 OK, welcome back. Hope you guys had a great lunch out there. We're changing things up a little bit. We're now, for this segment, this is going to be ACSC. What did I learn? And why does it matter? Because I know some of you might be thinking that right now. Our guests on stage are ACSC graduates and are serving in a variety of command and leadership positions. And I'm going to introduce Lieutenant Colonel Damian Holtz-Claw. He is the commander of the 38th Student Squadron. And he's going to serve as our moderator and serve the floor as yours. Thank you, ma'am. Mustangs? OK, OK. We had a few in the audience. Hey, thank you guys so much. First, I want to say thank you to the panelists for volunteering your time to come out and share your personal experiences with the audience here. And then I also want to thank you guys for joining us in this inaugural first-time event for Let X. So to have an alumni panel, come talk to you about Air Command and Staff Collars. So before I let these guys introduce themselves, what I want to do, I see a few of the ROTC cadets in the room. So I just want to set the stage with a little bit of introduction about what the program is. So ACSC, Air Command and Staff College, is a 10-month program. It's an IDE intermediate developmental educational program for professional military education. So 10 months where we engross 500 students in the art of war, learning about war theory, international relations, and joint operational planning. And that's in 10 months. And they also earn a master's degree. The best thing, and I'll let these guys kind of talk about that, but the program is broken up with Sister Servicemen, Garden Reserve, so a TFI component there as well, and about 70 different international officers from 68 different countries around the world. So a unique experience to network with folks from every walk of life in a 10-month period. So with that being said, before we really get started, just go down the line and introduce yourselves, AFSC, your current job, and what class you were here at ACSC. All right, cool. Buck Benton, I am currently the Squadron Commander of the Introduction to Final Fundamental Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base. The Black Knights, got a couple of them in the crowd here to heckle as well. So I was an ACSC class 2014. After that, I went to USAFE where I was on the A3 staff for a couple years before going to Columbus. Awesome. I'm Major Martin. I currently am one of the DOs at ACSC, so shout out to Division Three out there. And I also teach there as well. And my husband and I were going to be headed to Stugart and UConn next summer, so we're excited for that opportunity. My name is Major Mark Weems. I am an engineer by trade, 6'2", acquisitions career field. I'm married and my wife is in Georgia area. I am a graduate of this last class, A119, so just graduated this past summer. I'm currently working at the Air University Command section. I'm the Executive Officer to the Commander and President. My name is Mark Wilkie. I am from class A119 last year. I was very fortunate to get picked up for a job here at Maxwell Air Force Base as the Deputy Director of the 42nd Force Support Squadron. And that's my career area is for support. Awesome. Again, thank you guys for being here with us. So we'll jump right into it. As I was talking about earlier with the mission of Air Command and Staff College to educate and develop air-minded joint leaders. And if General Pettis was here, he'd probably expand on that and talk about the why, right? And that's to enable our nation to deter our adversaries and support and defend the nation's interests in an increasingly complex and dangerous world. But that really is a broad mission statement. But it encapsulates a lot. But from each one of your perspectives, if you wouldn't mind sharing with the audience, just what did you take away from your personal experience here at Air Command and Staff College? Sure. So I would say that before ACSE, I really saw myself as just the tactician. I was trying to get really good at my craft, which was flying aircraft. And you're always in this mindset of, do I want to continue on in the Air Force and make it a career? Or do I want to go into the guard reserves, don't want to get out and fly commercial? And so I would say the first couple years of my Air Force career, I just felt myself as a pilot in the Air Force. And then when I showed up here, that's when I kind of switched in my brain from being a pilot, a tactician, to a member of the profession of arms. And I was kind of zoomed out and exposed to more than just my little lane there, flying F-16s or teaching people how to fly to zooming out and learning how to integrate with our sister services, learning how the joint fight works, thinking about organizing training and equipping, thinking about how am I going to now be the leader to take our future Air Force into those domains that you just talked about. So it was kind of an opportunity for me to zoom out a little bit and get perspective. Awesome. I think with my perspective, what I got out of ACSC was, well, first of all, I'm a medical officer, some public health officer by trade. And a lot of us don't have an opportunity to attend ACSC. So I felt very honored and privileged to have this opportunity to attend this program. And what ACSC taught me was, and also value, was the complexity of war and also the utility of the joint planning process. So you really get a better