19 AF command chief visits Vance AFB

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mary Davis
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Taking care of Airmen, the Airman's Creed and what the Air Force brings to the fight were topics the 19th Air Force's top enlisted leader focused on during his visit with Team Vance members Feb. 7-9. 

Command Chief Master Sgt. Robert Tappana visited several base agencies and got a chance to speak candidly to Airmen, NCOs and senior NCOs during his three-day visit. His main concern was simple - seeing how people were doing. 

"I work for enlisted people. I may report to General Halter (19th Air Force commander), but I work for our enlisted force," Chief Tappana said. "I tend to think of myself as someone who helps our Airmen by eliminating roadblocks to their success." 

Sometimes that means providing the whole story or clarifying an issue for Airmen. 

"If Airmen have questions, I owe them an answer, and if I don't know the answer - I find one," he said. "No matter how well we plan, there is no chance we are doing everything perfectly. The only way we will find out is by listening to our Airmen." 

Although the chief's job is taking care of Airman, he credits one Airman for taking care of him when he needed it most. 

"There are several people I've worked for over the years that I've admired, but the person I give credit for me succeeding in my career is a staff sergeant who worked for me when I was a master sergeant," he said. "He was staff sergeant, now retired Master Sgt. Mark Davila." 

Several years ago, Master Sergeant Tappana was going through a rough period in his life. His daughter was in the middle of a six-month hospitalization, and he had just started a new job. He thought he was doing well at coping with what he had on his plate - until someone close brought him to terms with reality. 

"Sergeant Davila asked to speak to me in private, so I thought he wanted to talk to me about a personal problem," Chief Tappana said. 

The sergeant asked him to step over to the door, which the chief thought was a little odd, but he did.  "Master Sergeant Tappana, you set very high standards for our people, and I do my best to uphold them," Sergeant Davila said. "But I can't do that anymore if you won't live by them." 

The chief didn't know what he was talking about until the staff sergeant pointed at the mirror behind his door.  

"I looked in the mirror, and I wasn't happy with what I saw. My hair was too long. My uniform was wrinkled, and my shoes weren't polished," the chief said. "I had several things going on, and I thought I was handling it well. I was wrong." 

He thanked the staff sergeant and told him he was sorry for letting him down. The chief then left the office, squared himself away and came back to work. 

Several months later, the chief master sergeant he worked for asked him for material to write his annual enlisted performance report. After submitting his bullets, the chief told him it would be an easy EPR to write, but he had his doubts earlier in the year because Master Sergeant Tappana was coming in late, his uniform looked bad and he was sloughing off at work. 

"You know, it was that chief's job to tell me those things," Chief Tappana said. "There were a lot of people I looked up to throughout my career, but the best leader was a staff sergeant who had the courage to tell his master sergeant supervisor he wasn't living up to the standards. He saved my career." 

Sergeant Davila took care of his wingman, and it's up to each Airman to help one another out, the chief said. 

"If we allow one of us to suffer - the team suffers. We are interconnected," he said. 

One thing connecting and binding all blue suiters is the Airman's Creed. 

"A creed is concise statement of the fundamental beliefs of an organization, and it's great to see ours written down," he said. "We never sat down to write one in the past, so people wrote their own." 

Over the years, various creeds were created - the NCO, senior NCO, chief's creed and other varieties. 

"How can chiefs have different fundamental beliefs than airmen? Our current leadership took the lead in writing this down," he said. "Everything in the creed is something we've been doing for decades. Most of the verses go straight to our oath of enlistment and commissioning. Other verses speak to the Codes of Conduct and our Air Force Core Values. It ties together the best of everything and puts it into one place." 

Knowing what your place is in the Air Force scheme of things is important, the chief said. Airmen should be proud of what they do, and understand how they fit into what the Air Force and the Department of Defense do. 

We make the mistake of thinking of warriors as the people with weapons and the enemy at close proximity, he explained. The Air Force has security forces, pararescue, explosive ordnance disposal and others on the front lines. But it also has people waging war from Creech Air Force Base flying Predators and U.S. Space Command waging war on a console controlling a satellite. 

"The Air Force owns and operates the Global Positioning Satellite, which is responsible for smart weapons that tell our soldiers, sailors and Marines precisely where they are on the planet," he said. "If you're not directly engaging the enemy, you are making it possible for those who do. Every single job in the Air Force feeds the fight directly."