Thornton to carry on traditions, empower Airmen Published July 5, 2006 By Lisa Terry McKeown Editor POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- The summer months have always been a busy time for servicemembers when it comes to changing duty stations. This summer is no exception at Pope.Col. Gerald Szpila passed his command of the 43rd Operations Group to Col. Michael Thornton June 21. Although Colonel Szpila is excited about the next step in his career, he said his departure is bittersweet. "Altogether, I've spent almost nine years here," he said. "This last assignment was the only one I've ever fought for. I wanted to come here because it's the home of tactical airlift and that's where I wanted to go." Over the past two years, Colonel Szpila and his troops have worked through problems with the C-130s center wing boxes, restricting aircraft despite the high operations tempo, developing new training flight profiles what maximize use of the aircraft that are available, preparing for the Base Realignment and Closure changes. The colonel was also able to deploy to Afghanistan as an expeditionary group commander. "The challenges made it more difficult, but it gave us common experiences that we had to overcome as a group," he said. "I'm humbled by everything they do every day and bursting with pride because I was associated with them." Colonel Szpila now moves on to Scott AFB, Ill., where he will be the liaison between Northern Command and Transportation Command. "I've never served in either organization and now I'm the liaison between the two," he said. "I'll have to figure out how to translate between them. It's going to be difficult, it'll keep my learning curve up." A C-130 man through and through, the incoming commander of the 43rd OG, Colonel Thornton, said he feels like he's been training for his new position at Pope throughout his 23-year career in the Air Force. "I will do everything in my power to increase the quality of life, professional development and continued record of safe mission accomplishment for the 43rd OG," he said. The colonel is familiar with many of the challenges the operations group now faces. He said his largest challenge will be to make the BRAC transition as seamless as possible. "There might be different patches on the tails out here, but we'll continue to supply service to those who have always worked with Pope," he said. Colonel Thornton hopes to continue the tradition of Airmen taking care of each other both on and off duty. "I want to empower folks at all levels to fix parts of their Air Force in their daily lives," he said. "When they do that, the ‘fix it' attitude makes people happier. They have power to control their own office and their own processes. We need to empower people to make better decisions and be more efficient." He also wants to make sure all Airmen are trained to the "right level." "I will never ask anyone to do something that I am not willing to do myself," he said. "We need to train to the right level so when called, we're ready to support higher headquarters and national priorities." Colonel Thornton said that he thinks of himself as an operator first and hopes to spend a lot of time outside his office seeing the work his Airmen do. "They're working hard 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said. "I'm behind a desk because I have reports, awards and other staff processes, but before and after I have to do that, I need to be out on the flight line visiting our folks doing the mission." Although he and his wife, Lesia, are still adjusting to the 30-degree temperature change between Fayetteville and Alaska, he said they couldn't be happier to be at Pope. "I will maintain the status quo at the 43rd OG as far as processes and procedures," he said. "We'll just re-direct as required and make little changes to continue to go forward."