Interviewer: Good afternoon, I appreciate your time Chief, thank you for allowing me to interview you and being part of the, my master’s project.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: I just recently did a very similar interview with one of my own guys. He’s enrolled in Penn State, and he took a business leadership type course. And he had very similar questions to what yours are, so I just recently did this within the last month.
Interviewer: Oh nice, exciting wow so it isn’t the first time that you’ve done it.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: And he and I got an A, so.
Interviewer: Oh nice. Wow, that’s always good news to get an A.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yes.
Interviewer: You know you work hard for an A and that’s what you like to have. When you work towards something. Yeah, that’s great.
I appreciate your time, and did you have any questions?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: No, I am pleased to be able to help you. Education is important and the fact that you’re working and, have a family and you’re doing this all on top of it is very impressive.
Interviewer: I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to do it part-time so that’s been really great. I’ve been working on it for a few years and it’s a great opportunity for anybody that wants to do it for the Maine Studies program at the Graduate School. Thank you for saying that.
There was question number three, I just wanted to jump right to that one first because it was: If you had a word document that you wouldn’t mind sharing of your leadership positions or different positions that you’ve held in the state of Maine.
That’s what I’d like to put on the website is significant positions of leadership. I’ll put right below your name or your picture, however you provide it, and you’d like it to be displayed, or exhibited because it’s kind of like this is a, an exhibit, I should say, more or less.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: By no fault of my own I’ve been involved with a lot of different things. First of all, first and foremost, I guess would be my position now here at the Maine Air National Guard. I’m the Chief Boom. It’s also the program manager. I supervise 32 enlisted flyers. I represent the commanders appointed above me with all related flying items.
I’m a Maine guardsman I represent, I mean, Air National Guard, the Maine National Guard and of course, the governor of the state of Maine. So, it’s not something taken lightly, and all guardsmen are responsible to their units to their commanders and to the people of the state of Maine. So, that’s my highest title.
I’ve been a core contract office representative. We have a $6.7 million simulator here on the installation.
At one time that was my project to oversee and manage, and to ensure that we were good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars, and that that training device get utilized and taken care of.
And with that I had a civilian employee or contractor that I also oversaw that that individual, day to day job is just to keep that machine up and running for our training needs. I have been a nonprofit charity chairperson that charity grew to were made, somewhere between $100 and $150,000 a year, and we give away somewhere between $100 and $150,000 a year to Maine guardsmen Army and Air National Guardsmen, and to the local community.
I’ve been a board member on several nonprofits, most of them involve youth sports. They were soccer club in eastern Maine youthful cross club or two of them. And that was a parent, getting involved and making sure that kids were able to participate in sports in our local area.
Interviewer: No that’s great.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: And the other two big things I’ve done is, and the deployed environment, I deployed to Al Udied in November of 2014 through February of 2015 as the 348 EARS Superintendent and that was at Al Udied Air Base Qatar.
Then I also had the opportunity to deploy to the 348 EARS from January to April of 2020 and that was in Kandahar, Air Base Afghanistan.
And those were very dynamic times, dealing with aviators were Maineiacs guardsmen active-duty reservists’ contractors.
It was very dynamic very fluid. And it’s something where my own personal envelope was expanded greatly.
I got into where I wasn’t comfortable because I had to deal with things that I never been exposed to before. And it was a great learning experience. It was a great growing experience for me.
It was a great growing experience for me. And from everything I’ve heard was told that I did a great job.
I represented myself, my unit, and the state very well.
Interviewer: Thank you. Thank you for, sharing that. I think I might have seen you over there once or twice, I think you came over in 2012 and I think I saw you during one time over there and I might have seen you again when the second time, so I think we bumped into each other at least once over there.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yeah, and the two longer trips where I was a Superintendent flying as a crew member, it was you know you and your two pilots, or myself and my two pilots, as a crew and basically you take care of the three of yourself and the three of you in your small family unit and things go well. As a superintendent at one point, I had 90 enlisted aviators that were mine to care for mine to challenge mine to grow mine to employ.
And it was very, very dynamic.
Some of the younger members were on their first deployment ever flying into a war zone.
Some of the old heads was their last trip and they were making trying to make sure they were going to make it home safe and everything in between.
Interviewer: Absolutely. Yeah. I’m going to lead right into the questions with that listed as question number one.
