‘Integrity First’ ensures ‘Excellence In All You Do’

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. JOHN BOBROSKI
  • 56th Operations Group Detachment 1 commander
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  How many have heard the old adage, "you need to earn respect?" 

Respect should be a given until a person does something to lose the respect of others. The quickest way to lose it is to violate the Air Force core value, Integrity First. 

Integrity is the backbone to any person or organization. With it, people are proud to be associated with you and the unit. Workers are focused on the mission, productivity increases, and people work harder for their supervisors and leaders, because they know everyone is working toward the same goals or vision. 

Integrity is easy to lose and very hard to get back. At my last unit I had a wingman put his F-16 out of control at the end of a basic fighter maneuver engagement as the flight was resetting. The flight lead did not observe the OOC in the air. At this point the OOC was a mistake made by an inexperienced pilot. 

I am not saying we never make mistakes. We take risks and make mistakes everyday because we are human, and mistakes show us where to improve. The problem happens when we turn a mistake into a crime by not taking responsibility for our actions for fear of punishment. 

The wingman made an honest mistake, however he turned the mistake into a crime by not reporting it immediately to his flight lead. Instead, the wingman reset for another engagement, returned to base, performed a hot-pit refueling and flew another BFM mission. It was not until debrief, when the flight lead noticed something wrong on the air combat maneuvering instrumentation playback, that the wingman confessed to the OOC. 

The mistake was going OOC; the crime was not reporting it immediately. This action could have resulted in the loss of an aircraft and pilot if the OOC was caused by a flight control malfunction. 

Most of the time people try to cover up mistakes because they fear the punishment. Don't! Fess up to mistakes and supervisors will get you the training needed, but will respect you for your integrity. If the wingman would have confessed immediately, the flight lead would have brought him back to base and discussed the reason for the OOC and how to avoid it in the future. That's it!No punishment! 

Although that wingman was a good pilot and performed well for the squadron on subsequent tasks, I always questioned his motives afterward. Don't let this be you. "Integrity First" will allow you to have "Excellence In All You Do."