understanding of our joint partners, not only within the US with our sister services, but also with our international officers. We have about 68, we have a lot of IOs that come from about 68 countries in ACSC. So you really get just a vast opportunity to network and meet a lot of different people and learn and have that ability to share your experiences with them. I'll piggyback off of Lieutenant Colonel Betten. I mean, just the sheer amount of shared experiences you're able to have. I come from an engineering background, acquisitions, a lot of office work, not too much deployment. Basically, it's just very, very different. My average day was just looking at a lot of problem sets with a missile system or some sort of math problem or something like that. The guy that sat next to me in my ACSC class, he was a security forces guy. He's commanded five squadrons already, kicked people out of the air force, just done, not that he was proud of that or whatever, but basically had a lot more commander experiences than I had. I mean, above to that point, the most I had done was just talk to someone very sternly. So basically, it definitely gives you a different perspective on what your fellow officers have been through and why we're going through the classes. Basically, we were able to share on that a lot. Basically, I picked up a lot of good points, a lot of good leadership points, a lot of bad ones as well. But basically, you can learn from the mistakes of others is what it comes down to from. Awesome. I've been associated with the Air Force for about 37 years. Yes. And when I got to go to school, it was just at around between 35 and 36. And what was interesting is, after being in this profession for that many years, I did not have the big picture of war, air power, international relations. And as a civilian, this is a real privilege to be able to come to the school and participate. And now I feel as though I'm rounding off my profession. Some people, they'll look at ACSE and say, it's not exactly what I need. Well, it depends on your perspective and what you're looking at. We are professionals and our profession is war, primarily with the aspect of air power. And so being able to get that history of war, Klausowitz, yeah, Germany, Sun Tzu, those things are still practiced today. So being able to look at that context and go back and see what's still valuable to us today and move forward, I think is really great. So for me, it was a rounding off for the rest of my career. I've still got at least a good 10 years left in me as a civilian, if not more. And I think I'm a more rounded airman and professional. That's outstanding. Mark, I want to start back with you. I'm something you just talked about before I ask. So I had an opportunity to sit down with Dean Forsythe a couple of weeks ago and we're just talking about what the program is, what it is not, what does it do and what does it not do? And I happen to agree with one of the things that he mentioned is that ACSE is not supposed to prepare you for a specific task at your next job. That's not what it's supposed to do. And I'd love to hear you guys' opinion on that, but I'm gonna relate that to what the comic talked to AY20 about. If you recall one of your CSS's and he said the same thing to AY19 for when he came and visited you guys last year, but General Holmes mentioned that in our development of our Air Force officer career, we pretty much have three careers. One, Buck, you talked about it very early on, that it's primarily the responsibility that we hone our craft. We become the SME, the subject matter expert in whatever we're doing, engineer, finance officer, cyber pilots, but you become that SME. But then the second part of your career is where you hone in on the operational sense and how your function fits in the bigger picture of the Air Force and then how the Air Force fits in that bigger picture of the DOD system. So Mark, starting with you, I recall last year when you introduced General McDougne in front of AY19 when he came to speak to us and you worked for General McDougne when he was a colonel. So place in the context how ACSC, with your wide operational and leadership experiences, I mean, you were the MAGCOM chief master sergeant for AMC? No, I was just a wing command chief. Oh, just a wing for a colonel. Sorry, didn't mean to put you that part. But nonetheless, you had a long career of managing a lot of resources and leading a lot of people, but how did ACSC, just last year, help expand your leadership level even more so? I think there's some, what you said is really good. This ACSC is not about a specific preparation for a specific job. I think some people come here with that expectation and that's the wrong expectation. It's a general knowledge, it's a building on our profession. And for me, several, I think awesome things, learning about the broad profession and being able to relate that to how the A1 community fits into the art of war and air power and international relations. We spend a lot of time focused on, as the tacticians, working in our specific career field and we don't spend a lot of time getting the bigger picture. And it was really phenomenal being in a class I had a Marine soldier pilots from Lebanon and Columbia and hearing those perspectives and hearing what they thought about things that maybe I had a bias on. And so it really does open up the aperture of your thinking. The other thing that I think is really good about ACSC is it honed my