Fifth CMSAF raises the question "What are you waiting for?"

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Xavier Navarro
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE,N.D. --  The fifth chief master sergeant of the Air Force paid the Warriors of the North a visit to recognize Grand Forks' four newest during a ceremony at the Northern Lights Club.

Chief Master Sgt. Robert Gaylor (ret.) Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force from 1977 to 1979, was the guest speaker at the Chiefs' Recognition Ceremony on March 28, 2014.

Gaylor's words of encouragement and comedic anecdotes helped honor the GFAFB's newest chiefs, including Chief Master Sgts. Ernest Jepperson and Frederic Wetzel and Senior Master Sgts. Brian Stone and Mark Cantrell.

Gaylor, who previously visited Grand Forks two years ago, spoke about his own promotion to chief.

"I recall being promoted to master sergeant and that was the farthest you could go," said Gaylor. "So you can imagine my excitement when they introduced senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant. It created a new aspiration and gave me something to strive for and so I couldn't help reflect on that."

Gaylor spoke to the crowd of about 220 attendees about March 15, 1967, when he became a chief while serving as the superintendent of security forces at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand.

After making chief, he left Thailand and moved to Barksdale, La., to the Strategic Air Command Non- Commissioned Officer Academy to take a job as chief of the leadership department.

In 1970, the commandant called in and told Gaylor that Lt. Gen. David Jones, then-2nd Air Force commander, wanted to interview him.

"For what?" Gaylor said. The commandant explained, "He is creating a new enlisted position and asked to interview you."

Gaylor agreed.

"So I go up for an interview in his office, and he picked me!" said Gaylor. "The next thing I knew, my picture is all over the base papers as the new commanding enlisted advisor."

"Someone asks me, 'Hey Bob! You got a new title, what is it?' 'I'm the enlisted advisor,'" Gaylor replied.

"'But what do you do?' Someone asks. 'I have no idea, I just "enlisted advisor" around. I don't know what I am supposed to do because nobody has ever done it before,'" said Gaylor.

Gaylor was then working for a three-star general, and told the audience that he was not sure what to do, but he knew he had to prove to him that he had made the right choice.

Gaylor laughed and said, "So any minute now he will call me in and give me instructions and directions on what he wants me to do."

At that time, Gen. Jones right-hand man was Capt. (Major-select) Pete Todd.

Gaylor explained to Todd that he had some concerns about the new position he had been selected for, that he wasn't sure why he had been selected.

"Why do you think he selected you?" Todd countered.

Gaylor said he liked to think it had to do with some talent, skill and ability he possessed.
"Then that's probably why he picked you," said Todd. "So what are you waiting for?"

At that point, Gaylor said, it "clicked" for him.

After six months of visiting Air Bases throughout the country, he had begun receiving requests from numerous other bases to visit as well.

"Then the general calls me and says, 'You're doing a great job and I am getting good feedback from the field."

Gaylor closed his thoughts by issuing a challenge to his audience.

"And so I say to you, regardless of the rank you hold, what are you waiting for?"