Words from an OAY: SMSgt Callaway

Just in time for the holidays, we've been fortunate to have several of the 2012 Outstanding Airmen of the Year (OAY) lend themselves to being guest bloggers. The distinguished title of OAY is given annually to 12 outstanding enlisted personnel for superior leadership, job performance, community involvement, and personal achievements. AFA honors the 12 Outstanding Airmen at our annual convention in September in Washington, D.C. 

In this blog series, the OAYs will share with readers their experiences as an OAY, offer a glimpse into some of their fears and give insight to their field of expertise.

The first guest blogger is Senior Master Sergeant Laura Callaway, of the 60th Medical Operations Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, California. Her duty title is "Physical Medicine/Emergency Department Support. SMSgt Callaway led the Air Force’s largest physical medicine and emergency departments and forged a clinical practicum with the University of California-Davis, which was identified as a career field benchmark. She secured a multi-year contract worth $2 million to ensure on-site care for veterans, reducing diverted care by 30% and saving $500,000. Sergeant Callaway cultivated the Air Force’s largest civilian physical therapy training exchange program, chartering agreements with five universities to work with 15 interns and saving the Air Force $600,000.

There are so many words to describe the amazing opportunity afforded to represent the outstanding enlisted men and women of today's Air Force. There are two things that immediately came with this honor and oddly enough two of my greatest fears. Public speaking and being photographed...I know most people who know me would laugh at that statement as many have heard me "speak my mind" but it's funny how God and life put you in places for reasons.

I would say up until now that I have been able to speak about very specific, job related or personal events that are so close to me that I can ramble on for days about them. Now with a specific audience and an expectation I find myself out of my comfort zone. I am excited but nervous, anxious but intimidated...I don't want to disappoint anyone. I find myself listening to everyone from an educational point of view, trying to pick-up any "golden nuggets" they might throw out on how to speak eloquently. I am floored by the many different styles, I listened to a 75-year-old man speak about his past and the future, very specific, spelled out, 10-page speech. I listened to the Wing Commander, who was told an hour before that he would be speaking, and went to the podium with a couple of things jotted down on a napkin, hit it out of the park. I listened to our Command Chief speak to the newest members of our Air Force, warmed them up and made them feel relaxed, was able to pull ideas and topics from them and relate it to his goal. Then I spent the weekend stressing, reviewing, practicing and changing a 10 minute speech of my own. 

As for the 2nd fear, photographs...I have never liked having my picture taken, as long as I can remember. Don't really know why, just feel uncomfortable with lights, cameras, maybe it's the focusing part, but I am getting over it pretty quickly because it seems silly. And since I can't really find a problem associated with it to focus on I am working on just doing it. I think that as with the first, the fears are about trying to do or be my best and failing is not an option. A growing experience for sure and I would love to hear what others feel under the same situations... any ideas, notions, tricks?



V/r,

LAURA A. CALLAWAY, SMSgt, USAF
Superintendent, Physical Medicine/Emergency Department
60 Medical Operations Squadron

Global Warfare Symposium Wrap Up

A big thank you to all who attended AFA's 2012 Global Warfare Symposium. This year’s symposium was a great success. We hope attendees found this event to be a real benefit and helpful in their continued service and professional career. As always, it is our pleasure to provide this community another opportunity to network with highly skilled aerospace and Air Force professionals. 

We would like to thank all our attendees, members, corporate sponsors, speakers and the United States Air Force for a truly outstanding event.

Recap: Global Warfare Symposium

Key takeaways from Day 1 of GWS:

From Acting Undersecretary Jamie Morin:

• In FY13, space investment makes up 20% of the Air Force investment budget - Dr. Morin
• Through "efficient space procurement" or ESP, USAF thinks it can save more than $1.2 billion as it buys more AEHF and SBIRS satellites
• Space future is bright: Greater coop with allies in space and closer partnerships with industry & "amazing innovative airmen."

 From Bran Ferren:

• Advice from Bran Ferren of Applied Minds, LLC: Air Force should get off GPS in the next 10 years.
• Innovation has never come out of US military's requirements process.
• First suggestion: Fix acquisition, no matter how hard it is. No radical theories needed, only common sense

From Dr. Adam Grissom:

• We must put the nation on sustainable path and avoid cycle of instability leading to fiscal pressure and retrenchment.
• USAF's role in grand strategic challenge? It's about numbers. Combat Air Forces CAN be everywhere at once and have played that role in past.

