Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation will host the 22nd Annual Military Ball on Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, and will welcome Four-star Gen. Robin Rand as this year’s keynote speaker.
Gen. Rand joined the U.S. Air Force in 1974 and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1979. He was commander, Air Force Global Strike Command and commander, Air Forces Strategic, U.S. Strategic Command.
He completed some 5,100 flying hours, including more than 480 combat hours. Rand is the recipient of numerous military honors, including the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal and Defense Superior Service Medal.
Rand retired from the U.S. Air Force effective Sept. 1, after nearly 40 years of service.
Below is a Q&A with Gen. Rand:
Q: You took on roles as an instructor/trainer early on and have held many training positions throughout your career. What was it about those early assignments that made you want to continue pursuing teaching/training roles?
A: Pretty much every assignment that I had, whether I was in training command or an operational unit, I was designated as an instructor and obviously I’m honored to do that – pass it on, you have an obligation to share what you learn and try to make it better for others.
We learn in several ways — through hard knocks, experience or transfer of knowledge. As an instructor, you’re trying to transfer knowledge to people and share with them before they have to learn the hard way.
I had an opportunity to do that, and probably the time I spent in air training command when I was a young lieutenant helped me throughout my career because when you get selected to be an instructor, you have to go through an instructor course and there’s quite a bit of technique you pick up. I’m sure that served me well throughout my career.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve been given during your career? What advice would you give to younger officers who have just joined the service or those considering joining? What advice would you give to those coming out of the service?
A: I’m not sure I can pinpoint any one thing. I would collectively tell you that I have served with some wonderful individuals, including a man I am very fond of and have great admiration for, Gen. [William J.] Begert.
He was at the right place at the right time in my career, so I’ve got nuggets of advice and pearls of wisdom and have been able to watch and learn from the very best.
I think along the way what they all taught me, collectively, is the second question about what advice I pass on.
What I tell young people when they ask me if I have any pearls of wisdom or keys to success — I try to give short, concise answers — and one of them is to work hard at being good at your job.
Learn your job. Work hard at it. Be good at it. You’re not always going to be good at it, particularly when you’re new and have to learn. But if you have the right attitude and you work hard at it, that will pay off. You’ll be the go-to person.
Tied to that is, be someone who embraces our values. Live by our standards and embrace our values. Ultimately, that is a good officer, a good leader, a good person.
With that would be, treat people with dignity and respect. Whether it’s your peers, being a good husband, being a good spouse, being a good parent.
If you live those simple things — work hard at being good at your job, comply with the standards, and treat people with dignity and respect and be a good person — your life is going to be good.
All in all, that’s a life well-lived. Things will take care of themselves.
As far as what I’d tell people leaving the service, I’m kind of new to the game, so I’m not sure I’m ready for that. But embrace it. You’ll know when it’s time. Everything has a beginning and an end.
When it’s time to move on, don’t dread it, just embrace it.
A lot of good people, Gen. Begert and others, have told me to rest — you probably don’t know how tired you are. Recharge your batteries a little bit. And don’t look back, look forward.
So that’s what I’m trying to do, and I think I’d encourage others to do. You can’t live in the past. You can reflect on the past. You can reflect on the great memories. But you can’t be held back by your past. You have to live for today, so that’s what I’m trying to do.
Q: You have earned dozens of medal and awards;is there one in particular that stands out as being the most meaningful to you?
A: Most of the awards I’ve gotten have been because of the team I’ve been on and are a reflection of everyone’s hard work. They gave me more credit than I deserved. But there are a couple.
It was being part of some teams that stand out. I spent 13 months in Iraq, and those who were in Iraq, we gave what was called the Iraq Campaign Medal. People who have served in combat, there’s typically these campaign medals.
You get it if you’ve been in the conflict for a period of time, a consecutive number of days, not for any individual accomplishment, but just the fact that you were there.
I used to present that award to people on their way out the door and it would be something I would take great pride in giving to them.
So when I look back at all my awards, that Iraq Campaign Medal has a lot of significance, and it does because of the people, the men and women that I served with during a very, very difficult time. I take great pride in being part of that.
It wasn’t from anything individually that I did, it was just the collective whole of being at that time in history and being with those brave and women that were over there with me. I’m honored and humbled to wear that medal.
Q: What is the importance, both to veterans and to the general public, of honoring veterans’ service?
A: This is really noble work. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that we have people who are willing to do this.
Typically, what I’ve found about most veterans and their families is that they deflect a lot of credit to others and they are not ones who want to go around with a tin cup asking for handouts or favors.
That the Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation is doing this on your own volition is such a noble and gracious act, and on behalf of all the veterans out there, it’s very humbling and truly the reason why I want to be, in a very small way, a part of this.
