Airman, Navigator, and Wing Commander!

In this episode of How To Guard, we sit down with Colonel Slosek, Commander of the Airlift Wing, to talk about leadership, experience, and what it really takes to rise through the ranks in the Air National Guard.

From his early days serving as a flight navigator to leading an entire wing, Colonel Slosek shares firsthand stories from the cockpit, lessons learned along the way, and the mindset required to grow within the Guard. We dive into what airlift missions look like from the inside, how his career evolved over time, and what younger Airmen can take away from his journey.

Whether you are considering joining, currently serving, or just want a behind the scenes look at high level leadership in the Air National Guard, this is an episode you do not want to miss.

Tune in now and learn what it takes to navigate both the skies and a successful military career.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining the New York Air National Guard, Hit the link below!

https://aha.cce.af.mil/lead/recruiter/d7e05439-116d-48be-a570-71aa062ff44f

Who knows, you might be able to connect with one of us!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Welcome back to another episode of How to Guard. Here today in the hot seat, we have the 109th Airlift Wing Commander, Colonel Steven Slosik. Welcome, sir. Thank you for having me, really. Pleasure to be here. Absolutely. No, it's it's a pleasure to have you here. Um, obviously, we're gonna ask you a couple questions, but we'd like to start out um with you just telling a little about yourself, introducing um with the people who listen on our podcasts and what your role here is at the 109th.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah, so I am the 109th Airwing commander, responsible for everyone on base and our mission and the training of our people and taking care of our people. Um, you know, just kind of ensuring that the mission gets done and that this base is going to be ready for the future because we know that the future is not gonna look like the past 25 years that we've been experiencing here. This wing has to be prepared um to meet the more dynamic and um more challenging environment that we're gonna be uh experiencing at this wing, especially as the Arctic and the polar region becomes more contested and everybody's more interested in it. You know, we've been here uh God, since the 1970s, I think doing the the polar mission, now people are really starting to pay attention to us. Um, and we have to be ready for what that new future is gonna bring.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yeah. So, certainly you've had an extensive career, you've flown with many aircraft to include the T-43, the JSTARS, and multiple variations of the C-130. What's been your most favorite aircraft and why?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Well, that's an easy one. I'm glad you gave me an easy one in the beginning. So it's been a little warm-up. Yeah, when I uh when I first, you know, my assignment out of navigator school was JSTARS, which is a big reconnaissance plane. All we did was fly in circles. We literally flew hours and hours of flying in circles. We even coined, I think, orbits. Is that still a gum? We used to call Orbit. Orbitus was an official uh uh gum of JSTARS. That's all we did. It was kind of boring. Um, and then the T-43 was cool because I got to, I then left uh the reconnaissance world. I went to a become an instructor and I got to work with really young, motivated college kids. And so I got to teach them how to be aircrew, you know, be an aircrew member to navigate all the kind of archaic skills sometimes we use as navigators. Um so that was fun too, but still um nothing compares to the LC-130. Um, yes, I did the C-130 thing, the Slick. Um, that was one thing, but there's you know, the L C130 is just such an interesting aircraft. It's such a unique mission, and it's so dynamic, and we're doing things that um no other air crew gets to do. Uh so by far the LC-130 is my favorite aircraft.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Very cool. Nice awesome.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

And uh so yeah, so so you've achieved, you know, the incredible role of a master navigator. Um, describe your role as a master navigator and how uh critical it was for our mission to the Arctic and Antarctic.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Yeah, so just being a navigator is becoming a thing of the past. Uh you really only see them in uh special missions, so that you're talking about you know the LC-130, AFSOC, um and then you also see them in the pointy nose, you know, B B1s, B-52. I don't think that's really pointy, but they're big uh things that drop ordinances. Uh so you know, for the Arctic mission, it is so important to have another uh air crew member up on the flight deck uh because it is such a dynamic mission. We're going to places you know humans have never even stepped foot on before, potentially. We're going to just a set of coordinates on the map, um, you know, which would which could have hazards all around it. And it's your job to try to constrain all those variables and put the crew in the aircraft in the best situation to come back safely from that mission. So um it's up to the navigator to be utilizing the radar, uh, to be looking at um moving maps and the navigation solution to ensure that you're putting the aircraft down in a safe location because it is not simply you go to, you know, you find the runway and you just land on the runway. It's not that. Your runway is basically the polar environment. And it's your job to find that line that is safe for the aircraft to land. Um and just operating in the polar region is just challenging from a weather perspective, also. The weather reporting is not that good. Um, even though we have some of the best forecasters in the world trying to do the best with the limited information they have, uh, things can go south. Uh very quickly uh in the polar regions, and it takes a whole crew to uh get that plane down safely. Uh, even if that getting that plane down safely means doing what we call a whiteout landing, which is essentially ditching the aircraft over land uh into a known a known safe area. So it's it's just such a dynamic mission um that the navigator is essential uh to that, to the you know, safely operating the aircraft and getting the mission done.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Nice. Yeah. How does being a navigator in a LC 130 compare to like a JSTAR, for example?

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Yeah, it's like I'm sure there's oh Allen Oranges compare the two. And I think you know, it was kind of tough going to JSTARs as such a young navigator because it just really wasn't that dynamic. We did the same thing all the time. It was an important mission. Um, and I learned a lot about how the Air Force conducts an air campaign because I was on a command and control platform, which served me well when I went with the unit to Afghanistan. I was very familiar with how airspace is, you know, how airspace is cut up, how airspace is managed in a tactical environment, how to utilize uh SATCOM, how to utilize um, you know, the classified command and control uh software. So from that perspective, it was very good learning how to operate with the chaos. Um, but from a nuts and bolts being an aircrew member, it was not that dynamic compared to the LC-130, and really just the C-130 platform in general. Uh but you know, C-130s are the what do they call them, like the the workhorse, you know, the the garbage truck with uh with wings and getting somewhere it needs to go. And you're going to, you know, very um uh small LZs, landing zones, uh, and it's very dynamic. When you overlay the polar mission onto that same mission set, it just it just creates such an exciting um opportunity to be a navigator in in that, you know, in the L C. It's just an exciting mission to be a part of because it's just so dynamic and you're just constantly engaged, um, using your skills, using every you know, all your brain bites that you got left uh to get the mission done.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Yeah. And we we can uh attach that link too because there's a video that actually came up in our recruiter group chat was actually a video that the Air National Guard did on our mission. Uh it was back in 2017, and you were actually on that video. And we kind of looked at it as like, I didn't even look at the date, and I this is a compliment to you, sir. You know, like was this video yesterday? I think it was great.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

You know, you are a recruiter. I know what's going on here.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

So I actually want to backtrack to something that you said about landing in those weather conditions. Um, I've been on the road with you quite a few times, um, former crew chief. Um so I actually sat up in the flight deck. We had passed um PSR point of safe return down to Antarctica, right? Um and we were coming in on approach, but the weather was real, real bad. We couldn't land at Phoenix, we had to land at Willie. And I was sitting in the bunk behind you every behind everyone in the flight deck, and the tension in that flight deck was something you can cut with a knife. But the way you guys handled that and were able to, you know, effectively communicate. They were basing a lot off of you because you were looking at the charts, you had your, you know, the compass, the sex wasn't out or anything like that. But um, that was just it, it was really cool to see you guys in that role, being able to communicate and you know, um count the flags, uh, you know, approaching the runway. So that was that was something really cool. I just want to point that out because you know you touched on it, and that was an experience that I had um, you know, in the flight deck in real time.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

So yeah, but it's I'm glad you brought that up. It's um, you know, sometimes um, well, you know, when things are going good, you're all just kind of joking and talking. But as soon as you realize that you're now in an environment um that it could get real serious real quick, it it just it's a flip. It just switches where the whole crew goes into um this mode where we're analyzing data, assessing our options, and utilizing everybody on the crew to come up with the best solution. Because not only are we, you know, not only are we taking care of ourselves on, you know, we're the air crew, but we're also taking care of maybe 30 passengers in the back. Everyone's counting on that crew to make the right decisions, and we're all just falling back on our training. Um, and you know, sometimes you're you could potentially get put into situations you've never been to in before. Um, and we're always thinking when we're going down to Antarctica, we're past PSR. Are we gonna have are we gonna end up in a whiteout situation? Which we do train for um with in the simulator, but very few of us have done it in real life. And it is always that kind of am I are we gonna have to do that? What am I gonna have to do as an air crew member, a part of this crew, to make sure that we are best set up to execute that? Um, and you know, it's it's just the the nature of the Air Force. A lot of people look at air crew members like we're the zipper-suited sun guys, and we're you know, walking around, you know, people, you know, you know, this air crew member just showed up late. They just showed up at lunch. Well, they don't know that that air crew member is going to be flying on a nightline. Um and yeah, I'm glad you saw that because that is when the air crew um, you know, that that's the best of when you're seeing what the air crew is doing, when they come together as professionals to get the mission done. I don't think a lot of people get to see how we operate at that level. Um, so I'm glad you brought that up.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah, it was it was really cool to see it, you know, real-world dangerous situation. And it's one of those things that people kind of have a hard time comprehending, you know, Antarctica is all white, but then if you're in flying in the clouds, you can't differentiate what's cloud and what's ground. You know, it's that's why it's called the whiteout, right? So, you know, it was just really cool to see that. And I wanted to bring that up.

unknown 12:12

Yep. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

So, with all the options and opportunities that you've had within the air guard, did you ever plan on becoming the wing commander at any point? Was this ever in your playbook, or is this something that just sort of not just happened to you, but something that came along as you went?

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Yeah, I never had any thought I would ever be the airlift, yeah, the or the air wing commander. Never thought. You know, I you know, I I think there's probably a lot of people out there who was really they're really good at planning out their lives. Um, but I definitely wasn't. You know, I think I've always been kind of focused in the moment. Um trying to do the best at my job that I'm assigned to and be the best teammate, the best leader, the best um whatever um that I'm currently in. And that just constantly led itself to something different. And thankfully, I had good leaders that recognized um, you know, the quality of my work ethic, my dedication to the unit and the team to kind of keep moving me forward. Now I did apply for these jobs, so at some point I did uh you know make that conscious decision to go to the next level. But you know, those decisions were probably you know weeks prior to interviews. Um I do think that um, you know, and also I feel like I grew I think we all have done this, but I I feel like I definitely grew up in the unit and kind of a switch in the guard where we went from more of a who's your buddy type of thing, uh, and who's next in line for this position to a more of a merit-based uh selection process. I I just knew that when I first interviewed for Squadron Command, like I knew that guy was gonna get it because he's been here longer, he's um he's always hanging out with everybody. Like I just knew it in my in my um in my brain, like that's gonna be the guy. And then I got the job. And you know, I I was really like, wow, that this is not this is gonna shake things up because I got the job. Um, and this for squadron command. Um, and then I just felt like ever since then, it's been everything's just been merit. Um, and I so I think we I was fortunate to kind of break through or at least be at the point in the guard where things kind of went away that used to be in the past, like the it's your turn, it's you know, it's who you knew, versus this is the best person for the job. Um, so yeah, I to get back to your fact, I never thought I'd be the airlift or the um, yeah, the airlift uh the airwing commander here. It just was never uh I never thought I'd get here. Do you happen to remember what your original plans were? You know, I think my plan was uh you know, basically work as hard as I could in the job that I was currently assigned. Um no, I don't think I can remember. I I think it was just I I just was always focused on the job and that I would just probably make it to lieutenant colonel um and just kind of retire out of the the squadron. Just never thought I'd get here.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Yeah. And I think that's cool about the guard itself because you really don't have to plan. You know, and even if you do plan, things come up right. And that's so many opportunities within just my career in 10 years that I never thought I would be here as a recruiter. And a lot of these guys can, you know, say the same and with your story as well, you know. So we're just here. Just let it happen. But like you said, focus on the now and be the best at what you are now, and things will happen. You'll you'll reach those people that recognize that that'll change the kind of the motion of what it where it's going, right? It's not the next guy, you know, that's in line, it's the person that's you know working the hardest. So I'm glad I I've seen that turn as well, and I'm glad that you brought that up.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah, being able to adapt to change and just utilizing it to your best, you know, opportunities, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Yeah, and that goes for every career, honestly, you know, even recruiter to the commander. You know, there's a lot of things, you know, you gotta adjust to those changes in life. You know, changes in generations, and that's what you gotta do to become successful.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

The the famous question, where do you see yourself in five years? And I've made the joke on this podcast numerous times, it's impossible to answer that question. Yes. There are so many opportunities that open up in the guard that you can keep your your drawers wide open. You'll never know which one you're gonna pick, you'll never know which door opens, which door closes. So it's it's an impossible question, but that's the beauty of it, I guess. You know?

SPEAKER_02 17:12

No, I totally agree. Like, don't ask me that question right now because I don't know the answer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Yeah. So, next question. You were a key component for planning multiple exercises, some of which were first of its kind. Under your leadership, hand in hand with the hard work of the men and women of the 109th, and alongside our strategic partners, led to the success of our missions during these exercises. That must have been a huge and proud moment for you and your career. Do you mind touching on that?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yeah, so I think it all started in 2014. Uh, we started really getting into the Arctic exercises. And, you know, I always say, you know, when I look back at my career, the things I remember are those exercises when it comes to, you know, the challenge and the leadership challenges that I kind of ran into. It I the most fun time to be a leader is just taking two planes, two crews for maintainers and a pelican case of your office supplies. I love that. I love going into kind of uh unfamiliar situation and trying to create and I was always office staff. I was really crew. I always want to take on that challenge, and I was always like the deployed leader commander. I always want to try to go into an unknown situation in the Arctic, figure out how to maximize the limited resources we have and produce the best situation for the crew to go out and execute the mission. Um, and we were doing some very, I mean, it it probably shouldn't have, you know, I guess what we did was not all that different from what we do in Antarctica or Greenland from the aircraft perspective. But what we were doing with that team, uh, you know, I give a lot of credit to uh Colonel Susa, who's now retired, and now Matt Sala with the P, you know, all with the PCST. Um getting them out onto the ice and producing our own skiways was just, you know, something we have never we had done before in the past, but something that we had lost our um uh proficiency at. And you know, Colonel Susa, prior OG, um, that was his vision. Is getting back into he saw the Arctic was going to start uh heating up. And he wanted to posture, you know, start posturing this unit to be ready for that. Um, and just being part of that was, you know, just amazing. Working with our international partners, uh, primarily with Canada and Denmark, um, was just a great experience. Learning what their capabilities were, um, just having that shared um motivation to kind of go out into the unknown and overcome that unknown in the Arctic. Because the Arctic is it's you it it'll kill you every, it's always gonna find a way to kill you, is the most harsh environment to work in. There are no very little resources up there. Um, and coming together and combining our resources with our partners was just such an amazing experience. And the crews loved it. The crews were just so eager to do something different. Um, and I was just so happy that I could be a part of that. Um, yeah, that was a great time of my life when I was uh had the opportunity to go out and do that.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Very cool. That's cool. Um and kind of for our newer airmen that coming in, our new generation airmen um that's coming into the New York Air National Guard. Um how would you suggest that they set their career up for success?

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah, this is the only place I took notes coming here. Um that's why that's a that's a great question. Um you know, and this is how I'm gonna answer it. Kind of, you know, kind of how to set yourself up mentally to be successful, and then just some general kind of nuts and bolts. So I think the first thing you gotta remember um is that you're gonna be challenging the guard, and you have to find a way to stay positive. Um there's gonna be no uh lack of people who are negative, you know. So unfortunately, sometimes that's you know more of the norm when things get hard. And if you can be that positive person, keeping the team together and motivating them, um, that is you're going to stand out. Um and also don't shy away from challenges. Um always be part of the solution. If there's a problem, try to be part of that solution. Raise your hand. Don't sit in the the nice, comfy middle of the pack. Um, don't be afraid to, you know, offer yourself up and act in a way that when leaders are looking for somebody to help them with something, they want to think of you. They want your name to come to the top of their head. The last thing you want to be is when there's a challenge and they're like, oh, who do I have? Slow's like, well, he's not gonna be successful. Like, don't even think about him. Go to the like, you don't want to be there. You want to be the person that they come to. Um For solutions because we're leaders are going to have problems that are not we are not set up to solve. And so we're going to try to find airmen who can help us solve that. Also, don't take uh the easy path. Um it kind of goes into the the neck of what I had previously said. Don't be afraid to um make mistakes, uh, take chances. Um that's what I love about the guard. When I look at you, sometimes you look around the the guard and you see such young people doing such important jobs. Like young pilots and air crew members are like operating millions of dollars worth of uh airframe with people in the back, uh young firefighters, um, munitions. Um don't be afraid of those challenges. Uh and it's okay, it's okay to make mistakes. Um because that's how you learn. So um I always think of this one quote, it's a very famous quote. It's by Theodore Roosevelt, the man in the arena. And if you get a chance, read it. It talks about, you know, the point is to do your best and do try. The last thing you want to do is to end your career and never have taken any chances. Um, because failure is where you're going to learn. So do not be afraid to make mistakes. Um, don't stay in the, don't stay in the fuzzy middle. Put yourself out there and try to stay positive. That's really just kind of the mental aspect, I would say, uh, to young airmen. And then, you know, just generally from the nuts and bolts of your career, um, be good at your job. That should be your first focus is being good at your job. That's not only technical skills, but also you need to be ready um physically, uh, mentally. That goes into taking care of yourself mentally. There's a whole, you know, a lot you can talk about there. Uh, your medical readiness, your education, your PME, just be ready and be good at your job is the first thing you need to do. And then after that, you need to outgrow that job. You need to look for opportunities like we were talking about a little earlier that are going to come up. Um, whether you're gonna get involved in councils or be the council president, um, take on different leadership roles, um, run a shop, ask to run shops, even if you want to do speaking engagements. Anything to expand your ability as uh an airman, start looking at those up. Yeah, you have to start outgrowing what you do. Uh what you came into the Air Force to do, which is you know primarily your AFSC, because we you need to start developing um your ability to um be an active member of the profession of arms. Um, we're not here just to turn wrenches or or to fly aircraft, we're here to be professional military members in the most least lethal or lethal force uh in the world. And that does not just mean your AFSE job. And then plan for the future, but don't uh but live in the moment. So what I'm I was very bad at planning for the future, but I was really good at living in the moment. Um, so if you have the ability to think that far ahead, top of your mentors, you know, I think a lot of us know General Kilgore and her podcast is just amazing. Look at those people who you want to emulate and just talk to them and see what they did. Um, but don't let that get in the way of you being the best at your job. Um, the best at uh because you know, there's a couple people in my career where I went to them and I thought to myself, when I left, I'm like, they're only thinking about their next career. They're using this as a launching point to get to someplace else, and they don't really care about me or my organization. And, you know, that is not who you want to be. You want to be committed to the airmen that you're leading, the committed you want to be committed to the team that you're currently on and the organization. Um, and that's just gonna lead to better things in the future.