From the Panel: Challenges of ISR Across the Extended Domain

• There are definite cost benefits to partnering with commercial industry, but also challenges with security and flexibility.
•  Comm. ISR offers: high-positional accuracy; near-real-time delivery; in-theater access; secure, yet shareable; and it is cost-effective.
• Commercial communications to support Pacific pivot will require layered types of bandwidth and frequencies and ability to avoid jammers.

Check out Air Force Magazine's Daily Report for more highlights.

Day 2's agenda includes talks from Gen Shelton of Space Command; Gen James on  Air Force ISR; SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell; Col Peck (Ret) on America’s Secret MiG Squadron and two sessions from RAND’s Benjamin Lambeth and Stacie Pettyjohn. And ending the conference will be Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley giving conference attendees an update on the State of the Force.

GWS: Rebalance to the Pacific, and the Increasing Demands on Space and ISR

The time has come! AFA's 2012 Global Warfare Symposium in Los Angeles, CA begins tomorrow afternoon! This annual symposium focuses on the global role of the Air Force in the world today and will cover an array of topics, including the Pacific, China, Cyberspace, Industry, and Space. 

We have invited multiple speakers from around the Air Force, industry, and government. As always, our national symposiums attract the top echelon of USAF senior management and commanders, the aerospace community and academia.

Thursday's line up of speakers include Acting Undersecretary of the Air Force Jamie Morin, on Space Superiority; Bran Ferren, on Innovation; Dr. Adam Grissom, on the Asia Pivot; and a panel moderated by Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski on challenges of ISR.

For live updates on the conference, refer to AFA's social media channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AirForceAssociation
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AirForceAssoc 

And also Air Force Magazine: https://twitter.com/AirForceMag  

Letter to Congress: Stop Sequestration

Leaders of AFA, Association of United States Army (AUSA)and the Navy League of the United States teamed up to write a letter to Congressional leaders, urging them to act quickly in the lame duck session to avoid sequestration and solve the potentially devastating blow to our national security. 

Read it here: http://www.afa.org/grl/PDFs/AFA-AUSA-Navy_League_Sequestration_Letter.pdf

AFA Honors Veterans

Below is an official statement on behalf of the Air Force Association regarding Veterans Day: 

On Sunday, we honor our nation’s veterans. We deeply appreciate the service and sacrifice of so many. Their valor in wartime and readiness in peacetime respectively earned and preserved our nation’s freedom, along with the security of countless millions in allied nations. In addition, we extend our gratitude to our veterans' families, whose love, courage and support gives strength to the men and women in uniform.

Our nation can never fully repay them for their dedication, but must always take special care to honor our national commitment to their wellbeing and other earned benefits. Today, we simply say ‘thank you.’

Join us at the Air Force Memorial for our annual Veterans Day Memorial Ceremony, November 11, 2012, 11 a.m., One Air Force Memorial Drive, Arlington, VA. 

More information can be found here: http://www.afa.org/media/press/2012/Annual_Veterans_Day_Celebration_at_Air_Force_Memorial.asp

CyberPatriot V’s All Service Division Completes First Round of Competition

CyberPatriot V – National High School Cyber Defense Competition has completed the first round of competition for its All Service Division, which consists of teams from Junior ROTC, Civil Air Patrol and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps. During Friday and Saturday, November 2 – 3, competitors were scored on how well they strengthened their assigned simulated computer systems by finding and fixing security issues. The round was also the inaugural run of the new CyberPatriot Competition System (CCS), a new cyber training model. For the first time teams could receive real-time feedback of their scores along with a report of the scored problems they correctly solved.

More than 350 CyberPatriot teams competed online from the United States and as far away as the Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Germany, Japan, and Korea. Civil Air Patrol’s (CAP) Iredell Composite Squadron, from Statesville, North Carolina, was the first team to compete at 9:00 am, Friday morning. Misawa Air Base, Japan’s Robert D. Edgren High School’s Junior ROTC unit was the final team to compete on the system. 

This new system allows for more detailed feedback to the competitors that will enhance the educational value of the competition. Each year we work to advance the experience of our competitors. We think these capabilities in the new system will be a true asset in the preliminary rounds and further help develop career- and college-ready young adults. 

(More about CyberPatriot is available at www.uscyberpatriot.org.)