COMMENTARY: Change is a Constant, Adapting is an Imperative

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Michael Thomas
  • 352nd Special Operations Support Squadron
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." - Albert Einstein

Change, and the ability to recover or grow with it, is something everyone faces in their life. When I joined the military, it was something I struggled with.

I began my career in a C-141 Starlifter squadron. Shortly after my arrival, I began hearing that we were going to transition to C-17 Globemaster IIIs. Additionally, we were told the C-141 was being retired from the Air Force. It wasn't long after hearing these words that the squadron rumor mill went into full operation. "The C-17 isn't passing its air drop tests so won't meet the proposed timeline," and "The C-17 can't handle the current airlift requirements that the C-141 is handling," were just a couple of supposed "facts" I'd heard and believed.

Unfortunately, I, along with many of my peers, bought into all of the rumors despite leadership's consistency in their message that the transition was happening. The misguided beliefs my peers and I held not only delayed our active involvement in seeking new assignments, but also created rifts in the squadron which affected morale. As advertised, the C-17 came, and C-141s can now only be seen in museums and the bone yard.

Rather than learning from this experience, I took my attitude of resisting change to my following assignment as an instructor at the navigator schoolhouse at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. The squadron was beginning to advance their training tools by using new software and equipment such as Smart Boards. Air Education and Training Command made very large investments in these technologies -- money that some of us thought could have been used elsewhere.

Again, my reluctance to adapt and move forward would have a negative effect. No truer was this sentiment than when I was humbled while a fellow instructor -- one who spent his time, unlike me, learning how to maximize the potential of the new technology -- led a training session. That instructor stood before our students and provided outstanding instruction utilizing a number of features of the new Smart Board while I sat there with a dry-erase pen and a model of an airplane waiting for my turn to instruct.

"When you're finished changing, you're finished." - Ben Franklin

Since its inception, the Air Force has been a service that continually seeks to leverage emerging technologies, and to find more innovative ways to do business. This advancement has not been limited to equipment and airplanes, though. We can see this mantra applied to organizational structures, Air Force Specialty Code alignments and basing. The Air Force has not driven these advancements simply because it disdains the status quo, but rather because it recognizes that our capabilities must meet ever-changing demands. These demands are inextricably linked to the dynamic environment in which we exist -- an environment which includes, but is not limited to, our government's strategic vision, the abilities of our enemies, the size of our force and our fiscal constraints.

"It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change." - Charles Darwin

In the past year, the personnel of RAF Mildenhall were faced with significant change with regard to the arrival of the CV-22B Osprey. Not only was this aircraft bringing back vertical-lift flying operations to a base that hadn't regularly seen it in seven years, but the CV-22B was also bringing numerous other challenges unique to the platform and how it operates. As the director of staff of the 352nd Special Operations Group at the time, I was extremely impressed with how the personnel of both the 352nd SOG and the rest of Team Mildenhall chose to tackle these issues, and how they began adapting to the new aircraft's operations.

Representatives from multiple agencies sat down regularly to identify the shortfalls in existing infrastructure, operational knowledge and written guidance. However, rather than use these issues as reasons why adapting operations to CV-22s at Mildenhall was an unsolvable problem set, as former 2nd Lt. Mike Thomas would have done, people sought solutions and worked diligently to impose those solutions. Here we sit a year later, performing hot-gas procedures regularly, utilizing hitherto unused ranges by 352nd SOG aircraft, and operating CV-22s almost daily across the U.K.

"Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you." - William Frederick Book

It's amazing what people can do when they face significant change with an open mind. Adaptation is an inherently difficult process; we must face known and unknown challenges associated with something new. As I've seen in my career, being a proponent of change, however, not only eases the transition period, but it also alleviates the negative effects from opposing it. Also, quickly accepting and adapting to change affords us the opportunity to steer the transition in a way that best serves us, while also giving us the ability to more quickly identify some of the unforeseen challenges we will face. In no way am I suggesting all change is for the better, but even misguided change should only be repudiated after adaption was sought and information as to why the idea or change is inferior can be clearly communicated. The Air Force will continue to change long after my career is over, but we will only remain the world's greatest Air Force if we choose to adapt and change with it.