Produce Pilots, Advance Airmen, Feed the Fight

  • Published
  • By Col. Barre R. Seguin
  • 14th Flying Training Wing commander
COLUMBUS AFB, Miss. --  Your entire BLAZE leadership team just completed its second, day-long leadership seminar with the goal of defining the Mission and Vision statement for the 14th Flying Training Wing and defining our strategic objectives.

With the inspiration of noted author Jim Hunter, your squadron commanders, division chiefs and Wing Staff Agency chiefs dissected the wings activities and defined a new wing mission statement. A mission statement is defined as an organizations reason for existing. I am excited to announce our new wing mission statement for Team BLAZE: Produce Pilots, Advance Airmen and Feed the Fight.

Produce Pilots, reflects our primary operational mission at Columbus AFB. Columbus is very unique in that it has one mission, one commander, one MAJCOM. The word produce is favored over train to reflect not only the flying training required, but also the support required from the Medical and Support Group, Maintenance and the Wing Staff Agencies. I challenge all of you to understand what you contribute daily to Producing Pilots.

Advance Airmen reflects our commitment to continuously developing our Enlisted, Officer and Civilian Airmen. From our formal training like enlisted core Career Development Courses, First Term Airman Course, Professional Military and civilian education to our informal mentoring sessions or conference attendance, we are committed to personally and professionally improving our Team Blaze members.

Feeding the Fight highlights our full time commitment to where America needs our Airmen in today's fights. Some of the fight is at Columbus AFB; most is preparing our Airmen for deployment in support of our combatant commanders. We are ready, we are all in.
A vision statement should paint the picture of the future of your organization. Our new Vision Statement for the 14th Flying Training Wing is An Innovative Training Environment, Focused on Families, Partnered with the Community.

An Innovative Training Environment reflects the need for continuous process improvement to continue training in the future as resources shrink. The environment speaks to the whole macrocosm required to produce our mission, from 30,000 feet to below ground level.
Focused on Families reminds us of our most valued resource, our people. Whether we are talking our biological family or our Air Force family, we recruit Airmen, we retain families.
Lastly, Partnered with the Community reinforces one of the great strengths of Columbus AFB, its renowned community support. Community support is a force multiplier for Quality of Life issues for all our Airmen.

Take time now to learn our mission statement. I expect every Team BLAZE member to know it. More importantly, I challenge you to know and articulate your contributions to our mission.