 Ladies and gentlemen, please join us in welcoming to the gathering of Eagle stage chief master sergeant Calvin Markham. Thank you. Thank you very much. So that summed it pretty much all. So thank you. Hey, so it's a it's quite an honor to be here and I'm very, very humbled and I'm very, very intimidated because if you look at the list of Eagles you have this week. I am by far, well I always say I have the lowest IQ in any room I walk into but I am completely honored to be here with these gentlemen to be a part of this and I hope I don't disappoint you. So if I could get all the ACSE students to stand up please. You are future leaders. Lead well or don't lead and good luck in your future endures. Please sit down. Hey, so October 2001 you got a great group of people today. So John Charlie Holland, the first U.S. Air Force, the only U.S. Air Force commander of U.S. Special Operations Command during 9-11 he's here with us today. You have Colonel Darginio who led the Talans, the combat Talans into Operation Gecko and Operation Rhino taking a huge bite out of the Taliban forces. And then you have a very close in soft operations you find yourself that you are connected in many, many ways with people that you didn't know. You may not have known them during the operation. You may not have known them after the operation but man they are going to be a part of your heart. So we have a Chief Tabern here from Task Force 160th that led some great men and I am not going to steal any of their stories but man today you got a great lineup and to kick this off again I feel very intimidated by it because man just some awesome, awesome people to be around. Thank you sir. So October 2001 man I got this awesome opportunity to lead some great airmen over into Uzbekistan and set up some CSAR operations with our Task Force 160th brother. And man we are going to cover the northern hemisphere of Afghanistan, the most dangerous area of the mountains. Hey what if one of our pilots goes down and how are we going to get them? So teamed with some great para rescue men, some great leaders, got over there, opened up the airfield in Uzbekistan at K2 with our mighty 6SOS because they were already in country during 9-11 training some of the Uzbeks over there. So it just worked out great that we were able to establish this airfield and things happened. We started getting some more intel and we started seeing what our agency counterparts wanted to do with the Northern Alliance and we went to an unconventional warfare set and we had never really done that before in our history of SOF. We did it on a real small scale but not into the point where we did some kinetic operations into a country. But man everybody was pissed who here served during 9-11 raise your hand. Who came in after 9-11 raise your hand? Well man you joined during a time of war so thank you for your service. Man that is dedication. That is motivation to come into the military during a time of war and still continue to serve. In my 30 years I got to serve half of that in war, in combat. So hats off to all of you. But man we were pissed. We were really pissed after 9-11. We didn't know what we were going to do or how we were going to do it. But man we just knew we were going to go somewhere and we were going to kick some ass and through the great leadership of General Holland we got that chance. We got that opportunity to go kick some ass. And so my bosses kind of like today, you know, hey Charlie and Mike you're going to be the first one in the shoot. You're going to go out with ODA 555 and man again in SOF we have such a small connection with people. Man the team sergeant was my swim team buddy in 1992 going through the combat divers course. We were swim team one. In fact when I stepped into isolation with the 10 he's like hey there's a guy that drug me through the water all those six weeks at combat dive school. The Fox Trot on the team I had been to Halo school with one of the medics on the team was right near from my hometown and we had gone through another course together. So the people that you meet and soft and the people that you live and breathe and sweat and bleed and just cover the suck. Man those are the people you want around you because you surround yourself with smart people at all times and they'll make you better. So we get to do this VTC with General Tommy Franks U.S. Suncom commander at the time and he talks to our team about hey I don't know whether to be envious of you guys being the first ones to go in Afghanistan or man to be sorry for you and have those letters ready for your significant others because this is a suicide mission. We don't know what we're going to put you into. We know that the mighty men and women of Task Force one sixtieth are going to get you there. But man we don't know what's going to happen after that. And so I was kind of looking around I was like well hey boss there's there's some younger guys that you know I've gotten to do some pretty cool stuff but if you want to someone of these guys first. And so I kind of feel like that today I feel like I'm the first one into the you know into the lion's den to face you guys and show you what man show you got for you this week. And so again I'm truly humbled. I truly appreciate the opportunity to be here. I by no means think