LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Master Sgt. Nicholas Jiles, 47th Operations Support Squadron aircrew flight equipment flight chief, is nearing his 20-year mark in the Air Force. In that time, he has had a lot of time to reflect on what it means to be an Airman.
A “Big-A Airman.”
Those in the Air Force have heard the term “Big-A Airman” time and time again, meaning Airmen of all ranks and duties; enlisted, officer and civilian counterpart.
As a former military training instructor at not only the enlisted basic military training, but also the Air Force’s Officer Training School, he was able to get a firm grasp on the importance of a sound foundation and how that can vector an Airman’s career.
“You can look at Airmanship like a house,” he said. “Without that foundation for other things to build on, everything else will fall. Even after 19 years, I still look back at my basic training experience, my tech school experience, and my first duty station experience. Those are the things that helped mold and better myself as time went on. Foundation is key.”
With the Air Force ever-changing, Jiles stressed the importance of communication between Airmen, units, mentors and supervisors.
“Communication in the Air Force is imperative,” he said. “We’ve got to motivate our younger airmen and let them be creative. We’ve got to let them be innovative. You can’t shoot them down, or they’ll end up keeping all their creativity to themselves. If they keep getting shot down, that could be stopping one of the next chiefs of staff of the Air Force, or one of the next chief master sergeants of the Air Force.”
He said that without being on the same page, team members cannot be cohesive. It takes a sound foundation in the Air Force’s core values, a healthy unit with open communication, and a free-flow of knowledge to truly grow as a force.
“I never keep my knowledge to myself,” Jiles said. “I always give my troops everything that I have. I don’t categorize who gets what kind of knowledge, either. It doesn’t matter if they’re brand-new out of tech school, I’m going to give them information that I had to learn later on in my career if they need it.
As a seasoned master sergeant, Jiles wants to see the Air Force move forward and innovate as more than an organization, but as a family. He said that even though some see wearing the uniform as just a part of a daily routine, Airmen need to remember that they are all brothers and sisters in arms.