skills on critical thinking because you know, when you go and you read the volumes of stuff that they give you, when I came, I originally thought they wanted to hear a particular message. I was supposed to give them the right answer. But here I was being told, no, you got to question these authors close with. Don't just take what they say for granted. So you have to interrogate what you're reading. And I think that is an amazing skill that you take away from ACSC that as you get up and you have to read volumes of information as you gain in rank, you're gonna have to be critical. You're gonna have to ask tough questions and you can't just take an expert in a particular career field that they've got all the answers. You may have a question that's going to set things on the right track when it was on the wrong track. So just a lot of great information that just helps move you forward from what I was experienced. So even though I had that experience as a command chief, I think I'm better prepared as a leader now after going through ACSC. Anybody else have anything different from what Chief mentioned? I think that's a fantastic question or a question that you presented. It's really not about preparing you for the next job because when we come into ACSC, we're already tactical experts in our field. But really what ACSC is set to do is again to develop those critical thinking skills, being able to question authors, consider the bias of certain authors, understand what thesis or argument they're presenting in the different books we read. But also it gives us a better understanding of our security environment based off the different classes that we have to take as well as historical perspectives, all of which are very important in developing those critical thinking skills because you get more of those contexts in that background. And then lastly, really ACSC is also designed with this network capability. So being able to network with such a diverse set of students is just a phenomenal opportunity for us. Awesome. So, you know, try to clue you guys into where most of the students are right now for the panels and a lot of you know, but so these guys have just finished finishing up TermC so they're entering into the last term here. A lot of them, you know, we're starting to get theitis a little bit, ready to get out of here. A lot of them don't have orders yet, so Mark, they're probably gonna be over there knocking on your door and holding you hostage. But ACSC, when we talk to them in August, we remind them or at least start to inform them that it is a extremely fast mental marathon. Why? It's a long year that happens extremely fast, extremely fast. And it's a different year in which that you're no longer a part of an operational mission. We have our academic mission here, but you're not in a team sense working together. This is an individualized look at developing yourself to be a better professional. And it's challenging. It is extremely challenging. So along with those professional challenges, we have life happens here at ACSC, right? So how do you balance life with, oh my goodness, I got three papers due at the same time and all that good stuff. So a lot of learning happens here. How did ACSC affect your personal leadership philosophy after graduating? Yeah, I think it's a framework that you learn, the adage that you're never gonna be, you're never gonna have as much free time as you do right now as you continue on with your career is extremely true. I'm sure some of you were told when you're showing up to, or received your assignment to ACSC, they're like, oh, you're gonna love it. You're gonna go golfing every day. It's half day, you're not gonna have to study hard. It's gonna be a break. And then you get here. And then all of a sudden you realize there's lots of reading, there's lots of writing. You're actually spending a lot of your weekends on the computer at your home office, writing papers and having to balance that family time. And I remember, we talked about expectations earlier, right? I remember I poorly managed my wife's expectations of ACSC from that advice that I received coming in. So taking that mentality now moving forward after ACSC, I kind of learned that everybody is busy. No matter what's mad com your end, what's your AFSC, everybody works extremely hard, long days, and has to manage normally professional goals, but personal aspirations and taking care of your family. So what I would say, the tool that I would offer you is have that framework of what's important for you. This is an opportunity where you can, in an academic situation, really think about how am I going to act as a leader in the future? If you're going straight to staff, you might have a little bit of time before you're thrown into a command role. You're never gonna be completely ready, but you have the opportunity to be prepared. And this is the year where you become prepared for those command roles where you're gonna have a lot, ask of you professionally, but you still have to maintain the family balance. And so having frameworks of what's important and everybody has to answer that on their own, what's important to you is probably one of the, as nebulous as that sound, it's probably one of the most important things that you can take away from ACSC. Awesome. My hands, okay. All right, we'll soften it up a little bit. So each year, the class somewhat takes on a different vibe of their own, a different character, if you will. But if you