June 2021: Transition

Welcome to the inaugural post for the 72 Airman’s Writings blog series.

I am a USAF Captain, an engineer and management professional, and your author for this post and many posts to follow. That said, any content in this or the following posts are my own opinions and thoughts, and particularly are not in any way official Air Force narrative.

I’d like to begin by thanking you for taking a minute to begin reading this post. Your interest or mere curiosity is greatly appreciated and I hope to provide you with the sense that your time spent reading this post was unambiguously time well spent.

More specifically from reading this month’s post, I hope this series grows to prove transformative, even if in small ways…

Speaking of transformations, the Oxford Dictionary defines “transition” as “the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.”

For me, this was a month heavy on transitions.

Throughout June, I participated in some way in a promotion, a retirement, a recommissioning, and a change of command. I also prepared to move for my new assignment.

Lieutenant to Captain

At the beginning of the month, I went through the formal transition from 1st Lieutenant to Captain during my second promotion ceremony as an officer. Besides the natural progression itself, the transition from the singular bar to the pair of bars even feels visibly more significant than that first promotion from 2nd to 1st.

That pay bump feels more significant, too, especially with my 10-year Time in Service…

What I think is most remarkable in my promotion experience is knowing that I was definitely promoted to Captain but not feeling substantially different despite that fact. At this point in my transition, it was not terribly clear what difference becoming a Captain has on expectations from others or from myself.

A month on, I no longer take the time to tell myself that there are not significant expectations on me because I’m just a lieutenant, even as a joke. I do joke that because I am now a captain, I have ideas. 

Even before June’s end, I began taking the time to feel that the time has come to be angry and do something with that anger, or to recognize a problem and try to really dig into potential solutions. I do feel like more attention is paid to what I have to think and say, which emboldens me to present my ideas more.

I realize that I should have been taking more aggressive positions as a lieutenant, but retroactively recognize that much of what I said was simply cut short, disregarded, or in the worst case, acknowledged politely before being ignored in reality.

So, as I reflect and write, I realize the fact is that I have always had ideas. I just had a disconnected microphone and would be lucky if someone or enough people were close enough to hear me without needing speakers for those changes to happen.

Becoming a captain should not be necessary to convince more people of changes that ought to be made, or at least to argue the merit of an idea before explaining the issues with it…

Having this realization as a captain of course leads to a plain truth: any opportunity I get to engage with the future of our world — whether that’s our Air Force world or just any young leader — needs to do as much as possible to empower those leaders.

Active Duty to Retired

I narrated during the official event marking the transition of two combat airmen from Active Duty to Retired status. While participating in my own promotion ceremony does not make this clear, I freakin’ love narrating or merely participating in these ceremonies.

It’s important to recognize these different events as the big deals that they are: in a promotion ceremony, someone has taken the time and perspired for the team and the nation to earn a new rank; in a retirement, that time and sweat over at least two decades is recognized and awarded with a culminating “Well Done.”

The thought that struck me most sharply during the process of the retirement was the level of thought these more experienced fellows had put into their upcoming transitions.

One gentleman had prepared his next job well in advance and knew what he would be doing after his terminal leave concluded. Actually, he might be working the new job before his terminal leave ends. I forget. The other gentleman was almost finished with his degree, so while he was not quite as prepared to transition, he had a plan in progress.

Transitions can always be around the corner. Thinking ahead, even to a slight degree, can mitigate a lot of anxiety for the unknown — even if you know a transition is coming up, there will still be plenty of learning challenges ahead.

The other thought that really stuck with me: none of us has to experience our transitions alone. The second retiree was actually content to retire without ceremony, but the first basically didn’t allow that to happen. 

Airman to Guardian

I narrated during the official event marking the transition of my lieutenant teammate from the Air Force to the Space Force. 

This transition is particularly interesting because there’s little to know about this transition for a while, yet. While my friend has definitely become a Guardian already, he is still in an Air Force assignment.

What’s most remarkable to me about this transition is the excitement and anticipation for the future that is tied to it. There is no well-and-widely known, clear expectation of what a Guardian is supposed to be. While airmen fly, marines kill, soldiers fight, and seamen do whatever it is they do on the seas, guardians…? Well, they’re still defining that, really.

It’s a cool transition into a space without a real precedent. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch not just for the friendship, but also for that unique perspective.

Change of Command

Finally, I stood around for a long time bearing the unit guidon as my unit introduced our new commander to the unit and bid our old commander farewell — a two-fer transitional event.

Not only is an outgoing commander transitioning from command to who knows what — maybe even another command — and an incoming commander transitioning from who knows what into command, an entire unit is also experiencing a transition with a new commander.

I repeatedly heard ideas along the lines of being prepared to introduce ideas to the new commander before he gets set in his ways. I wonder now if the sentiment started with the outgoing commander, actually, as he liked conducting business a certain way and seemed content to stick to that methodology until he departed.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with that, plainly put.

I did get to meet the new commander briefly, but besides the general understanding that his approach was strongly focused on serving the members so they could best operate with minimal stress from external influences, I did not get a real impression of him.

I should ask my Guardian friend about that — but it also draws a point out for me: any time you make a transition, expectations and impressions also likely shift. Getting ahead of them or at least keeping in mind that they will ride along with the transition is nearly guaranteed to be beneficial.

Change of Station

Preparing to move to another base has been a transition in progress. The culminating event for my PCS has not occurred yet, but the preparations began nearly a year ago.

The anticipation has been building steadily from knowledge of assignment, to obtaining orders, to house-hunting, to closing on the house, to packing up the apartment, to mapping out a route, to finally, finally preparing to make the physical move.

I’m looking forward to what all this transition will bring, but it is a bit frustrating (while not precisely stressful) to know and prepare for a transition for so long. It’s a bit like waiting for an amusement park free fall ride to drop.

Wrapping Up

This concludes my post about thoughts from June focusing on transitions.

Please share any thoughts you have had while reading this post with me through direct messages — I do not expect to share this on an openly accessible source just yet.

Some specific questions I’d like to hear answers to:

> What transitions have you experienced lately, and how are you or how have you felt about them?

> Did any of my thoughts prompt you to reconsider your own experiences?

> What insights do you have to share about transitions? I would love to hear them and am sure others would appreciate your thoughts.

> Is there a topic you would like me to cover in a future post?

> What other questions might you have? You can ask me just about anything, I think, though I maintain my position of not getting too personal.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this post. 

I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope you’ll read through my post in July.