I am thankful she seared this memory onto my brain because now I make an effort to provide the ‘why’ to the teams I lead. I was upset at the time, but I am no longer bitter. My supervisor was not going to give me my ‘why’. Whether it was intended or not, I got the message. To this day I am not sure if she didn’t know the answer to my question or if she couldn’t be bothered to sit down and explain the importance of OPSEC to someone whose job requires them to photograph F-15E Strike Eagles. Dejected and disappointed that the person charged with leading me was not willing to help me to learn. “Did I say you could ask questions, Airman Crane? Read the binder, then sign. How does this relate to my job, and why is this important to the Air Force? I wanted to read this binder with the context required to reach the proper level of understanding. Not knowing I was about to step directly on a land mine, I asked my supervisor, ‘Why?’. I wanted to learn as much as possible and figured if something required my signature to prove I understood the content, I should know how it related to my job. As Airman Crane, I had never heard of OPSEC and had no idea how it pertained to me. The binder contained our operational security policy and critical information list. “Sign the form in the back and bring it to me when you are done.” During one such encounter, my supervisor, a staff sergeant, marched up to my desk and dropped a binder in front of me. I learned my first assignment was like a minefield ask the wrong question and you were liable to lose a limb. After all, this is the military and lives are at stake, right? I, like many noncommissioned officers today, came up in an Air Force that seemed to cultivate a mentality that Airmen follow orders without wasting time with unnecessary questions.
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