Just so we have about 10 questions and I’m just going to start out with number one: What does leadership mean to you? You’ve answered a little bit of it already, but I’m just going to go right down through the questions now.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: For me, it’s the ability. My ability to influence others to maximize your efforts towards a common goal. So that is what I think leadership is, you know, in the in the home station environment it’s getting my members to get their training done to keep up with their training, whether it’s their actual job or Air Force training, their CDC’s, their PME, but to lead them in the right direction to be able to deploy to be able to get their job to be able to be promoted.
That’s what I think leadership is.
Interviewer: With those leadership positions that you mentioned, through these leadership roles what valuable knowledge and skills have you learned as a leader that you have educated others with? So, have you had any experiences where that you’d like to share that you could share that you’ve helped educate others with it?
I mean, you just briefly shared it a little bit right at the beginning with doing this, similar doing another project like this. Do you have any other examples?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yes. In my work environment.
Leadership is much different than working with our community.
My work environment, this is your job, they all my employees strive to do a good job. So, leadership with them is a little bit different than leading volunteers.
Volunteers are volunteering their, their precious time off towards your cause or cause you all believe greatly and, and you’ll find that most volunteers are involved in many things.
And you’ll see the same group of people, and many organizations, because we don’t know, we don’t we don’t know enough to say no.
We want to do right we want to do a good thing we want to help our community, our kids, their schools, their projects.
So, we tend to overextend ourselves and to how I would lead my employees is not how you would lead a group of volunteers, can’t give orders to volunteers, there, they’re going to leave you.
You need to empower them to believe in the cause that you’re working on and see where their sacrifice of their time is worth it. So, you have to approach causes differently than you would like carrot work.
And my supervisor’s boss. I can tell them to do something, they will do it right I can’t, tell a volunteer to go do something.
I can ask them again, try to make a reason why it makes really good sense for them to do it and try them to get them to buy off on that idea. And I had pretty good success with that.
Because it was something that a core group of us believed in. And, it was contagious, taking care of our fellow guardsmen and our community was, was a good thing, something we’re proud of doing.
So, that was contagious.
Interviewer: Absolutely, situational, you got to build a lead within different situations and be aware right on your feet, right on your feet. Absolutely. That’s great.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: And then in the deployed environment. Like I said, I had a range of, you know, brand new airmen to old crusty heads that we’re getting ready to retire.
What motivates an 18- or 19-year-old. Most likely, would not motivate a 50 something year old person in the military.
So, to get the mission done I had to approach each group differently. Because I could bark at some senior, you know, older heads. I wanted and I’ve got the reaction I needed. So, that wasn’t the right tactic to use with them, and then intimidating new people, that isn’t the right tactic with them either, because we all tick differently.
So, it was the find what motivated them and what I could do to motivate them to accomplish our goal, and that was to be able to employ Air Power.
Interviewer: Yep, absolutely. Yep. No, that’s a good, that’s a great example because you know everybody, everybody ticks for different reasons. Now I like that example thing. Yeah, no everybody’s at different stages in their lives and has different goals and no that’s you, you can’t know it unless you know your people and you know what they’re doing and know what to do from each of those situations by knowing them.
That leads right into the next question. When did you realize that you wanted to be a leader in your organization?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: It evolved over time. Some of this my personality, wanting to do more.
I like to think I can fix things. I can’t always sometimes I make things worse. And it’s not because I go in, you know, maliciously or, unguarded, but sometimes I’m a bull in the china-closet and I don’t mean to be.
So, I’ve also had to learn to keep that in check as a leader, and as a supervisor.
But more so the last 10 years when I got involved with stuff.
I saw our positive things happening, whether it was in the community, or in my role here as a guardsman more responsibility was given to me. I enjoyed that responsibility. I thrived on it.
And I grasp, for, more roles more opportunities, more opportunities to learn more people to learn from volunteering with the Air Force to help with other inspections of other units to learn from those units, and what they do, right. So, it’s something that was a sacrifice, time for my family for my military role to learn how to take over this position.
Interviewer: That’s a good example. That’s sacrificing time for what you do, to what you learn. That’s a huge thing. That is what it takes to learn. And so, it takes to do with those different positions and learning from the people around you.
Has your knowledge and experience with what you’re doing helped you lead other people in the state of Maine, with what you have learned and what you’ve been doing?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: I believe it has, you know, our state’s a special place.
People from away right now are flocking to our state, because of what our values are, what our small, small communities are those organizations I volunteered for what they do in our community.
People from large metropolitan areas, didn’t have that, that personal interaction like we have in our state.
