COMMENTARY>>Professional development is the foundation

By Maj. Constantine Tsoukatos
19th Component Maintenance Squadron commander

Every individual’s role is vital in supporting the overall mission of our Air Force. I would like to talk about how we develop ourselves to fulfill that role.

Quite simply, our professional development is the foundation of what makes us a professional military service and separates us from most other occupations. There are many ways in which we develop ourselves. We begin with basic training and our technical training schools. They lay the foundation for us, providing a uniform standard by which we all adhere.

From there, numerous opportunities exist to further ourselves. Professional military education builds upon our foundation, and continues to sharpen our professional skills. Complementary to PME, higher education provides even more to enhance our profession -- whether it’s a Community College of the Air Force degree, Bachelor’s degree or a certification - higher education is an important part of how we continue to grow as Airmen. However, there are two other areas one should focus on which are crucial to sustaining a professional fighting force. The first is job knowledge -- specifically as it pertains to Air Force Instruction’s and other governing directives such as technical orders. How well do you know your AFI’s? While not suggesting strict memorization of AFIs, one should be comfortably familiar with them to quickly locate applicable references. This is what “back to basics” means; doing things right the first time by the book. The other area of professional development is physical fitness.

While this may seem more intuitive to a fighting force, only in recent years has the Air Force begun putting the emphasis on our conditioning status. However, it makes sense. We are a professional, military force and we need to be ready to execute our mission to the best of our abilities. Airmen are the only appreciable asset the Air Force has ... everything else, aircraft, facilities, equipment ... they all decrease in value. It’s Airmen who are the Air Force. Continuous professional development is how we sustain ourselves, and thus, our profession of arms.