AFCOMAP
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
During the academic year of 1981-82, Robert (Bob) J. Warren, Lt. Colonel USA and Paul G. Patton Lt. Colonel, USAF, attended the National War College together at Fort Leslie McNair, Washington, DC. Although they participated in good-natured inter-service rivalry, they became very close friends and that friendship endures to this day.
Upon graduation, Colonels Warren and Patton were assigned to the Pentagon. Shortly after graduation, Colonel Warren told Colonel Patton that through his affiliation with a private Army organization called the ROCKS, he was going to start a visitation program to the Army ROTC Detachments at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to facilitate the cadets’ transition from life on campus to life in the Army. Colonels Warren and Patton had noted in numerous discussions during their tenure at the War College that many of the young Black Lieutenants who entered the service were ill-prepared for the challenges facing them during their initial assignments. Through ignorance, they frequently “passed themselves over” for promotion to Captain during their first few months in the service. Colonel Patton, a product of Air Force ROTC himself, knew that Black Cadets, commissioned through Air Force ROTC Detachments, needed this program just as badly as the Army cadets and said to Colonel Warren with a smile, "I'll be damned if I'm going to let you do that for the Army without me doing the same thing for the Air Force."
Based upon this conversation, Colonel Patton joined the ROCKS to work with Colonel Warren on this program that he initially named the ROCKS New Initiative. The name was later changed to the Leadership Outreach Program.
Once Colonel Warren had developed the general approach to the New Initiative, Colonel Patton set out to tailor it for Air Force use. In the fall of 1982, he reached out to a small group of friends in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, including Colonel James Crump, Colonel Wade Gatlin, and then Colonel Russell Davis, (Now Lt. General Davis, commander of the National Guard) to help define the program. The mission of this group was the same as that of the Army ROCKS, e.g., to develop a campus visitation and lecture program that would facilitate the transition from life on campus to life in the Air Force for the AFROTC Cadets attending the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Based upon this shared mission, the group called itself “The Air Force ROCKS Briefing Team (AFRBT).
In consultation with the ROCKS, the AFRBT agreed to make a joint visit to North Carolina A&T (NCA&T) University in the fall of 1982. The first task was to prepare the briefings to be delivered to the cadets. The group chose to brief on Officership, Personal Financial Management, Officer Effectiveness Reports (OERs) , Professional Military Education (PME), Socialization, and Fraternization. The senior officers provided the guidance and recruited company grade officers to prepare the briefings, plan and organize the trip, and deliver the briefings during the visit. This resulted in a two-tiered mentoring arrangement. The senior officers mentored the company grade officers and the company grade (junior) officers were to become mentors for the cadets.
Once the junior officers prepared the briefings, they dry ran them with the senior officers. The senior officers were super critical of the briefers and at times the meetings became quite intense. The Colonels would stop them in mid sentence, shout at them when they made mistakes, and "grudgingly" compliment them when they performed well. In addition to seemingly harsh criticism of their briefing skills, The senior officers insisted that the junior officers' dress and military bearing were above reproach at all times. The junior officers could not understand initially why the Colonels were so hard on them, after all, they were just going to brief some cadets. What the junior officers did not initially realize was that the Colonels were not preparing them just to brief the cadets. They were preparing them to be comfortable and confident when interacting with senior officers under any conditions. Such comfort and confidence would lead to superior performance where it counts. History showed that in most cases the preparation worked.
Once the briefings were polished and all the logistics were taken care of, the Air Force ROCKS Briefing Team joined the Army ROCKS for their first campus visit: North Carolina A&T University.
At this time, the AFRBT was operating as an independent organization with no official sanction from the Air Force. The visit was arranged between the AFRBT and the AFROTC Detachment Commander. This was not an official TDY trip so each member was responsible for his own expenses. The vision, foresight, and concern of the Army ROCKS for the success of Black Officers, regardless of service, was manifested when they voluntarily gave the AFRBT money to help defray the expense of the trip. Even with the financial support of the Army ROCKS, it was still necessary for each AFRBT member to incur some out of pocket expenses. It is truly commendable that the AFRBT officers, especially the Lts. and Captains, were willing to spend their personal funds to support this noble initiative.
In preparing for the trip to NCA&T it was understood that the audience would be African-American at this HBCU. What none of the AFRBT members knew was that the AFROTC Detachment at NCA&T had "cross-town" agreements with several other schools in the area. The visit was scheduled to include an "ice breaker social" on Friday evening with the actual briefings and Q&A session on Saturday morning. Only the cadets from NCA&T attended the ice-breaker social, thus, at 0800 the next morning, the team was surprised to see an audience consisting of approximately 50% minority cadets and 50% majority cadets. Colonel Patton, the first speaker, looked out at the audience and said without hesitation, "There is only one color that matters in this room and that is Air Force Blue, let's get on with the program."
