AMC command chief retires, reflects on Air Force, command's importance, career

Published Aug. 4, 2011
By Air Mobility Command
Public Affairs and History Offices

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- The heartbeat of a mobility Airman pumps his blood -- always has. In 30 years of service, Chief Master Sgt. David E. Spector has seen many pieces of the U.S. Air Force's air mobility arm.

Spector retired from the Air Force in a ceremony here Aug. 2 after serving nearly two years as the command chief master sergeant of Air Mobility Command. He said working as a major command top enlisted leader is a job like no other.

"It's a very humbling, rewarding and service-oriented job," Spector said. "Our air mobility Total Force Airmen jump into their uniforms every day, regardless of what that uniform is, and they are excited about being in the command because they realize the services that they perform, even though, as Gen. [Raymond E.] Johns [Jr.] likes to say, 'they are not on the marquee.'

"There's nothing that says, 'Hey, AMC is here today," the chief said. "Our Airmen don't need it because they see the results of what they do. They see the tankers up refueling the fighters and tasked airplanes creating those airbridges. They see our cargo airplanes all over the world and they see the smiling, shining faces of AMC Airmen in every corner of the globe."

In a command that has more than 43,000 active duty and 71,000 Reserve and Guard enlisted personnel assigned, Spector said he is motivated by the command's enlisted Airmen to do right by them.

"I get to be a little bit of the motivator and advocator, but obviously at the end of every day I'm in service to those Airmen who are already doing fantastic things," Spector said. "I'm their support network."

Spector entered the Air Force in October 1981 as an aircraft mechanic on C-141 Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy aircraft. He began his flying career in 1984. His background includes various duties at four major commands. He has served in numerous positions as a career enlisted aviator, additional duty first sergeant, KC-10 flight engineer functional manager, and command chief master sergeant at wing, numbered Air Force, and major command levels.

The chief has also deployed in support of operations Enduring Freedom, Southern Watch and Desert Strike. Spector also has logged more than 6,800 flying hours and more than 1,000 instructor hours on four different multi-engine aircraft.

In achieving the top enlisted rank over his career -- 24 years of which were tied to AMC units, Spector said it was because of a lot of great mentors along the way. Early on, he said he had many good "mentors" to drive him to do his best. As one example, he recalled when we worked at the 89th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Andrews, Md., as a staff sergeant.

"There was one staff sergeant -- me," Spector said. "We had one technical sergeant, and the rest of the flight engineer section in 1st Airlift Squadron when I got there were master and senior master sergeants and chiefs. I was fortunate to have all these senior NCOs tripping over themselves, grabbing me by the earlobes wanting to bring me in to mentor me, teach me, coach me, train me and impart whatever leadership they could to me."

His first and most influential supervisor, he said, was Staff Sgt. Angel "Ernie" Cota. He reinforced the principles of basic training and kept him focused on learning how to be an Airman and a great technician.

"He reinforced to me about being an Airman first and a technician second," Spector said. "He was a special supervisor I'll never forget."

Another one of the "great" supervisors Spector often recalls is retired Chief Master Sgt. Gary Thompson. In a Web post not long after Spector took his AMC command chief job in October 2009, Thompson recalled his first meeting with then-Airman 1st Class Spector.

"When Chief Spector came into my office wearing two stripes, I had many thoughts going through my mind," wrote Thompson, who lives in Luttrell, Tenn. "First was how someone so young and low ranking made it through a very tough school. As he grew in knowledge and age, he proved to be a very worthy, intelligent and hard-working young NCO. I knew in my mind that he would go far and be a real asset to any unit that he was assigned to and would work to improve any things that didn't meet standards."

Throughout his career leadership has been important to Spector, he said. It's something he, along with others, has worked to do to challenge many enlisted Airmen to achieve greater responsibility. He's worked with General Johns to encourage and expect what they call "the eyeball-to-eyeball leadership," or personal involvement in leadership in a strong way.

"We, General Johns and I, both went out and targeted the senior NCO corps," Spector said. "We charged them with turning up the heat a little bit and focusing their leadership efforts on grooming our staff and technical sergeants because we think that we've got room for improvement in how our mid-line supervisors lead.

"They, the mid-line supervisors, want more leadership from the senior NCOs -- our junior NCOs want it and deserve it," Spector said. "In turn, they are the ones who reach out and touch our youngest Airmen daily and directly. We said it's the responsibility of the senior NCOs to teach, coach and mentor those staffs and techs. So, let's get out there and let them know that's what we expect of them. Let's give them the tools and resources to go do it. You'll find my message very strongly and deliberately challenging those senior NCOs. We're stating our expectations and holding them to standards and making them produce to lead by example."

Spector said during his tenure as the top AMC chief, it was important that all Airmen and their families understood about the benefits of adopting the culture of Comprehensive Airmen Fitness, or CAF, with four pillars of wellness -- mental, social, physical and spiritual.

"It incorporates so much goodness into what we think of as an organization with those four pillars of wellness, or what we know as Comprehensive Airmen Fitness," Spector said. "There's no doubt in my mind, and I truly speak from hands-on experience, when a unit -- no matter the size -- pays attention to those four pillars of wellness and tries to align them or balance them with the individuals in the organization, great things happen. Things like the promotion rates increase, your fitness test scores and pass rates increase and suicides decrease."

When asked what advice Spector would give the new AMC command chief, Chief Master Sgt. Richard A. "Andy" Kaiser, he said, "I'd ask him not to change too much right off the bat.

"My advice for my replacement would be change very little because the Airmen seem to be happy," Spector said. "I think morale is high, productivity is good. All indications are there that we are doing pretty well. I'd also ask him to continue to champion, on behalf of the Total Force enlisted men and women, those things that we maybe need to tweak from an enterprise-level. Of course, the end result being an effort for continuous improvement, quality of life and taking care of Airmen and their families.

"And, we can't forget about our single Airmen," Spector added. "We've got to go seek those Airmen out and educate them, love them, teach them and talk to them about things that are going on."

Spector said he's also going to miss a lot about serving in the Air Force and working in AMC.

"I've been an ID card carrier my entire life because my Dad was Army," Spector said. "One of the things I'm going to miss is jumping into my uniform, believe it or not, every day.

"I'm going to miss the ability to serve and help Airmen," he said. "In this office, I've had a chance to do that daily. Not a day goes by that I'm not helping somebody with some issue and it's pretty cool. I'll miss some of the same things that everybody else misses -- the camaraderie, the pride and professionalism that goes along with being an AMC Airmen, and just being a military member in general."

Most of all, Spector said his career would not have been a success without the support of his family.

"I want to thank my family for their love and patience in supporting me all these years while I was flying across the globe," Spector said. "They made some incredible sacrifices that allowed me to do my job of protecting our nation. I learned how a family can be an incredible source of inspiration in all we do as Airmen."

(Mr. Ellery Wallwork, AMC Historian, and Master Sgt. Scott Sturkol, AMC Public Affairs, contributed to this article.)