Excellence -- not just a word

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Fitzgerald Hentz
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Command Chief Master Sergeant
FORT DIX, N.J. --  Team Eagles -- shortly I will celebrate my two-month anniversary as your command chief and what an awesome experience it has been. 

Each day has proven to be one of humbleness and honor as I have witnessed your genuine effort to train, mentor, and lead expeditionary Airmen. Your professional approach and sincere dedication to mission accomplishment can be summed up with one word -- excellence. 

Seeing each of you consistently and passionately perform vital roles in developing and caring for Airmen reassures Maj. Gen. (Kip) Self and me that excellence is not just a word to you. It is indeed your standard for preparing expeditionary Airmen to fly, fight, and win. 

As I have told many of you, the training role of the United States Air Force Expeditionary Center is an important one and one that all of us should feel proud to have.
Whether you're a member of the Mobility Operations School, Expeditionary Operations School, 421st Combat Training Squadron or the Resources Directorate, realize that your day-to-day execution of the Air Force's core values helps produce the very best "warrior" Airmen. 

As a recent returnee from a one-year deployment to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, I can reassure each one of you that your efforts are making a difference. 

The training you provide ensures our Air Force and its leaders have the right Airmen with the right skills and capabilities to get the job done. 

This huge accomplishment is only possible because of your commitment to make every Airman the best resource to provide "Airpower...from the Ground Up" -- a commitment that enabled the Expeditionary Center to graduate over 17,400 students in 2008. So, it is with pride that I say thanks Eagles for the excellence of what has been done and for the excellence of what will be done. 

The year ahead will continue to give each of you opportunities to succeed. Will challenges arise? Of course they will. But with your enthusiastic determination, challenges will become opportunities for success, and excellence will continue to be our benchmark. 

Let us use as our guide the philosophy of Robert F. Kennedy when he once stated, "Some people see things as they are and ask 'Why.' I see things that could be and ask, 'Why Not.'" 

Eagles, let us continue to ask why not with an "all in" attitude as we strive to enhance the already well established legacy of the United States Air Force Expeditionary Center.
It is with that outlook that our initiative will lead to unprecedented contingency and mobility training concepts, ideas and processes which will in turn enhance the war fighters. 

Yes, we will have challenges but we will meet them head on with zeal and determination, realizing that excellence is not only our legacy but it is also our responsibility and defines why we will continue to "soar" as Eagles.