HomeNewsArticle Display

Former chief says Airmen need wingmen

  • Published
  • By Howdy Stout
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Retired Chief Master Sgt. Robert Shannon told the latest graduating class from Tinker's Airman Leadership School to be committed -- to their careers, their wingmen and their families.

Now an acquisition logistics management specialist at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Mr. Shannon is one of the most experienced and qualified AWACS aircrew instructors with more than 8,000 hours of flight time. Serving from 1976 until his retirement in 2006, Mr. Shannon received the Bronze Star and seven Aerial Achievement Medals during numerous deployments.

"A wingman is a very important person to have," Mr. Shannon told the students during their graduation ceremony August 13. "It doesn't matter who it is as long as they are committed to you and you to them."

Mr. Shannon recounted the wounding of Senior Airman Brian Kolfage in Iraq. Despite being severely injured in a mortar attack and losing both legs and a hand, Mr. Shannon said the efforts and commitment of his wingmen saved the young airman's life.

"The next day we lined up next to the C-5 in which Kolfage would be flow to Germany and proudly saluted him as he was carried on to the plane," said Mr. Shannon, quoting from an account by Senior Airman Valentin Cortez. "I thought back to times we had spent together, to last year when we again both volunteered to serve in dangerous lands and remembered a saying by which we motivated ourselves. Knowing this would be the last time I would see him for a long time, I leaned over and spoke those words: We live together, we fight together, we die together. We band of brothers."

Mr. Shannon said the commitment of one airman to another, as exemplified by Airman Cortez, ultimately saved Airman Kolfage's life.

That commitment is also an important part of an Air Force career. The experience of evacuating wounded Marines from the Beirut in 1983 caused Mr. Shannon to master his trade as a C-141 flight engineer after haste - and inexperience - nearly resulted in disaster.

"What I learned from this experience is I needed to be more committed," he said. That commitment also extends to family. In Mr. Shannon's case, it is his wingman and wife of 30 years.

"Of course, I have had many wingmen on deployment and TDY," he said, "but when the word wingman is spoken, I think immediately of her. Her commitment to the Air Force really isn't any less than mine."

Mr. Shannon also urged the ALS graduates to continue their education, to become the masters of their trade. Mr. Shannon holds a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and a Master of Business Administration from Oklahoma Christian University.

"Become the expert," he said, "but not the know-it-all."