"The Future of our United States Air Force" - A Note from AFROTC Det 440's Commander, Lt Col Wayne E. Doherty
Ask any leader in today's Air Force what our most important asset is and each would undoubtedly answer "our people." Our technology is state of the art, and our capabilities are more diverse than ever before in our history. Our day to day missions are global and are carried out in the domains of air, space, and cyberspace with tremendous speed and precision. But none of these claims would mean anything in and of themselves were it not for the amazingly talented men and women who operate our systems and execute these missions minute to minute, hour to hour, and day to day. Our Airmen are our greatest strength. We are fortunate today to have an all-volunteer military, and our Airmen understand what a true honor it is to serve our country and to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Through military members' dedication, sacrifice, and hard work every day we all continue to enjoy so many freedoms.
I have great news for anyone wondering about the future of our Air Force. In my opinion, our future looks incredibly bright because of the absolutely spectacular next generation of officer leaders currently coming up in today's Air Force. It is my honor and privilege to work with and train some of this next generation of Air Force leaders as the AFROTC Det 440 Commander here at the University of Missouri. As the Det 440 commander I am responsible for recruiting, training and commissioning all AFROTC cadets on the MU campus as well as cadets from 6 other "cross-town" colleges in the mid-Missouri region. I'm here to tell you that these officer candidates are incredibly impressive young men and women who are accomplishing remarkable things as part of AFROTC's 440th Cadet Wing here at MU! These officer candidates have me truly excited about our Air Force's future, and I'd like to share a little of that excitement with you here now.
So far this academic year (2009-2010), the 440th Cadet Wing cadets have participated in well over 100 training, recruiting, fundraising, volunteer, and charitable events...all with great results. Through their innovation and creativity, they have managed to spark new life into their physical training program and managed to crack the top 20 nationwide with their collective physical training scores. While Det 440 was ranked 18th out of 144 detachments as of January 2010, they improved upon their average scores by more than 2 additional points since then and I believe they have cracked the top 10 list for all of AFROTC! Additionally, the cadet wing is currently training more than 30 cadets in preparation for summer 2010 officer candidate field training at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. This is one of the largest and most impressive training classes in recent Det 440 history. This class is full of cadets with great grade point averages, top notch physical training scores, and overall stellar leadership skills - due in no small part to the great training and discipline being fostered by our cadet wing leadership.
But this class is not the only one achieving great things. We've recently had members of all our classes selected for special programs and honors. Four of our cadets were just chosen as new pilot and navigator candidates, a few of our seniors were just chosen for outstanding active duty opportunities, and several freshmen recently found out they will attend special training programs this summer. All competed extremely well against their peers across the country for these limited slots. Finally, through outstanding events like the cadets' 24-hour Veterans Day vigil, the annual Relay for Life fundraisers (literally thousands of dollars raised for cancer research), and the cadets' Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) training (to name just a few events), the 440th Cadet Wing has set new standards of excellence here at MU and at our cross-town colleges and universities that I am sure will be the high marks for future events for some time to come.
Along the way this year our freshmen have worked hard developing their personal leadership skills, the sophomores have more fully developed their peer leadership skills, the juniors have become superb team leaders, and the seniors have mastered the basics of organizational level leadership. This is the essence of our training focus at Det 440 as we look to create leaders of character for the Air Force who are self-reliant achievers.
Our projections for fall 2010 enrollment look to be up significantly due in no small part to the cadet recruiting efforts and the high standards of excellence being set across the wing in each of the described areas. We have already commissioned two new outstanding Second Lieutenants for the Air Force from Det 440 this year. We are also already preparing another 13 cadets for that honor this spring and summer. We invite you to come out to "Mizzou" to see this happen at our 2010 Joint Service Commissioning Program scheduled to take place on 16 May 2010 at the Mizzou Arena. We at Det 440 will join our sister services in commissioning more than 40 new officers total this year for our armed services.
Therefore, I once again proudly report to you that our Air Force future looks incredibly bright and will remain in remarkably good hands. The officer leaders being developed here at MU's AFROTC Det 440 and across all of AFROTC, along with the rest of this next generation of officer leaders being produced across all of our Air Force officer accessions programs, are ready and willing to meet the vast and diverse challenges that await them upon entrance to active duty. As new Air Force officers, I know they will be up to those challenges and more, and I look forward to seeing them all serving their country very soon!!!
Lieutenant Colonel Wayne E. Doherty
Commander, AFROTC Det 440
Professor of Aerospace Studies
