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The core values: deeper than passion

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Al Koehly
  • 375th Security Forces Squadron commander
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  When coming up with a topic for this column, I asked our first sergeant what kind of subject I should cover. He answered, "How about something you're passionate about ... Maybe one of the core values?" 

That's when I realized that I'm not passionate about the core values.
Why? Plainly because they are more important than that. 

To be passionate about something implies that it changes your mood; makes you excited, very happy or maybe rather angry (like your favorite sport, or time with your loved ones or politicians who you disagree with). 

The core values don't change my mood because they're always with me. I consider them to be part of me. Does the back of my hand change my mood? No. It's there, it's familiar, and I wouldn't want to be without it, but I'm certainly not passionate about it. 

Now, some of you might be asking how the core values can be such a part of me when they are a relatively new thing. Didn't they come about in 1995, almost 10 years after I joined the Air Force? I would answer that this is not really the case. 

While it is true that the words "Integrity First, Service Before Self and Excellence In All We Do" were not published until 1995, they are concepts that have always been with us. We hadn't sat down and penned the exact way to say them, but we had already been living them. 

Was it the Information Age that compelled us to finally put them into clear, concise words? Possibly. 

Some would argue that the values didn't really need to be spelled out, that they should be so integral to our character that we only need to live them and not talk about them. I suppose this argument has some merit, but I'm more comfortable with having a way to express them and the busier I get, the more I appreciate clear and concise. That's why I'm all for spelling them out. 

So when we read, write, memorize, or recite the words that we use to express the Air Force Core Values, we are putting to words a way of life that we should--no, we must--already be living. 

Don't get me wrong, this is not a mundane or easy thing. Integrity, service, and excellence are all very demanding, but when we maintain them we know we are better people for it and maybe that will evoke a feeling of pride. You may find that this pride stirs you to the point of passion. 

So if you feel passionate about these values, that's fine, but for me our core values are just that, part of my core, and that is a part of me which runs deeper than passion.