Commander's Corner: resiliency, endurance, perseverance

  • Published
  • By Col. Stuart M. Rubio

“Cause sometimes you just feel tired, feel weak; and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up; but you gotta search within you to try to find that inner strength … and get that motivation to not give up ...” 
        – Marshall Mathers

We talk a lot about the vital skill of resiliency, but along with that comes the need for perseverance and endurance. As a wing, an Air Force, and a nation, we are currently working through a number of difficult challenges that have been, and will be, with us a long time. Crisis Action Teams (CATs) are generally stood up to address a specific predicament. I recently sat in on an Air Force Reserve Command CAT meeting dealing with FOUR concurrent crises … COVID, hurricanes, the Afghanistan evacuation, and our current financial challenges across the force.

When I decided to train for an Ironman triathlon, I had to find a pace that I could maintain for miles while keeping my heart rate low. The great advantage we have as a wing is that this is a team sport. We can maintain the pace required to accomplish our tasks in this challenging environment by relying on each other. Individually, you can surge and then allow others to take over while you recover. 

I look forward to seeing all of you face to face on Sunday morning at one of the two commander’s calls … even if it’s just the top 1/3 of your faces! I have the utmost confidence that we, as a team, will continue on our pace to lead the Air Force in our assigned missions as the Wing of Choice.

As a reminder, the COVID environment has not changed in south Mississippi since the last UTA, so I encourage you to continue to UPDATE your records if you received the vaccine outside a military installation, attend a session to get EDUCATED on the vaccine if you have questions, wear your masks per the DoD MANDATE, and INSULATE yourselves and your units by spreading out and following good hygiene practices.