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Commanders should encourage airmen to express opinions

A disturbing theme has emerged in responses I’ve received to previous “Back Talk” columns: Some active-duty readers are reluctant to speak out for fear of damaging their careers. In one letter, a field grade officer described a forum he attended where a high-ranking Air Force general discussed the challenges facing our service. This officer disagreed with many of the policies the general espoused, but when the question and answer period came, he said nothing.

“Not wanting to lose my own career, I sat silent,” he wrote.

What good is a successful career if the institution in which you serve crumbles around you? We live in an era when some are questioning the very need for an Air Force. This is no time for silence.

Let me be clear, I’m not advocating dissent. I am advocating an intellectually open environment where airmen can respectfully express opinions and question assumptions without fear of reprisal.

The Air Force has a fondness for commissioning outside panels and studies seeking answers to its problems. But the best solutions don’t come from Rand Corp. studies. They come from airmen, the world’s most educated and best trained military personnel, who live and breathe air power. But the leadership can’t tap this resource in a culture of silence.

This silence, whether its causes are perceived or real, suggests an inherent lack of trust. When the free exchange of ideas is suppressed, either actively or by omission, organizations become stagnant, dominated by “group-think.” The Air Force is technologically based and therefore idea-driven. New ideas and different ways of thinking about challenges cannot flourish in such an environment. Organizations bereft of new ideas think small. Organizations that think small wither and become small. As such, our culture must encourage open dialogue in every appropriate way possible.

For this reason a compact of trust must exist between superior and subordinate. Superiors have a responsibility not only to listen to subordinates in a nonpunitive environment, but also to encourage them, in a clearly stated way, to speak out. Subordinates have a duty to speak out — and the right to do so without fear.

In the military, sometimes the answer will be no. In those cases airmen must salute and press on with the mission, but with satisfaction, not trepidation, about doing the right thing.

Being a warrior demands no less than dedication to the truth and the courage to speak it. So the next time the opportunity arises to make your voice heard, don’t sit in fear of what might be lost. Stand for what might be gained.