The 3 F's of Incirlik

  • Published
  • By Col. "Tip" Stinnette
  • 39th Air Base Wing Commander
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Many of you will recall from my "What I Believe" series of articles and my first briefing to the team as well as every newcomer, the priorities of Family, Fitness, Focus ... the "3 Fs of Incirlik." I'd like to take this topic to the next level and operationalize it so that the priorities hit home in practice and deed.

The "3 Fs of Incirlik" help to point the way in organizing our efforts and initiatives while leveraging the command's Combat Programs.

Family is a multidimensional word ...we each have immediate family, extended family and are valued members of the wing, command and Air Force families. Clearly, all must be right with the family in order for us to tend to the business of the mission.

The Combat Wingman program is about leveraging the family to support the individual. Project CHEER is an initiative that seeks to support those that are unaccompanied. Combat Care is all about taking care of families while members are deployed, and Hidden Heroes recognizes the volunteers who support our installation family and work to improve our quality of life.

Fitness is a word that we normally apply to the concept of maintaining physical aptitude. But in the context of the "3 Fs of Incirlik," fitness includes the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions of each of us.

Combat Fitness is all about maintaining a physical aptitude that is up to the rigors of expeditionary operations.

Less intuitive is the point that Combat Touch supports emotional and spiritual fitness and that Combat Education, Combat Nighthawk, Project Wizard and Project Connect all address aspects of mental fitness.

Focus, the third of the "3 Fs of Incirlik," addresses the mission that we are here to serve.

Combat Flightline seeks to ensure that we apply our mission resources correctly and Combat Intro/Exit is about getting our people to the "fight" quickly and effectively.

Customer College takes mission support to the next level by educating our people on how best to take care of their customers.

Project SMART is focused on ensuring that we preserve our most valued resource ... the Airmen, by cultivating a force that trains for safety as a combat skill while exercising personal risk management.

And the idea behind Combat Proud is to set appearance standards that support and foster mission productivity.

Family, Fitness and Focus ... The "3 Fs of Incirlik" is the chart we will fly by, everything we do for each other, ourselves and the mission can fit on this chart. Each "F" is a turn-point.

Family is the pre-initial point, fitness is the initial point and focus is the target and we must transition each point on the way to the target.

In the flying business we read from the chart first and orient ourselves to the ground rather than the other way around.

In the case of where we are going as a team, we are all about the "3 Fs of Incirlik."
Bring your courage, conviction and communicate!