Mission first, people always Published Aug. 1, 2014 By Chief Master Sgt. Shaune Peters 166th Airlift Wing NEW CASTLE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Del. -- I am truly humbled and proud to serve as your wing command chief and look forward to serving with you all. I'll be honest. There were plenty of times during my career I did not see myself staying in, much less attaining such rank and position. As most can attest, a career in the Guard is a bumpy one. There were ups and downs; I had my fair share of issues, both personally and professionally, that called into question whether I would stay. But the resilience to keep serving came from my comrades in the 142nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, good leaders and mentors, and my strong belief in the value of our mission. As command chief, my goals are to ensure that everyone in the 166th Airlift Wing receives that same aid during their career highs and lows. Hopefully, the following initiatives will help. I want to enhance communication up and down the chain of command, from the commander to the student flight. Making sure everyone knows and understands the commander's vision gives purpose and direction to our training. Making sure the commander hears and understands the concerns of our Airmen creates a more efficient force and retains valued Airmen. I want to redefine leaders' roles and qualities. Part of this will be developing mentors in our units, and you can't be an effective mentor if you aren't a qualified leader. Another part of this is making sure we promote Airmen others want to emulate and follow, not just those who have been around the longest. I want to strengthen our force development. This means ensuring Airmen are getting both general and specialized training opportunities off base. This will broaden our knowledge, create well-rounded technical experts, and get us in line with our sister states. Training with other wings and focusing on force development brings new perspectives and ways of doing business. Most importantly, as command chief I want to see people energized about our mission and caring about the people that do that mission. We have an awesome responsibility to our community and nation. Teamwork includes taking care of one another and seeing the value in each person and how they get the job done. I look forward to working with you as part of the greatest team in the world.