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Being a good wingman doesn’t come from a manual

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Mike Wahler
  • 375th Airlift Wing Command Post commander
On a recent Monday morning I learned that one of my Airmen was hospitalized. Although his condition was not serious, he would have to stay in the hospital for several nights to receive the treatment needed to bring him back to 100 percent. 

Like many of us, he is single and has no family here at Scott. However, he did have a wingman by his side during these few days. This wasn't his supervisor, or his "assigned" wingman. It was a co-worker who took it upon herself to ensure he had a friend to lean on. 

My Airman had gotten ill at work (night shift) and when his condition deteriorated to the point that he felt he needed to go to the emergency room, he called this wingman for help. She immediately got up, got dressed and took him to the ER. She never left him until after I got to the hospital several hours later. 

She quickly filled me in on the details, and made sure his family was notified of his condition and had made regular reports back to our office to keep all informed. At one point, she even reminded my Airman of certain aspects of his treatment he needed to tend to that he had not. 

She spent most of the next day (her second of two scheduled days off) with him also. When she came back to work she made sure to call him regularly and tended to any needs of his not fulfilled by the hospital. She also continued to keep all of us informed of his condition and seemed to have more up-to-date information than I did despite the fact that I was also going to see him every day. 

She taught me a valuable lesson that we all should be reminded of. We do not need to read a manual or an Air Force Instruction to be a good wingman. We merely need to be a good member of the Air Force family. By being that good brother or sister in arms, we can make a trying time in our fellow Airman's life much easier. Although I hope I never go through what he went through with the trip to the ER and the multiday hospital stay, if something should happen to me, I hope my wingman would be as concerned as she was.