The AFRBT's next campus visit was scheduled to take place three weeks later at Howard University and the team used the time in between visits to conduct a lessons learned review of the NCA&T visit and to refine the briefings accordingly. One particularly interesting topic for discussion was how the team would address integrated audiences since our mission was to facilitate the transition from life on campus to life in the Air Force for the AFROTC Cadets attending the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Inherent in this mission statement was the expectation that the AFRBT would focus its attention on the needs of Black Cadets, however, Howard University had cross-town agreements also. As the team discussed this issue, a few themes began to emerge.
First it was certainly possible to accomplish this mission while addressing an integrated audience because the messages being delivered were race neutral and the subjects were applicable to all officers. None of the briefers felt the need to modify their presentations due the presence of white cadets nor did they experience any misgivings due to their presence. Secondly, it made good sense for White cadets to receive mentoring advice from Black Officers because it would predispose them to view Black officers as capable professional peers when they entered active duty. This view would foster understanding and enhance the spirit of teamwork and partnership that is critical to the success of any organization and most especially that of the Air Force. And finally, it made good sense for the Black cadets to receive mentoring advice from Black officers in an integrated audience because it gave them a chance to say to themselves, if these guys can do it, so can I. From that moment on, the "complexion" of the audience was never again a subject for discussion among the team. Thus, the AFRBT conducted its second campus visit at Howard University and it was equally as successful as the visit to NCA&T.
Following the Howard University visit, the team discussed the need for Senior Air Force Leadership support. The team decided to ask Lt. Gen. Winston D. Powers, Director of the Defense Communications Agency, and the senior Black Air Force Officer in the DC area, to serve as the Senior Executive Advisor to the AFRBT. Colonel Patton contacted Gen. Powers on this issue and Gen. Powers invited the team to meet with him at his quarters to discuss the organization. As a result of this meeting, and some followup action, the AFRBT received official permission from Headquarters AFROTC to conduct these campus visits. From this point on, the organization soared.
General Bernard P. Randolph, Commander of Air Force Systems Command, became the team’s new Senior Executive Advisor following General Powers’ retirement. In a September 12, 1988 letter to Lieutenant General Thomas J. Hickey, Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, General Randolph requested that General Hickey investigate officially sponsoring the briefing team through Air Force personnel channels. On January 23, 1989, General Hickey officially endorsed the efforts of the Air Force "ROCKS" Briefing Team and solicited strong support of all ROTC personnel. Following this great news, the team changed its name to AFCOMAP, and the organization became officially chartered on June 30, 1989 under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Donald W. Newton. Colonel Paul G. Patton became AFCOMAP’s first president.
With a new name and organizational charter, the members once again petitioned General Hickey but this time for official sanctioning of the new AFCOMAP organization. Following official sanctioning on June 1, 1990, AFCOMAP expanded its ROTC visitation program beyond historically black colleges and universities to include all AFROTC detachments, and it also included within the scope of its mission fellowship luncheons and junior officer professional leadership development seminars to more effectively address the mentoring needs of those young officers on active duty.
Excited about its new role and the renewed vision of the organization, AFCOMAP members developed a strategic plan to expand its mentoring reach nationwide with the goal of activating nine chapters at key Air Force bases in geographical locations consistent with the distribution of Air Force ROTC campuses. Prior to this time, all of AFCOMAP’s activities were targeted to the greater metropolitan Washington DC area and HBCU within 300 miles of DC. In just five short years, between 1990 and 1995, five chapters were chartered at the following Air Force installations: Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, McClellan AFB, California, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, Los Angeles AFB, California, and Langley AFB, Virginia. On November 19, 1994, the Secretary of the Air Force (The Honorable Sheila E. Widnall) and Chief of Staff of the Air Force (General Ronald R. Fogleman) renewed the AFCOMAP charter by further expanding the scope of AFCOMAP’s mission to include recruitment and retention of cadets and junior officers, and by supporting the establishment of AFCOMAP chapters at Air Force bases throughout the world. To date, there are 26 chapters on Air Force bases in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
AFCOMAP continues to prove its worth and need. Just a few years ago, its members recognized the need for internal mentoring as well as in the Air Force ROTC visitation program. In order to provide one-on-one mentoring, AFCOMAP exercises a pyramid program that accents the benefits of professional development and fellowship. Since the early years as the Air Force "ROCKS" Briefing Team, AFCOMAP has become the mother of Air Force mentoring initiatives around the world, and it has done much to institutionalize mentoring within our Service. Its members have visited numerous Air Force ROTC and Junior Air Force ROTC detachments, provided positive leadership to hundreds of career officers, and supported an unlimited number of community, church and civic organizations.