‘Pride is Contagious;’ SEAC shares opinions with Alaska’s military

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jared Marquis
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  "Pride is contagious"
That is the mantra of Army Command Sgt. Maj. William Gainey, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

The message of pride is one Sergeant Major Gainey stressed to the men and women serving in the military as he visited Alaska last week. 

In addition to pride, Sergeant Major Gainey explained the direction in which the military services are moving. 

"In the future, you are going to see more and more jointness," said the sergeant major. "It's going to be a team effort; we are never going to fight alone again." 

The sergeant major, who often uses analogies and visualization to get his point across, said this doesn't mean we will lose the individuality of the services. 

"It's never going to be 'one army' or 'one navy' everyone's going to do their own thing, but at times we've got to bring it together." 

One of the ways he suggests easing the transition is getting to know each other. 

"Here is how I suggest doing that, Army, learn the [Air Force Instructions], Navy learn my Army 670-1. Learn the other services regulations. When I walk up to a young Airman, I should be able to tell if he or she is in uniform or not." 

One of the examples he used to illustrate gaining the knowledge of the other services regulations was the difference in dress between Army and Air Force females. 

"Young ladies in the Air Force are permitted to wear pony tails, Young ladies in the United States Army are not. The Air Force needs to know to correct the Soldier, but they need to know how to correct her. They need to be able to say 'no free hanging hair, it has to be attached to the head.' The Army needs to be able to say 'She's permitted to have a pony tail, but it can't hang below the collar," he said. 

"Because, when you go up to a young person and correct them, and they are right, and you are wrong through your ignorance of their regulations, you have caused the standard of your service to go down in their eyes." 

"That is what I tell young people, get to know each other by sharing the pride you have in service. I'm a Soldier; I can share my pride as a Soldier with a Marine. They can share their pride with me and guess what? It's legal, it's healthy, and its helping us learn about each other." 

Another way he suggested increasing jointness, is to start training together. 

"Everybody uses the term 'we train as we fight.' I am not convinced we really are training as we fight because I have not seen a joint effort until we go to a military readiness exercise. I'm talking about training together on a daily or a weekly basis. 

Alaska is very lucky, because they have Lt. Gen. [Douglas] Fraser and Command Chief Master Sgt. [David] Andrews. They understand jointness, and they are trying to bring everybody together. Economy of force, that's what it is all about. That is truly training together as we fight." 

In addition to pride and jointness, Sergeant Major Gainey wanted to stress one other message: every person serving in the military, regardless of in what capacity, should feel good about themselves. 

"Everybody is in the war, look at the word global, it doesn't mean Alaska or Mississippi, it means worldwide. Global is global, don't think that because you are sitting in a room flying a UAV, you are not in the war. You are just as much in the fight as anybody pulling the trigger," he said. 

"You need to be proud; you are part of the two percent giving freedom to the other 98 percent of the country. 

" It makes me feel good every single morning knowing that I am part of giving someone the freedom to protest and speak out against me as a person. But it is okay that they do, because the alternative is not worth it."