New command chief discusses wing, road ahead

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. William Huntington
  • 442nd Fighter Wing public affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Chief Master Sgt. Allan Sturges became the 442nd Fighter Wing's latest command chief Jan. 1 following the retirement of Chief Master Sgt. David Isaacson in December.

Chief Sturges started his Air Force career more than 30 years ago as a crew chief on F-4 Phantom aircraft and after a break in service, joined the 442nd as a traditional reservist in 1985.

The chief is a native of Missouri and works in the wing's communications flight in his civilian job.

Soon after assuming his new duties, Chief Sturges granted an interview to the 442nd Fighter Wing's monthly magazine, The Mohawk, to talk about the unit he's been a part of for more than 20 years and what he thinks the future holds for the 442nd.

Mohawk: Tell us something about where you come from?

Chief Sturges: I enlisted in the Air Force in 1976. I did four years active-duty with three years overseas and came back to the states for a year. I came into the 442nd in 1985 as a traditional reservist and in 1986 became an Air Reserve Technician. 

Up until now, I've been in the maintenance community my entire military career. I've been a crew chief, a production controller, a scheduler, a maintenance systems analyst and a production supervisor on the flight line. So I've seen it all on the maintenance side, which is near and dear to my heart.

Mohawk: What do you bring to the job?

Chief Sturges: Twenty-eight years of taking care of the mission and taking care of people is what trains you for this job. You have to look at the big picture and balance the mission and the people. You have to make sure the mission gets accomplished and that people get taken care of. Regardless of who you are in this organization, we can't do the mission without you.

Mohawk: What kind of changes are you going to have to grapple by making the transition to Command Chief?

Chief Sturges: From my previous job, it has always been about maintenance operations. Now I'm looking at the entire wing. 

We've got some challenges ahead us. I keep trying to tell people that when I started in 1985 we were a strategic Reserve - one weekend a month, two weeks a year - now were are an operational Reserve and this wing will always be going some place. We have our aviation package deploying shortly, but we have cops that are deployed, transportation guys deployed, fuels personnel deployed and we just sent out some of our Civil Engineers. I can't see us at a time in the near future where we won't be deployed.

Mohawk: What do you think the top issues will be that you'll be advising Col. Arthur on?

Chief Sturges: Again, it's meeting deployment requirements that are coming down in the future. How they affecting our people. How they affecting their families, their employers, their mission. I know that Col. Arthur is already aware of those items and he struggles with them every day to make sure they stay balanced. 

This position is two-fold job. One is to advise Col. Arthur on all things related to the wing's enlisted force but it's also to talk to the enlisted force and show them Col. Arthur's desires and mission requirements.

Mohawk: How accessible will you be as the leader of the Wing's enlisted force?

Chief Sturges: The door is always open. I want to hear what's happening to the enlisted folks. I want to hear the good and the bad. The only thing I do ask is that you go through the chain of command. But if you have a personal issue and you want to talk about it, the door is always open. We have some of the best support services available. We have the judge advocate's office, we have the chaplaincy and we have the Airmen and Family Readiness program. We are all about taking care of you before you deploy, while you are deployed and after you get home.

Mohawk: Tell us about your work ethic.

Chief Sturges: Do it right, do it honestly. We have the Air Force's core values - integrity first, service before self, excellence in all we do - and they are the core values that I think have been my values, and a lot of people's values, before they became the Air Force's core values. I think it's important that we bring that to the table. As each of us does our jobs; whether it be the support group, the maintenance group, the operations group, or the medical squadron; regardless of what we are doing, do it right the first time.

Mohawk: What does the Wing do well and what could we improve?

Chief Sturges: This Wing is awesome! We do everything well. What we need to do is make sure that we don't forget how we do things well and that is by doing things fundamentally. Don't cut corners. What do we have to do better? Well, that ORI "word" is being said a lot. Because it's being said a lot and there is a good potential for it to happen, we need to dust off our ORI hats. That a whole different type of game than what we've played in a long time. 

ORIs are all about fundamentals, and we need to look at what we need to do to be successful in an ORI and start looking forward to the fall of '09.

Mohawk: What do you want people to remember about your time as Command Chief.

Chief Sturges: I want to see that I took the Wing to the next level. I think that's what everyone wants to do; to look back and say, "we've made a difference." I want to say that I helped the organization better itself by doing "something" - you know, bettering this, bettering that. 

It's a great honor to be sitting here and I'm extremely happy that Col. Arthur selected me for the position, but again it's not about me it's about taking care of the folks. I'm one person but there are 1,200 people out here in this organization that are making this wing the best. My goal is to help them succeed in everything that they do. If after I'm gone and people say, "you know, Chief Sturges added to the 442nd Fighter Wing's success," then I have met my mark.