News

Mentoring sessions take aim at helping members advance

  • Published
  • By Douglas Hays
  • 434th ARW Public Affairs

When it comes to careers, navigating uncharted waters is often daunting, but senior leaders at Grissom are hoping to serve as a beacon to help Airmen find their course.

Both senior officer and enlisted members will be a part of panels designed to shed light on the keys to career success beginning on Feb. 9.

The sessions, titled ‘Do you want to be promoted?’ will combine presentations with question and answer sessions.

“There is so much knowledge and wisdom at Grissom,” said Col. Anne Noel, 434th Air Refueling Wing vice commander.

With some of the senior leaders set to retire in the coming months Noel thought sessions would help mentor those moving their way up the ranks.

“Each leader has a varied past and to hear how they got to where they are now, might plant a seed to the listener so they can envision a path for their life,” she said.

Two sessions are planned with officers meeting from 9:30-10:15 a.m. in the wing conference room of Bldg. 596.

Enlisted members will meet from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in Gus Grissom Hall.

“My goal is to enhance the way we mentor our members at Grissom, open the lines of communication, and get our members thinking about what they need to do now if they want to progress in the Reserve,” Noel said.

Each session will begin with one or two topics with the focus of the first panel being geared toward taking care of records, making sure everything is in order, and explaining how the reserve development plan, development team and key personnel listing and vectors work.

“There is so much information out there but it can often be confusing to members, so if we can shed light on the important topics, we can help grow the leaders of tomorrow,” Noel said.

For the enlisted side, the first session will greatly mirror what the officers are doing.

“In later sessions we are going to branch out and cover more specific enlisted topics,” said Chief Master Sgt. Wes Marion, 434th ARW command chief.

January’s event is the first session planned but subsequent sessions are being planned.

“These are great opportunities for every Airman, whether officer or enlisted, to learn from those who’ve gone before,” said Col. Larry Shaw, 434th ARW commander. “We want to share what we know works, and also what may not work.”

For Reserve citizen Airmen, careers often have a different look because of the need to balance military, civilian employer and family time.

“We want to arm people with knowledge so they can choose a path that best suits them,” Noel concluded.

The 434th ARW is the largest KC-135R Stratotanker unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. The Citizen Airmen from the Hoosier Wing routinely deploy around the world in support of the Air Force mission.

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