along with all of the local high level aviation commanders. Our teams pulled it off in good time and without a single ding on any helicopter.

The other issue our team needed to solve was assembling the maintenance support package for the thirty-plus Blackhawks. We were scheduled to be in the field for five weeks. I like to plan for the worst case scenario when operating in austere conditions, while being realistic about logistical capabilities. The challenge is to use your limited resources wisely. There is only so much room available to transport personnel and equipment; once deployed, supply lines can be long and dangerous.

Using our manuals for guidance, lessons learned documents, spreadsheets, records from past deployments, and collective years of experience, we assembled a small package to support the birds as far forward as possible in a field environment. There is always a temptation to over pack; we knew if we did this, we would need additional time and vehicles to transport these supplies when we moved locations. The other side of the coin is under packing due to overconfidence. Under packing could lead to aircraft downtime while waiting for parts to arrive.

Referencing our mission capable objectives for guidance, we updated our plan somewhat from the last deployment and developed a maintenance footprint that enabled our team to keep the majority of our birds flying through the whole deployment. When you are operating in remote and austere conditions, there are always hiccups; one bird went down for a major component that is not normally stocked. In this case, we let our supply chain work and used our other aircraft to pick up the additional flying hours.

After the deployment, we held an after-action review and updated our support package for the future. Always capture your lessons learned in documents so you don't need to reinvent the wheel in the future.

To this day, I'm thankful when I was confronted by particularly difficult situations; I usually had a strong senior ranking Sergeant or a smart Captain in my unit to ask for advice. Don't be shy about asking for advice or guidance when you are feeling at a loss. It's not a sign of weakness to get guidance or bounce ideas off from someone you trust. The advice you receive from these mentors, is most likely something you would have not thought of on your own. Ask thoughtful questions and be an active listener. There is much to be gained from others' experience and wisdom.

ion ja(a){