Page 78 - How to Drive the Bottom Line with People

Built to Serve

tactical fighter squadron, a tactical fighter wing, and
a flying training wing. He also commanded the

Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center of the North
American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S.
Space Command. The man is a great leader.

I first met General Peterson in 1991 at Randolph
Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He was the
commander of the Twelfth Flying Training Wing at
that time. I was a captain assigned to his staff as one
of his executive officers. In the military, an executive

officer is competent at everything, from making
coffee to writing speeches. It is not a glamorous
54
= position, but the trade-off is that executive officers

have remarkable access to senior leaders much
earlier in their careers than their peers, which makes
the role worthwhile.
One late afternoon in the spring of 1992, I
happened to be standing with General Peterson

looking out a window in his office. His office
provided a panoramic view of most of the activity on
the base because it was atop the building

affectionately referred to as “The Taj,” short for Taj
Mahal. The building stood between parallel runways,
one used primarily for T-38 jets and one used
primarily for T-37 jets. General Peterson made an