could each describe one of the most memorable moments that you had at ACSC, whether it's within your own family or within the class itself. For me, I would say the International Culture Day events. Those were, so basically two days, we already talked about the almost 70 international officer countries that we have with us. Basically a day where, basically everybody gets together, a lot of food is involved, sometimes alcoholic beverages, but basically just walking around two hangers full of international delicacies was awesome. And I will let you know that I did my part, even in my position now, to represent the Air University Command Section to go back and partake this year as well. Having the International is awesome, and I'm sure everybody is aware by now in your ACSC class of who always asks questions during the lectures, right? There's always that one person, right? And so we had a, he was from Uganda, his name was Peter. And every single lecture, didn't matter the subject, would stand up and ask the question in his awesome, you know, Ugandan accent. And it would just, by the end of the program, everybody would look to Peter and like, let's go Peter, it's time to ask the question that you would get up and ask. And it was a lot of, you know, it's crazy as that sounds. One of my most memorable experiences is having the internationals, especially Peter from Uganda, always stand up and make us laugh. So I gotta echo that from Buck. So he and I were classmates. And so that is my most memorable experience as well. And Chatham House rules applies, I should have mentioned that, but so during the CSS, same person, it was when our CSAF at the time was here and he was giving a speech on leadership. And so talking about the do's and don'ts of leadership. And so Peter just say, well, if you come to my country, you can have many wives. You won't have to have that problem. And so the CSAF had a little fun with it at the time and say, well, can I have dual citizen's issues? So just those times like that make it really memorable and really hone in on what was most valuable here and talking a little bit about those relationships and things of that nature. So again, these guys are entering into the last term. What would you recommend to them as far as something that they should think about, reflect on in the next 30 to 45 days before they walk across the stage and graduate to get out of here? What would be something that you would recommend that they at least think a little bit more on before graduating? I'd say you got, you're going in your last term. I assume it's the joint. Joint warfighting. So for a guy like me, that was all brand new. That was very exciting. I knew a little bit about airplanes. So I was hoping I would have a role in the joint planning with the Air Force. They made me the Army Commander, which was really, so I learned a lot about tanks and other things. But as you go into this last term, what I found myself doing is really rethinking my priorities throughout ACSE and the time that I was spending, I heard a lot of senior officers come and talk about making sure that you put your priorities in place. If you came here and your priority is spending time with your family, and you haven't done that, this is it. This is your last chance. You're still gonna do your work. You're still gonna put what's necessary into it. But I began to realize that I needed to really spend time because my wife was here with me. I needed to spend some more time with her because I had not spent that time that I should have because I was involved very much in the academics and trying to do your best. And I don't dismiss that, you ought to do that. But think about this as you're getting ready to go your next job. I'll tell you the job I'm in now is a lot of work. There's a lot of time and a lot of effort, not just while I'm there at the job, but after job thinking about it. And so take advantage of any time that you can to spend with your family, if at all possible. I'll say two things. First, especially in the joint war fighting part, I just remember so many funny stories from that. Overall, I'll say the whole, this kind of goes back to what you were saying before. ACSE, it's hard to, you have an overall vision and overall goal with the class, but it's overall hard to teach joint planning and everything that they want to get out for every single career field. So in the end, you just kind of have to think about it. What's the main point that they're trying to get across? And just kind of take it for that, critical thinking or this joint planning process. Overall, just try to try not to get bogged down into this individual task, having to write this particular memo for the joint piece or whatever. Overall, just try to take a step back and really think about the main issues that they're trying to get across. And that's kind of the piece that will help you kind of go in your future jobs. Being able to think critically and write, which also goes into my second point, really just helps you to be more well-rounded as an officer. I heard a couple, even the C staff at one point in some of the other meetings was saying that we want our officers to know how to write better. If anything, that's one thing. If anything, I've gotten from ACSE, active, my active versus passive voice was practically beaten into me. So, my writing has gotten, I'll say, a lot better as well, even just another funny story. That was a requirement for even my job interview