Achieving a Fighter Pilot Mindset

now as a young a-10 fighter pilot i got the opportunity to participate in a top gun bombing competition we each get six dummy bombs to bring to the range there's no explosives it's just a spotting charge so we can see where the bombs will drop we are evaluated on our parameters like dive angle and air speed and then how close the bombs get to the target so even if we get a bullseye which is a direct hit but we have sloppy parameters we can be penalized i thought my my ride to the range went really well i was pretty confident i had a good chance of winning and then just before the awards ceremony my weapons officer who is essentially the top tactical pilot most experienced pilot in the squadron found me in the hallway said hey kc you know you missed winning the top gun competition by one degree by one degree are you serious and he said yeah your safe escape maneuver which is how we max perform the airplane to get away from the bomb blast was off by one degree like hey my bomb scores were good what does it matter what's one degree really matter that experienced weapons officer decided to school me a little bit in that moment as a cocky young fighter pilot and he shared with me some lessons that i would take with me for the rest of my career and that's that small errors matter precision matters and that we have to fight to improve to fight to get better so that we can be competitive those were some tough lessons for a overconfident young fighter pilot but they were lessons that i would take with me for the rest of my career now as a more seasoned and experienced fighter pilot i've had the opportunity to fly thousands of hours in a fighter jet and over 100 missions in combat supporting our troops on the ground and the one thing i can tell you from all of those missions nothing nothing ever goes exactly as planned just when we think we have a solid course of action something happens requires us to adjust and make changes and if we're leading that formation then we need to be able to lead our team in the face of adversity through challenges through difficult times and we do that best by being prepared by working to continually improve and get better so that when we're faced with the unexpected we are prepared to respond so i check my distance from the target i check to make sure my altitude is set correctly and then i roll in as i'm rolling in i point my nose right underneath the bridge make sure that i'm aiming correctly and then hit the pickle button it's our weapons release button and instantly seven rockets come off the airplane but now i've gotta climb i've gotta climb to get my energy back i'm in a left-hand turn climbing trying to get up away from the ground when boom i am rocked in the cockpit as i feel and hear a loud explosion at the back of the airplane i'm hit the jet noses down i'm pointing at baghdad below i pull back on the stick and nothing nothing happens the jet is not responding to any of my control inputs i can see the ground getting closer and i know that i might have to eject i quickly try to analyze the situation master caution light hydraulic panel hydraulic gauges they're at zero the hydraulic system is empty it's completely depleted ejection handles not yet the last thing i want to do is eject into the hands of the enemy and so i decide that i will make every second count i set aside my fear i regain my composure and engage a backup emergency system the airplane slowly starts to climb out and away from baghdad it is the first moment i actually think that i might survive the situation i did not make it home successfully alone i had a very experienced flight lead with me providing me with that mutual support he was absolutely critical of making sure that i could get that airplane home successfully he knew my strengths he knew my weaknesses and he supported and encouraged me and he empowered me to make that decision to land the airplane and then there are my crew chiefs ian and randy we put so much trust in our maintenance team and in return they don't want to let us down they want us to succeed now as you might guess there might be a little bit of a healthy tension between our ops and maintenance personnel right the pilots want to fly more lines fly more airplanes and maintenance wants us to stop breaking the airplane so they can fix them and we can fly more lines but when it comes down to it we couldn't do it without them they're absolutely essential and these guys made sure that my airplane could fly under any circumstances even after extensive battle damage it's amazing what happens when you put trust in your team when you show your team that you value their expertise and you trust them they were all part of the team that helped me get back home and i will never forget that i will tell you that that mission was an incredibly challenging moment in my life it's probably a bit of an understatement it pushed me to my limits it pushed me outside my comfort zone but it also showed me what i was capable of doing and i got to see firsthand why precision matters why small errors matter why we have to continuously try to improve to get better because you never know what kind of situation you're going to be faced with and you want to be able to overcome challenge and adversity and lead your team to success as leaders we have to be prepared when the mission doesn't go as planned we have to be able to adapt and overcome and we do that best by being prepared by focusing on a mindset of continuous improvement by knowing that that extra degree matters so i hope today that what i've shared with you has motivated and inspired you in some way but the true test really comes in the months ahead does what you talked about today and what you heard today matter will it make a difference i challenge each of you to get outside your comfort zone to think differently about performance and leadership to fight for continuous improvement because that extra degree does matter and as fighter pilots would say push it up and take it to the next level thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: Victory Strategies

Views: 49,954

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Id: 2qHNR78qmec

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 20 2021