Are you a Wingman?

  • Published
  • By Col Joseph M Mastriana
  • 421st Air Base Group
RAF MENWITH HILL, United Kingdom --  First, let me say, "I'm not talking about being able to fly under your own power without any aircraft." More importantly, you don't have to be in the Air Force or even the military to be an effective wingman. What I'm talking about is someone who willingly gets involved in looking out for coworkers, family, friends, and even oneself. 

As we enter the holiday season, we will hear more and more about being a good wingman and not going anywhere without your own wingman. So for the record, just what is a wingman? Wikipedia defines a wingman as a pilot who supports another in a potentially dangerous flying environment. Wingman was originally a term referring to the plane flying beside and slightly behind the lead plane in an aircraft formation--in essence checking the six o'clock position. 

The idea behind the wingman is to add an element of mutual support to aerial combat. A wingman makes the flight both offensively and defensively more capable by increasing fire power, situational awareness, attacking an enemy threatening a comrade, and most importantly the ability to employ more dynamic tactics. 

So how does this apply in our everyday lives? It doesn't matter whether you are at your home station, deployed down range, away from your unit TDY, or at home with your family. Wingmen are force multipliers, because they observe individual's blind spots and help transform potentially dangerous scenarios by improving situational awareness and mitigating tunnel vision. They do this by employing an organization's core values in combination with the wingman culture of getting involved regardless of the potential for a damaged relationship with the friend, coworker, or family member in distress. 

Being a good wingman not only involves preventing your friend from drinking and driving or from taking off on a long trip after working a full 12 hour shift, it means helping him/her deal with stress and troubling times. It means knowing where to go for help when the warning signs are there no matter what the personal risk. 

When I entered the Air Force, I became part of a unique organizational culture, just as you did when you joined your organization. The foundation of this culture is rooted in our core values. For the Air Force that's integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. You can substitute your own organization's core values and the meaning does not change. Our culture and these core values compel us to take care of our own. In the 501st CSW we accomplish our critical mission as a dedicated team of professionals committed to our core values, the mission, and each other. 

However, there are times when the most important thing for a good Wingman to know is when to immediately get professional help when necessary. The 501 CSW has recurring Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) at each of our locations. This course teaches the essential skills required to save a life in a time of need--never an easy subject to discuss, but definitely some tools for your life skills kit. I sincerely hope you will never have to use them, but it is comforting to know you have those skills just in case. Please contact your local Chapel, if you would like to find out more information or check course availability. 

All USAFE Airmen already have or will participate in Wingman Day before the end of the year. By sharing information and soliciting ideas particularly from our junior Airmen who are on the front lines day in and day out, we will endeavor to enhance our ability to take care of one another. We will take the time to celebrate our combined accomplishments, acknowledge the stressors we all experience daily, emphasize available support services at each of our locations and remind everyone what it is to be a good Wingman. 

So are you a Wingman? If not, I hope you soon will be.