for a Pentagon job. They asked me to send them two copies of my ACSE work. So, that was interesting. But overall, yeah, like I said, basically just try to take a step back, don't get so bogged down in the details. Just kind of think about what did they send me here? Why did the Air Force pay all this money to send this here? Critical thinking, networking, shared experiences. Yeah, and I'll piggyback on the networking. Some of the relationships that I was able to develop here kept in contact with them. So, some of the instructor like Bill DeMarco, Andy Christensen, Jason Womack, Nicole Pinkum, these people that I met at ACSE as our instructors, kept a relationship with them and we were able to bring Andy out to Columbus a couple of times to talk to our folks, ran back into Jason when went the leadership development course. It truly is a great networking opportunity. And so, as you're finishing up your final quarter here, I would definitely work on that. If you're hesitant to reach out and ask for somebody's contact information, don't be, just kind of get over yourself, ask for the contact information and then follow up with them because as you continue on with your career, you realize that there's gonna be a time when you need to reach back to a engineer, to somebody in the A1 community that often time could have been at this same ACSE class with you to ask questions about how to solve problems when you get into the leadership roles. Awesome. Any time the success of an organization oftentimes is depended on its ability to adapt, right? And adapt to the current environment that's causing it to change. As we've talked about with the mission here at ACSE, we've changed a lot of the curriculum. The administration has changed over time as well, but the mission has pretty much stayed the same. If you could change anything about the program itself, reshape or continue doing, now that you've been removed from the program for a while, what would you do? What would you change? I can start on this one. So, there was a requirement in previous classes. I was an AY19 graduate, but there used to be a requirement where everyone had to do an independent research paper. And I naturally love research to begin with, but I would like to see that come back because I think there is something special about research and it really helps you better with your critical thinking skills because you really have to identify a problem versus the problem. And you have to go through some type of rigor with developing your literature review, your methods, and then providing, critically thinking and providing overall recommendations. I had an opportunity when I was at ACSE to do independent research, and Professor DeMarco, who's the head at the leadership department, was my advisor. And he was just fantastic to work with and I learned so much by going through that process. And I think it really helped me kind of work very independently on something and something I was very passionate about. So that's something I would like to see come back. Awesome. One of my electives, we got a chance to participate in that virtual experience where you're the commander and you have somebody come in. The practical nature of that, I was skeptical at first, but it was really a good practical experience. And I think in the leadership block, the more you can incorporate that. And I know in the commanders course, I believe that's more prevalent, but that would be, I think, a great opportunity. And it's high pressure. Not only are you dealing with challenging circumstances, but you've got a whole audience of folks watching you. So there's a little pressure there too. And listen, as you go through your career, you're gonna hit these pressure positions. And the more you can practice those, the better. So I think that would be a great addition. We also talked, everybody thought the reading was an appropriate amount of reading. Did y'all like that? Oh, I think that they could scale that back. And there was so much information that was not necessary. I get that part of it is teaching you to go through lots of information and weed out what's important. But my experience was there was a lots of information that was just not relevant at all. And so we had to get to that information because there's a lot of reading anyway. If you actually targeted the reading more specifically or provided that reading in packets, and then that would be more helpful to really learn what you need to learn. I wouldn't want to scale it down too much, but that's my experience, this the number of books. What we ended up doing, and you probably did the same thing as we developed a teamwork exercise where we split the reading up between different members of the flight and said, okay, we're just gonna split it up. We're all gonna do summaries and then we shared the summaries with each other. So we did it in essence on our buyer, on our own, because we just couldn't get it all read on our own, so. Thank you. Anybody else on that question? Well guys, I really do appreciate you guys volunteering your time to come on out and talk to us about your personal experiences. Again, this was our opportunity to share with you the crux of what it truly means to go through ACSC and some of those traits that we tend to value the most once we have departed. So oftentimes when you're going through the fire, you don't really understand the jewel that's being burned inside of you. So again, thank you guys so much for your time.