Page 155 - Never Fly Solo
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128 | NEVER FLY SOLO
it this way: “I didn’t wait for the floods to come before I built
relationships.”
Walking the flight line is the core tenet of wingmanship,
and it’s one of the most essential practices you can adopt to
build trust and credibility as a leader and wingman. When
you take the time to learn about your peers and associates on
both a professional and a personal level and then do your best
to help them succeed, you transform a relationship into a
partnership. Not only will you be able to work together to
handle challenges and problems, but you’ll also be much more
effective at spotting and stopping those missile launches before
they even leave the ground. And your wingmen will naturally
want to celebrate their victories with you as well.
WALDO’S WINGTIP
Commander’s Call
Sometimes it can be very difficult for a commander to get
out and visit all the troops when information needs to be
disseminated. So at least once a month, the squadron com-
mander of a fighter squadron shuts down all operations and
calls all wingmen (pilots, maintenance crew, administrators,
technicians, and other crew) together for a meeting. The
purpose of the meeting is to disseminate important informa-
tion to the entire squadron and keep members aware of key
updates, deployments, hot topics, and other important
information. The commander also introduces new members
of the squadron and bids farewell to those who are depart-

