COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- More than 450 Team BLAZE Airmen, civilians and spouses received the chance to enhance their professionalism and leadership during the Profession of Arms Center of Excellence briefing Sept. 30 at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi.
The five-hour course, led by Lt. Col. Teresa Roberts, PACE Operations Division Chief, covered several different modules separated with some group activities. The modules included connecting values to mission, professionalism, thinking about thinking, human behavior, communication, personal bias and more.
During the event, individuals were encouraged to become better leaders by becoming better people. Roberts intent was for attendees to use what they learn to improve themselves to become successful.
“The hard work is up to the individuals,” Roberts said. “If folks make something of this, then they are the success, not the program.”
The PACE program and courses were originally designed for commanders, but word of mouth spead positive reports on the course allowing them to speak to thousands of members in service to the military. The course is designed to help Airmen, civilians and family to think outside the box to become a better leader.
“We all need to practice what we preach if we want everyone around us to be better,” Roberts said. “We need to be willing to put forth the effort for us to be better too.”
The PACE program is a voluntary, highly-encouraged Air Force course offered to all motivated individuals wanting to become their best self although some members were weary at first glance but found themselves enjoying the course more than expected.
“I didn’t really have a whole lot of initial opinions of the briefing, but I thought a lot of generally good things were said,” said 2nd Lt. Matthew Van Velzer, 14th Student Squadron. “It was interesting to see the basic psychology trends being used. I really like that it was targeted to Airmen of all levels.”
“I was really intimidated by how long the session was going to be,” Senior Airman Anna Oberlander, 14th Flying Training Wing Judge Advocate office. “Five hours is a lot of time for what I thought was a typical briefing, but I’m really glad that I came actually. I found myself agreeing with a lot of things being said.”
Roberts said during an interview that many attendees seem to hunger for betterment.
“There is a desire to do right by others and ourselves,” Roberts said. “I think that’s really admirable… Once or twice, someone was in a bad place and they said this really gave them hope. I’ve had folks that said they were ready to quit on the Air Force and it helped to re-blue them. It’s just absolutely humbling to hear that we can influence folks like that.”
For more information about the PACE program or how you can receive information about the class, go to airman.af.mil.