In a bracing speech to Air Force Academy cadets who are the service's future leaders, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, Nov. 12, did not mince words about the qualities necessary for strong leadership and why capable, insightful, moral leaders are more essential than ever in defense of the nation.
"I have been working for the last three and a half years to get the Department of the Air Force ready for the next war we may have to fight," Kendall said. "War is not inevitable. Deterrence will remain our goal, under any administration, but deterrence will not succeed unless we demonstrate that we are ready for war. Your job will be to help ensure deterrence is successful, and if it fails, to achieve victory."
"You may well have to lead in combat in a type of conflict with which we have no modern experience in the Air Force or Space Force or in the American military in general," he said during an address to the Cadet Wing in which he described in blunt terms the type of leaders the nation needs it a world overflowing with threats.
"You will have to lead Airmen and Guardians under the most stressful of operational conditions," he said. "While you are here at the Academy, you should do everything you can to prepare yourself to lead. Leading is always hard. Leading in combat requires the character to both know and do the right thing, the commitment to the country and the mission to put both above all else, the connection to your team to lead effectively, and most of all, the courage to move forward under any circumstance."
Kendall used the broad sweep of history and his own experience across 50 years of public and military service to illustrate the qualities presented by strong and fair leaders.
The 75-year-old Kendall said his parents' lives "were shaped by World War II" while Kendall's life and view of leadership were formed in the 1960s and 1970s when he attended West Point and served in the Army in Germany.
"Vietnam and the Cold War shaped my generation. I graduated from West Point as the war in Vietnam was ending. Upperclassmen that I had known were killed in Vietnam, especially from the classes of '68 and '69, including my regimental commander when I was a sophomore, what West Point calls a yearling, or a third degree here at USAFA," he said.
His sense of leadership and global threats were refined more when, as an Army officer, he was stationed on the "inner German border, waiting for a Soviet invasion that could have come at any time" and by the visceral, first-hand experience of the Cuban Missile Crisis as a child.
The nuclear age, he said, continues, as dangerous and volatile as ever. The connection to leadership then and now is direct and ever present. "You will have to serve and live under a nuclear threat. You will have the task of preventing the greatest imaginable catastrophe in human history," he said.
"Learning to lead is the central goal of everything you do here: military training, athletics, and academics," he said, stating an obvious truth. "The likelihood that you will have to lead in combat is high. The likelihood that you will have to do this early in your career is also high. The nation's military academies would not be worth the investment if they did not produce exceptional leaders ready to lead on day one."
While Kendall's prescription for strong, effective leaders was general, he also tailored remarks specifically to cadets of today and a circumstance that the institution is facing, and which Kendall says must be resolved - sexual assaults at the Academy.
Kendall noted that progress reducing the incidence of sexual assaults, including positive results from the "Let's Be Clear" program. Even so, "it is still unacceptably high."
"What does this have to do with war and leadership? Everything," Kendall told the cadets.
"As officers, you will have the responsibility to lead and earn the respect of everyone on your team, regardless of gender. You will be responsible, not just for your own conduct, but for that of everyone else under your authority. You cannot do that effectively if you tolerate a climate in which sexual assault or sexual harassment occurs."
And if the reason remained hidden at a time when the nation is facing challenges from a rising and determined China, a growing nuclear threat from North Korea as well as the historical and ongoing struggle with Russia, among others, Kendall made it clear.
"Our teams throughout the military depend on unit cohesion and trust to be effective. A climate in which sexual harassment or assault can occur will not have unit cohesion and trust.
"It's well known that when Soldiers go into battle, their greatest motivation to perform well is the fear that they will let their teammates down. You can't build that type of trust and devotion in an organization that permits disrespectful treatment based on gender or any other attribute," he said.
The stakes are high, Kendall said. And the danger is ever present.
"It is a safe bet that wars will continue to happen during your careers and that American interests, potentially vital American interests, even existential interests, could be at risk," Kendall said.
"One thing about war that does not change over time is the importance of leadership to success. One other thing that does not change is the difference between effective leadership and ineffective leadership," he said.
Kendall closed his remarks with the mantra that he has used throughout his tenure as Secretary of the Air Force; "One team, one fight."
A transcript of his full remarks can be found here.
