Fall has finally fallen. I’ve been waiting for the first hard frost to finally wipe out the last vestiges of pollen and this weekend should do the trick.  Looking forward to clear sinuses!

I was an Air Force instructor for over 30 years and one of the first things I was taught at instructor school is that “There is no such thing as a stupid question”. I took that to heart and I always managed to convince myself, and hopefully the asker, that it was true.  There is however no similar axiom that states that “There are no stupid statements”.  Now I know that it’s not politically correct to use the word “stupid”, at least that’s what I hear parents tell their kids almost daily, so I could default to “moronic” but I’m not sure that it’s more socially acceptable.  So let’s just stick with stupid statements.  I think I’ll start a short series called “The most stupid statements anyone has ever made to me”.

We hear lots of stupid statements from “I did not have sex with that women, Monica Lewinsky” to “Don’t let people tell you that businesses create jobs” to “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor”. Although there can be a fine line between a lie, delusional, and stupidity.  I could spend weeks on stupid statements by politicians but I’m going to narrow this to stupid things that have actually been said to me or in my presence.  Here goes.

“You don’t know anything about leadership. You were in the military and you just ordered people around and they had to do what you told them.”  Wow, I think my IQ just dropped 5 points typing that!

I had many jobs during my 34 years in the air force but I think my favorite one was pilot scheduler. Most of you who are flyers probably think I’m crazy but it’s true and here’s why.  I love solving problems.  I’ve always loved coming up with solutions to complex problems.  Maybe it’s the engineer in me or maybe it’s because my dad always presented me with tasks and no resources to accomplish it.  Either way, I enjoyed the challenge of not just filling the flying schedule but getting the training requirements done at the same time. A little background for my non-air force friends.

Every pilot has over 100 training events to accomplish every six months. Takeoffs, landings, Night vision goggle landings, night low level routes, day low level routes, personnel airdrops, heavy equipment airdrops, etc., etc., etc,.  It’s a daunting list.  But if they’re not all accomplished by July 1st or January 1st then they become “non-current” and have to fly with an instructor which then complicates the scheduling process even more.  It can be a maddening process.  Now add to this process the fact that the Reserves are voluntary.  You can’t “make” someone come out and fly.  You can’t order them to show up on Tuesday night to get their last NVG airdrop.  That brings us to why I enjoyed being a scheduler.  You not only had to fill the lines and get the training events completed, you had to know what motivates each person.

Some guys just love to fly. You’d think they would be easy but you have to make sure that they’re not pissing off their civilian employer and that the wife isn’t getting neglected (I’ve had to have conversations with both).  Some guys love flying tactical mission but get bored on pilot proficiency flights so you have to mix up the missions a little or put them on a cross-country that has a little of both.  Some guys are motivated by the destination.  Some are simply motivated by the money.  The bottom line.  You have to know your people.  Know what motivates them.  Know what buttons to push to get them to sign up for the missions they need to complete the training and stay mission ready.  All of this has to be done within the framework of a volunteer organization where your schedule is probably number 3 or 4 on their list of priorities.  Scheduler is where the rubber meets the road.  But this balancing act is at the core of any volunteer organization and weaves its way through every level of planning and is the greatest leadership challenge.

Sadly, our society has created a huge pool of people who think that they’re above be followers and aren’t willing to take on the responsibility of leadership. They sit in the back of the proverbial classroom and bully those who want to learn and shoot spitballs at the teacher.  I’m certainly not the perfect leader and I’ve made my share of mistakes over the years but I do understand how to be either a follower or a leader and when to be which.

More stupidity next week.