Holmes reiterates core values

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Charles Dickens
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans and Requirements, Headquarters U.S. Air Force spoke at the graduation of Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 12-14 on Sept. 7 in the Kaye Auditorium.

Maj. Gen. Mike Holmes stressed to the newest Air Force pilots and the other Airmen in attendance, how important the Air Force core values are and to always look to improve character.

"As in any profession there are skills that we learn and then there's a code of ethics that goes with it, and for us that code of ethics centers around the Air Force core values," said Holmes.

Holmes said that integrity is very important to completing the mission because it allows a level of trust that the task assigned was completed properly the first time, saying we need to have that rock-solid level of trust in our military service.

"If you have grandparents or great grandparents that served, they don't talk about being in the Army or being in the military, you'll hear them say that they were in the service," said Holmes. "They say that on purpose because we've been called to serve this great nation and our country and many people around the world depend on us."

In order to succeed in serving in such a capacity, the requirement for every job and mission is nothing less than "as well as possible", said Holmes.

"We cannot accept or expect anything less than the very best from ourselves and everybody that we work with," said Holmes. "That means 'good enough' can no longer be in your vocabulary, good enough doesn't cut it."

People rarely rise to the occasion of being the best; what happens most often is they sink to the level of their training and character, said Holmes.

"Every day we have a choice in front of us," said Holmes. "We can wake up and enthusiastically say 'yes' to the task in front of us or we can find a reason to say 'no'. I challenge you to build a habit of enthusiastically saying yes every day because when you discipline yourself to do that, pretty soon that discipline becomes a habit. Pretty soon that habit becomes character and you don't have to think about it."