Are you professionally competent? Published April 1, 2009 By Lt. Col. John Price 6th Airlift Squadron commander McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- This may seem like a rather direct or even harsh question, but it is one that we should all consider seriously. Before you rush to answer, it might be wise to ask yourself if you know what professional competence in the profession of arms really means. Professional competence for Air Force Airmen can be defined in slightly different ways, but all viable definitions hinge on the three basic elements of our profession -- high levels of physical, mental and moral capability. These three components: physical fitness and well-being, technical proficiency and mental capability, and moral courage and character are the foundational pillars of our profession. While complementary in nature, these core areas are mostly independent in development and, therefore, each component must be specifically monitored and maintained. For example, your increased fitness level will improve your health and help you be more mentally focused, but an exceptional fitness test performance will not help you answer questions on your Career Development Course exams or Squadron Officer School test or provide you with technical solutions at work. You can look at these three elements like a three-legged stool -- all are equally important in sustaining the individual, especially in times of stress, and significant shortcomings in any one area will eventually undermine even overwhelming proficiency in the other two areas. Today's Air Force does a great deal to emphasize, monitor, and evaluate individual competence in the physical and mental realms. Unit fitness plans and the "Fit to Fight" program have helped the Air Force through a significant cultural change in enforcing physical competence standards. While fitness testing procedures and policies will continue to evolve in the future, it should be fairly easy for each of us to assess our physical health and fitness as a component of our professional competence. The second component of our professional competence is also fairly easy to assess thanks to robust technical training, advanced academic programs and professional military education. These programs allow us to evaluate the strength of that second pillar by assessing specific performance on testing and upgrades as well as noting overall mental health in our ability to handle stress, manage time, and problem solve. Our mental pillar is more a reflection of our attitude toward learning and ability to apply knowledge to new situations than it is of our test scores or a GPA. How is the second leg of your professional competence stool doing? Are you working to be a "lifetime learner" or do you see every academic experience as a "hassle?" Are you mentally agile with clear decision-making processes or are you mentally rigid and easily task saturated? he incredible demands our service places on all Airmen require that we ensure the mental component of our professional competence is honed and ready! Throughout our history, there have been some who have attempted to disregard the third pillar of professional competence because they viewed moral capabilities as luxuries we cannot afford in a time of war. In a unique irony, these same individuals now serve as our case studies for the importance of moral courage and development and directly contributed to the formation of our Air Force core values. The devastating impact of moral inadequacy goes well beyond the individual and the unit and directly impacts our most basic elements in peacetime -- public trust and respect and in wartime -- the strategic moral high ground. Moral competence is gained and maintained through the same basic process followed for our physical fitness and mental development -- establishment of standards, training to standards, and evaluation. Unfortunately, despite the importance of this pillar to our of professional competence, the vast majority of moral development is not formalized within our Air Force and, therefore, most training, if it occurs, ends up falling on your and my shoulders. We should all consider the implications of having a fitness center as the hub of our physical training and an education center as the hub of our mental training, but no equivalent moral center to provide resources and structure to our moral training. After all, moral skills, like the physical and mental counterparts, must receive regular, structured, and purposeful exercise to have any hope of achieving and maintaining the level of moral character that we advocate in our core values of integrity first and service before self. If you are not actively working to hone, or at least maintain, your moral skills, then you will slowly experience the same decaying impact that you will in your fitness test if you stop your regular exercise. If you are unsure how to assess your moral fitness or start your training, see your unit commander or base chaplain for some tips. This area may be more challenging to develop and assess, but it is arguably the most critical of the three elements and must be maintained. So ... back to the original question. Are you professionally competent? Are your pillars of physical fitness and well-being, technical competence and academic capability, and moral courage and character sufficient to handle the ever increasing demands our Air Force places on you at home station and while deployed? If you have any doubt, take some corrective action now!