That you want to say thank you. That you want to do meaningful things for our veterans and their families. So I just applaud the effort. Because there are needs.
Our country has a lot of great people who do many, many important things. Firefighters, policemen, school teachers, medics, where do you draw the line? Everyone serves. You can’t put a price tag on service.
Look at what volunteer coaches do with our youth. How do you put a price tag on that? How do you put a price tag on first responders and on school teachers? We all contribute, it’s so impressive.
But with a little bias, those who haven’t served in the military, I don’t think the average citizen can appreciate the service and sacrifice that our men and women make.
And that, again, is not to be pejorative or denigrate anyone else’s contributions to society, I’m not trying to imply that at all. But the military is a life of service and sacrifice, and it becomes a calling. And it’s not a job.
It might start off as a job, but if you stay with it, it does become a calling. And people end up doing it not for the pay, not because they want to see the world, not because of the educational benefits, not because of the job security and a roof over their head.
Because the service and the sacrifice we ask of them and their families is tough. And that’s just the average veteran. Then you look at those who go above and beyond. Those who leave blood on the battlefield, who leave limbs on the battlefield.
Then we go to those Gold Star families who lose their lives. And again, not completely unique to the military veterans, but as a whole, as a profession, I would have to submit to you that very few professions probably demand the number of sacrifices that our veterans make.
So that you are doing things to help them, whether it’s adjust to life after the military, whether it’s to help them get through some tough patches, which is just simply to recognize them and thank them, I think that’s commendable.
I don’t view it as a handout. I don’t view it as something that anyone should apologize for. I think it’s phenomenal. And we have had times in our country when we didn’t have that support, and those are dark clouds that I think our country regrettably will look back on.
I have found that our veterans, on the whole, active duty members and guard and reserve — those wearing the uniform — are pretty righteous citizens. I think they’re law abiding, they’re trust-worthy, they’re good for our communities.
And then I look at what veterans can bring to businesses and what they can bring to the workplace, there’s a win-win.
We’ve gotten so much smaller than we used to be as a nation. The percentage of men and women that now serve in the military, as an all-volunteer military, is very, very small.
The statistics are less than 2 percent today of American citizens will ever put on our nation’s cloths, and that’s OK. But if we ever don’t stay connected to the very society that we’re protecting and serving, that can be dangerous.
So these groups connect society with the people who are protecting it, and I don’t think we should take that for granted.
Q: What is the importance of providing supportive services to veterans — employment, training, education, housing etc.?
A: I believe that the reliance we have today on society, our civilian counterparts, our local communities, our veteran groups, has never been more important than they are because our military has become increasingly smaller, and the budget has become increasingly tighter, and the things that I used to take for granted as someone sitting on my military base, we were very self-sufficient.
But a lot of those quality-of-life things are not there now. We have to rely on outsourcing for medical care, much more outsourcing for quality of life things whether it’s child care, whether it’s recreational activities, libraries, the list is a long list of things that we no longer are able to fund and support while we’re still maintaining a combat lethal-ready force.
And so we are reliant, and I can tell you from firsthand experience, the importance of local communities and the impact they have on our families and on our military members; and on our children, the schools, the medical care, worship, the list is long.
So we really have to make sure we don’t become stove-piped and that those invisible walls don’t pop up. These organizations are fundamental to helping us; make sure that while we’re off training, fighting, deploying, that we still have those things that we as Americans, take for a given.
We care about health care, we care about schools for our children, we care about where we worship or don’t worship, we care about where we live, the quality of our housing, we care about our basic overall quality of life. I think that’s pretty much the same things everyone else in America cares about.
Q: What are your other passions beyond serving in the U.S. Air Force? How are you planning to spend your time now that you have retired?
A: I’m young enough and I’m going to work. I haven’t solidified yet exactly what I’ll be doing, but I want to do something. And some of the things I can tell you I want to do is get involved with some service that’s nonprofit where I’m giving back.
I feel like I’ve received a lot and been the benefactor of a lot of goodness in my life, and I need to return some of those deeds.
We’re going to live in Colorado, so we have the Vail Epic Ski Pass that gives us a lot of really reasonable opportunities to a lot of neat ski areas that are really close to where we’re living, so we plan to do a good amount of skiing this winter.
We live up in a beautiful part of the country, so just staying active, a little bit of golf in the spring, and summer and fall, and some skiing in the winter.
And a little bit of service and giving back of some kind, and then some travel and visiting the grandkids.
I’m not going to have problems staying active.
To buy tickets to the Military Ball, call 805-259-4394 or e-mail rsvp@pcvf.org. Tickets are $150 each.
For more about Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation, visit www.pcvf.org or call 805–259-4394.
— Andy Silverman for Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation.