655 ISR Wing holds annual leadership event

  • Published
  • By Capt. Weston Woodward
  • 655th ISR Wing Public Affairs

As the operating environment around us constantly changes, the 655th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing continues to evolve its mission, vision and practices to remain at the tip of the spear.

The 655th ISR Wing held its 2021 Annual Leadership Event September 13-17, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Throughout the week-long event, 655th ISRW leadership came together to discuss topics pertaining to the state of the wing, leading through COVID-19, processes to improve the wing, leadership strategies, the National Defense Authorization Act and where the wing will align with it moving forward and many others.

Seventy-four Reserve Citizen Airmen from across the wing attended the event, representing squadron and group leadership, as well as wing staff. Airmen from all 14 squadrons, two groups and wing staff were present, spanning seven operating locations.

During the opening remarks of the event, Col. Joe Marcinek, 655th ISR Wing commander, noted that the goal throughout the following days was to “pinpoint gaps and come up with creative solutions to move the wing forward” and for the squadron leadership to “bring us (the wing) your challenges so we can assist you.”

On the second full day of the event, attendees were divided into 12 different small, intentionally assigned, focus groups where they spent the morning and afternoon brainstorming and sharing various gaps, processes and best practices that each of them were experiencing in their specific units. This gave leadership throughout the organization an opportunity to have face-to-face interactions and intimate conversations about how to move the wing forward while staying in the ISR fight today and prepare for the future.

That afternoon, the groups came back together and shared solutions and gave presentations created from their break-out groups to the rest of the attendees.

“This was an extremely productive day,” said Lt. Col. Scot Campbell, director of operations for the 655th ISR Wing. “The value we get from our Airmen, from a multitude of backgrounds, coming together and having the opportunity to work with each other to solve problems and stay ahead of the power curve not only ensures that we are more than ready for the missions we are tasked with, but also displays the importance of and quality that each and every one of our Airmen bring the 655th ISR Wing and the Air Force as a whole.”

The 655th ISR Wing is directly supporting a multitude of ISR mission-sets to seven different Active Duty ISR wings.

Later in the week, presentations and discussions took place led by members of the wing staff on subjects such as training, deployments, resource management, diversity and inclusion, and stratification processes for both officer and enlisted Airmen.

On the final day, the wing staff and two groups divided up into three breakout sessions to recap the events of the week, discussed lessons learned, and began planning implementation processes to bring back to their units to ensure the 655th ISR Wing remains the premier ISR wing in the United States Air Force, delivering timely, reliable, accurate and actionable intelligence products enabling a decisive advantage over our adversaries.

Overall, the event was a success and a valuable learning tool for all involved.

The 655th ISR Wing consists of a headquarters, a Group, and three tenant Squadrons in Ohio, and one Group and 11 geographically separated Squadrons in California, Texas, Nebraska, Virginia, Florida and Maryland. For exciting and rewarding career opportunities with the 655th ISRW, please contact your local Air Force Reserve recruiter or call 937-257-8117.