that I should be here. In fact when I got the letter from the commandant I thought it was a joke. I was like all right who put who put them up to this like they got they obviously got the wrong person. They probably meant Chief Master Sergeant Bill Turner William Turner man that is a true leader that is a true man that is a true chief master sergeant one of my mentors one of my best friends. So it's very humbling when you get that letter to be honored to be part of this group to be a part of these great Americans who have done such great things and man and you just have one little piece one little piece of that pie. Maybe for a second maybe for a day you know but man I don't think it's all about the actions on the battlefield that gets you where you need to go. One thing you will learn here and one thing that you have learned and one thing that you will know for the rest of your career is man you got to lead because we have hungry airmen. We have hungry airmen that want to be led in the second that you don't lead them. Officer or enlisted civilian or contractor the second that you don't lead them they will know it. One of our great leaders said credibility equals freedom of freedom of maneuver the second you don't lead them or the second that you don't follow because followership equals good leadership. The second that you don't do that your credibility is blown and you may get another chance you may get another chance to lead them or to follow them or be part of that team. But if you don't then you're done and there's no room for that because we have hungry airmen that want to be led and man we leave it to you no matter what position you're in no matter what you do. You don't have to be soft to make a difference trust me it took me too long in my career to figure that out but you don't have to be soft to make a difference. Man you just have to be a human and being human goes right back to our core and being human you can make a mistake. This shouldn't be a one mistake military because if it was I wouldn't be standing in front of you today. I've been out a long time ago those pictures when I was a didn't look at anything I could do now and I'd been gone a long time ago. It's man we are human we air but you got to err on the side of self reflection how do I make myself better. And there's a couple of easy ways man I'm going to break it down in five words this is going to be the easiest leadership lesson you're ever going to get. And I didn't come here to give you a leadership lesson and I came here to give you don't do what Charlie Mike took so long to learn what Charlie Mike took so long to do. Because man you don't have that much time today is given today is given tomorrow isn't you don't know if you'll be here tomorrow. And you got to live your life and lead your career like that why are we all here today. Why this is usually my chance to get down in the crowd and make somebody feel uncomfortable. And that's awesome because my job as a chief was to make people feel comfortable feeling uncomfortable. Why are we here today family we want to be a part of something we are a part of something. Man we're here for the most beautiful reason ever and I'll say it love what do you love. Man I love this beautiful lady right here there's nothing more beautiful. And if you don't love that you better find something else to do because I will find you. I'm serious if you don't love that find something else to do. And I'm passionate about that and passion equals love. Passion is an emotion not one bit you get emotional about something you are no longer professional. But if you are passionate about something you are professional all the way. And if you've worked with me worked for me or I've worked for you you know that I am passionate. And man I can you can go to the man with that you can stand on the carpet with that. But the moment that you're emotional forget about it. You have lost all your professionalism you have lost all your credibility. And man it's hard to defend you it's hard to have that conversation with you. But if you can be passionate and professional and you can take that all the way to the man. Five simple words five simple words equal that passion and that love. And man it's all right to say it I love you general hold I love you. I've worked for this man I've sweated for this man and I've bled for this man and I love him. Because you know why I know he is next to me he's to my left he's to my right and I can count on him. And I trust him with my life and that's commitment that's your first word commitment. Look to the left and right of you right now. And if you don't trust that person with your life man you got to hang out with some better people. Because you got to have that you got to have that passion you got to have that commitment. To what you do. You got to have that commitment to her creativity. It's your second word. How many how many of you are sick of hearing well we do it that way because that's the way we've always done it. I hate that. Everybody hate that. Well I mean some things you got to do because that's the way you've always done it. I got that. But I'm not the smartest person and I did a good job of surrounding myself with smart people. But man I'll tell you what I am creative. And so many times I got no Charlie