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Ambitious sergeant makes rank quickly

  • Published
  • By Hannah Hill
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs Office
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Making chief master sergeant is no easy task, but Senior Master Sgt. Brian Kentta, the superintendent for the operations division of Air Mobility Command's Directorate of Communications, made it look simple by being selected for chief at the age of 36.

The average chief master sergeant sews on after 21 and a half years of service. Sergeant Kentta is only in his 19th year of service and will sew on this year, putting him approximately two years ahead of his peers.

Sergeant Kentta said he'd always wanted to be in the Air Force and joined in 1991, but didn't realize that he could make a real career out of it until he read the professional development guide and received a quarterly award eight months into his military career.
"I attribute everything that I've been able to accomplish to the work ethic my parents taught me growing up," he said. "My No. 1 goal is to be a seasoned chief and be there for my people."

Sergeant Kentta's success is due to hard work and sometimes long hours.

"Taking those hard assignments that might seem insurmountable at the time may be tough and require extra long hours, but in the end you're going to reap the rewards," he said. "You're going to learn from experience and it will make you a better leader."

Sergeant Kentta said that he's not quite sure if there's a secret for making chief, but he says there is a pretty simple formula.

He said, "Hard work, finding people you'd like to emulate and take the best of that, have a long term goal so you can go out and reach it, and build a solid foundation of leadership by putting yourself out there."
Sergeant Kentta is a true patriot and believes everyone should serve their country in one form or another.
"Everyone should serve in some branch or capacity for their country, we should all give back," he said. "Here in the states people don't realize how good they have it until they go overseas."
He was deployed in Iraq for seven months. During that time he led of a team of communications specialists to help develop Iraq's communications backbone to support the economy and helped develop Iraq's national cyber security program.

"We established the whole communications hierarchy, policy and structure for the government of Iraq, which is really going to be a backbone, not only for their military, but for their economy," he explains. "Putting the Internet in every house, building their cell phone infrastructure, and making it possible for them to be able to purchase things off the Internet; we try to make sure that's all secure for the Iraqi people."

For his work in Iraq he was awarded the Bronze Star. He said that he was surprised that he was even nominated.

"I'm very humbled that I was nominated for a Bronze Star, let alone received it," he said.
Sergeant Kentta's wife, Master Sgt. Ann Kentta, NCO in charge at the Airman and Family Readiness Center, said she is proud of her husband and his accomplishments. She said she is inspired by him and how he treats his subordinates.

"The part that makes me the proudest about my husband achieving success, is that he did it without stepping on anyone in the process," she said. "His troops' careers are as important to him as his own. Anyone with his motivation can be just as successful."