New 99th Air Base Wing commander takes the stick Published June 6, 2008 By Staff Sgt. Jacob R. McCarthy Nellis AFB Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- The following inteview was given to a member of the 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs, and provides insight into the Wing's new commander, Col. Howard D. Belote, as he shares his thoughts and goals for Nellis Air force Base and its personnel. Col. Belote took command of the 99th Air Base Wing, May 29, 2008. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? I like going to movies, tossing the football in the yard, just doing the kind of things my three teenage sons like to do. I also consider myself an amateur historian; I like reading about founding-era American history. What do you want Nellis Airmen to know about you? I've had a very broad career. I grew up as a fighter pilot, but all my commands were with very diverse ground units. With the incredible breadth of what happens here at Nellis, it's exciting to have a chance to provide the resources and develop the chemistry that will let people excel. How are you liking the transition so far? Thrilled to be here. It's been incredibly smooth. The people at Nellis are bright, aggressive and enthusiastic. It's a lot of fun to be here. Describe your leadership style? What I try to do is to look people in the eye and help them understand how their job helps a Battlefield Airman on the front lines in Iraq or Afghanistan. I also love to see decisions made at the lowest possible level. For me, the best way a team to work is to have lower level people, who know their job, identify problems and make fixes or recommendations. I want those young Airmen and officers to learn how to make decisions without cutting corners. What goals do you have for Nellis? Broad scope--prepare others for war. Most of what we do here prepares Airmen for their role in the War on Terror. Number two--each individual needs to prepare him or herself to go to war. Everybody has to be ready to go outside the wire and answer the call. What are your priorities for the 99 ABW? To learn. Before I can take this large organization and point it in any direction, I'm going to ask the experts what this wing needs. They know far better than I how we can be most effective. What do Airmen need to do individually to help Team Nellis as a whole? First Airmen have to do their jobs as well as they can. Don't just ask how I can do better; ask what you can do to make the people around you better too. When the team does well, everything works. What are Nellis' most important challenges? What ideas do you have to tackle them? It's what the entire Air Force is facing--seeing different manpower billets go away while the demands of the war on our mission just continue to grow. Again, I rely on the experts at every level to tell me the truth. It's a huge challenge for all of us. We're going to have to ask ourselves how to accomplish the mission given the resource constraints that we're under. We have to be honest up and down the chain. It doesn't do anyone any good to always suck things up. Tell the truth so leadership can represent what we really need. What past experiences do you think will help you lead Team Nellis? I was the senior Airman at the world's largest Army post. We'd go to the Army for certain types of support and tell them in turn what we could do for them. We'd go to nearby Army and Air Force bases for various types of support. Just like at Nellis, you have to learn what all these different units bring to the fight and how to work together to get the mission done. What challenges do young Airmen face today? How can they succeed? I think taking things slower is really what Airmen need. We're used to instant gratification in today's society which can get young Airmen into trouble personally and financially. I think taking some time to assess ourselves and delaying gratification, spending a little time working for stuff and knowing our surroundings helps us all. What has been your key to success? To do what I can to get Airmen what they need to do their job and build the chemistry where they want to come to work... then get out of their way. If you could change one thing about the Air Force what would it be? If I could do anything, it would be to construct a situation where handfuls of Airmen went and did something related to their career field with a sister service. At the same time, bring in Sailors, Soldiers and Marines in similar career fields to be embedded in our units. It would really start to broaden horizons on how we're all in this together. What has been your most rewarding Air Force experience? My six months in Baghdad as the 3rd Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group commander and the senior Air Liaison Officer to Multi-National Corps-Iraq. On Jan. 30, 2005, the first set of Iraqi elections took place. In the days leading up to the elections, American media weren't giving the elections any chance at all. Because I was in that small group with the commanding general and the division commanders, we thought it was going to go OK. People were lining up to go vote. People were proudly coming out of the polling stations waving their ink stained fingers. By the end of the day, the elections had succeeded beyond all expectations. We were blown away, because we were suddenly seeing the fruits of what we're doing and what all the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines were there in country trying to make this happen. What we do as military professionals really can matter in the world. What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in the Air Force and how did you overcome it? My biggest challenge is when I shifted from being a weapons systems officer to being a pilot. I went from riding in a plane and blowing up targets to doing all that and flying the F-16. I didn't do all that well. I had to unlearn some things and relearn some things. I got frustrated because I wasn't moving as fast as I could. How I overcame this situation was through the help of a brilliant leader. A new operations officer, Jeff Gordon, came in and took a few months to take stock of everything then called me into his office. He laid out a performance improvement plan of things I needed to do in the air and on the ground. I finally had someone explaining to me what I was doing wrong, ways I could fix it and giving me goals. He lived up to it, and I have tried to live up to his example of mentoring. What's something you've always wanted to do since you came in? I am so far beyond where I ever thought I'd be. It has been such a privilege to do all the things that I've done. When I first went to officer training school, I thought I'd be in for four years, pay off some college loans then go do whatever. Along the way I just kept meeting so many committed, fantastic people who made me not want to get out. I can't say there's something I'd rather do because they keep offering me opportunities I didn't even know to ask for. What one word would you use to describe yourself? Thrilled. Thrilled about the base, thrilled about the assignment, thrilled about everything. Thrilled and absolutely proud. If you weren't in the Air Force, what would you rather be doing? I'd be playing second base for the Washington Nationals or singing in musicals on Broadway (laughs). If I was doing a job with the experience I have now, it would be teaching history at a college or working at the State Department in a policy making position.