Mike we can't do that. Why not. Well. I don't know why. Well then let's find a way to do it. What is your creativity level. How many have a bunch of friends on Facebook. Like a lot. Nobody good. Because then you have no creativity because you don't get out in front of people and you don't talk to them. You don't engage them. You don't get their ideas. How many people are afraid to take somebody else's good idea. A great idea. And take it up the leadership chain. And go man this airman this lieutenant came up with this idea. Holy cow. They're knocking it off the rocks. If you are afraid to surround yourself. With smart people. And creative people. You're going to lose. If you walk into a room and you think you're the smartest person in the room. And you have to prove it. You've already lost. Because I'm telling you. Our generation coming up behind us. You're young airmen you're on officers. They're smarter than us believe it or not. They're smarter than us. I was the exception. I was not smarter than anybody coming up. So I did a good job of finding that creativity. Find it within you. Find the way to yes. Trust. It's your third word. Do you trust your leadership? Do you? Man that's a tough question. You've seen a lot of our leadership fired throughout the years. Probably more in my last ten years of active duty. I've never seen more commanders. Relieved of duty. Why is that? Well. I'll tell you this. Is because they didn't have commitment from their people. They didn't take the creativity of their people. And they didn't trust their people. And that leads to a toxic environment. And man that's when it's time to say yep. I got to let you go. And it's happened with a lot of chiefs. It's a lot of people. And it's happened with a lot of chiefs. It's happened with a lot of senior NCOs. It's happened with our junior officers. But man you got to have trust. That those mighty men and women in the back of your planes that they trust you to get them where you needed to get them to conduct operations on the enemy. You damn right they did. And would they do it again? Hell yes. If you don't have trust you don't have anything. If you don't trust in her. If you don't love her. You have nothing. Fourth word maturity. Is the oldest person in the room always the most mature. If I'm the oldest person in the room I will tell you right away. I am not the most mature. Look at our young lieutenants. Look at our young airmen coming in. When we were young airmen and we were young lieutenants. And this group right here can say it. Man they would say we weren't very mature. And when they were young lieutenants and young airmen their leadership and their superiors probably said the same thing. Man get over that. Find those mature individuals and mentor them. Lead them. Empower them. Man because they're going to come up through the ranks and they're going to be sitting where you are today and one of them through the grace of God or a raffle ticket is going to be standing on this stage talking about what they learned. Who their mentors were. Why they're here. Man you got to have trust in that. You got to have trust in your leadership. When my commander Colonel Papiana and my D.O. Colonel Kirk Buller. Man decided that I was going to be the first airman to be attached to an ODA team to go in Afghanistan and conduct kinetic operations which hadn't been done since Vietnam on our enemy. Do you think they trusted me. I hope so. I trusted them. I trusted them so much that they were making the right decision that I refused to write that old shit letter to my significant other. I refused that I was not going to come back from that operation. I refused that idea. And man we fought hard. You don't take over the Bagram area and move in the Kabul in 25 days because you know you were easy on the enemy and we were hard on the enemy and I trusted everybody I was with I was able to look to the left of me and to the right of me and say I love you man I trust you with my life. I expect you to get me out of this when it time comes. And man the last thing. You will never ever be an expert at anything and if you do if you think that man do a self evaluation because I'm here to tell you you won't but people around you they are experts they are committed they have creativity they trust you you trust them they're mature they're working through a situation they're going to help you rise to the top and I don't mean the top of the rank I don't mean the top of the food chain but when you walk into a room you have presence that expertise is going to help you win a battle that expertise is going to help you get a TO an OI a regulation well sir chief that's the way we do it because we've always done it that expertise is going to help you that expertise is going to make life better for an airman that expertise is going to defend this beautiful lady more than you know because you have surrounded yourself with fellow airmen, fellow soldiers fellow sailors fellow marines that expertise is why we're all here ladies and gentlemen thank you very much I appreciate your time today I think we have some time for some questions I'll be happy to answer any of them but remember my job is to make you comfortable being uncomfortable sir, thank you for the opportunity I appreciate it folks anything? thank you