unknown 26:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Awesome. I want to say I love the outgrow your job perspective that you have. Um, and I feel like all of us have probably felt that at some point, you know, you're in a career for so long. I was in maintenance for 13 years. And at some point you get like a tunnel vision. You can't really see what's outside of maintenance. I mean, you might be able to see a little bit of bigger picture here and there, but you focus in on one thing, it's all you're gonna see. That's why I took this job in recruiting to almost humble myself again to be the new guy once once more, you know. Um, and it's been a really cool experience going into a career that I don't know anything. Because, you know, when I was down the hill, down to maintenance, I I knew quite a bit. Yeah, and I got I was very comfortable. Um, here I'm asking for help because I don't know how to do X, Y, and Z, right? Um so I feel like I've become better as you know, an airman, as an NCO, and as a person, just being humbled in that aspect. And it I I don't know, maybe you guys feel the same way.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Yeah, I think it goes with within the guard is to build a resume. And I think that's where we're going to is you look outside, join those consoles and stuff like that, but you got to build a resume here, and that's what's good about the guard, you know, and that's what puts you ahead of others here as well. You know, expose yourselves to different things, be uncomfortable, and knowing that you're gonna be a you know a ready airman. You're ready for anything that comes up, not just your AFSC. There's more.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Absolutely. And unfortunately, if you just do that, if you just get out of your comfort zone, you outgrow your job, you're already putting your you're probably the top five percent. Yeah. It it is not hard to stand out as long as you're willing to do that. And I love when, and even in the smallest, even in the smallest little aspects you can outgrow, you can start expanding your. I love when a ceremony would come up because as a commander, I'd be like, oh, who can I be to narrate? Because I know these people, I know a lot of people don't want to do this. You know, even those little opportunities you can give your airmen to kind of ignite that sense that I can do this. I am very capable. And uh, you know, a lot of because a lot of people they don't do these things because they have a lot of self-doubt. So sometimes as leaders, it's your job to kind of put them in the uncomfortable situation to hopefully either let them fail and and let them know it's okay to fail. And that's really on the leader to how they react. But also if they you know, when they succeed, oh, I can do this. Um, so yeah. That's great. Great.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah. Before we wrap it up, is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted the platform to speak on, or anything we didn't cover that you're hoping we would?

SPEAKER_02 29:47

No, I can't really think of anything. Um, I just hope that every airman listening to this um knows that um well, I kind of said it, you know, self-doubt can be the real killer of somebody's motivation and career. Um, I think the biggest thing I've learned growing up in the military and why I was able to get here is because I made a switch in my mind that I am good enough. Um I I'm good enough at what I do that I can get to the next step. Um and that I always try to push self-doubt away and be okay with making mistakes. Um and my son does Boy Scouts, and the best I love their motto, just do your best. You can't do more than your best, and your best is gonna be good enough. Um you can't always give 100%, but you have to give 100% of your time when you're when you're here. But just do your best, and good things will happen, and you deserve to be here. And oh, do not be afraid to take chances because um you know that is how you're going to grow as a person, and that will also lead to growth in your career. So you are good enough, take chances, do not be afraid to make mistakes. Awesome, awesome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

I am Staff Sergeant Mitchell Mahalko. I am Technical Sergeant Brandon Winchell, and I am Tech Sergeant Frank Pombianki. And thank you for joining us for another episode of Out of Guard.