And it’s because people do step up and they do take those roles of the Boy Scout Leader and the Girl Scout Leader and the coach, with the youth, and the professional organizations the Elks Club and the Eagles Club and all those other stuffs that are out there and Kiwanis people, people get involved in our communities and they get back to our communities. And the people that are, that are migrating north and down south.
Some of us because of the pandemic. Some of it is they’re fed up with the rat race in the big cities, but they like us, they like, not our slower way of life just our way of life.
And I think being involved with those organizations and the people I’ve been involved with.
I think I’ve; I’ve left my stamp on them of what I thought was right. And my work ethic, I think I transferred to some of them. And that’s the Maine work ethic.
Work hard, get the job done and, you know, we’ve done wrong we’ll figure it out a better way to do it next time.
Interviewer: Yup. No that’s exactly what Maine means to us. Maine you know, small hometown community and, yeah, people are flocking here because of the COVID-19.
I mean that’s great for, for every everything around us. And that’s, I really liked the way you explained it. That’s good you know if you’re going to be a leader in your organization you want to be able to influence others and clearly you have in your position.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: And with our influx of out of staters coming to Mainers are as close as they can ever be. They at least at this point, don’t want to make us where they came from. I think they’re tired of that.
They seem to be, you know, blending in with our communities, and just being our neighbors and they’re not trying to make us like their own neighbors. Um, they seem happy here.
We’ve got a life in a small community a small cul-de-sac, and we have three people that moved in from out of state and they’re wonderful people they all have young families and they like our pace.
Interviewer: That’s great. Yeah.
Oh, and I think we’re just going to jump right into number six, and you’ve kind of mentioned a little bit but I don’t know if there’s more: What are the most effective leadership skills that you’ve applied while leading others in your organization? Is there something that you would want others to be aware of, while you’re leading others in your organization?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: What I found is there is no one way to lead. Um, there are some skills that you have to be able to have to lead. One is you have to listen to your people and have to be a listener. You might think you know the problem but if you don’t listen to what’s being said, you’ll never understand what the underlying cause of any problem is. So, you need to listen to what the challenge is. And then like I said there’s different ways to lead with different groups. Sometimes you have to be authoritative to get something done. But that will not work in all cases, it will backfire and several. You never plead to have someone do something.
It helps you have credibility if you’ve been there, you’ve done that, so you’re not asking anybody to do something you haven’t done yourself already or are willing to do now.
Sometimes all you have to do is empower people to do something. So set realistic small goals.
Give them a timeline to accomplish those goals do frequent checks without micromanaging but do frequent checks on their progress and praise them when things go right and help make minor corrections when things go wrong, to get them back on the track that you wish.
Interviewer: Now that’s a great example I like that. You know set setting small goals and making your way towards those goals as a long term, you know, outcome of what you’re going to do and how to lead people in your organization.
Listening is a huge key, to be able to, because you can’t, you don’t know what your people are saying unless you can hear them.
Yeah, I really like, that’s a good example. Number seven it says, for the next question I wanted to ask is: Do you believe that leadership styles and skill sets are beneficial? If so, how would you go about applying them in your organization while leading a group of people?
I know it’s kind of a you’ve mentioned it again, but would you have an example that you’d like to share with leadership styles and skill sets?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Um, we all have projects to do their projects out here that happened, and the group coming together, the forming the storming the Norman performing that that happens daily.
Anytime you set forth, more than one individual to get something done. So, know that there’s going to be some transition time. When you set someone off on a project. And then, like I said, understand that there, it’s going to take time for that group of people who are that those two people those two individuals to come together to perform that task, but they have to go through those four steps to get to that point where they can accomplish it.
And you’re there to set them there with proper guidance. So, make sure they’re trained, they have the equipment they need to do the position, the job, the task.
They have the information that’s needed. And that they’ve been, they have the skill set to do it, then let them go through their, group dynamics of how they’re going to form their group.
And then empower them to do it. And then, you know, let them know you’re watching without micromanaging because that’s detrimental. And we’ve all been micromanaged and it’s not fun.
But let them know you’re, doing spot checks on them and you know sometimes you’ll have to correct your mode and set the ship straight, but a lot of times, you know, if you’ve trained them, you’ve given them clear objectives and, in a timeframe to get it in, they’re going to do it for you.
And, then when they have done it, you need to recognize them, you need to praise them.
If not just to themselves and in a small group in the work environment with our words and decorations, you can do it that way, but a people like to know they’ve done a good job.
So, you need to let them know they’ve done a good job by whatever means is appropriate for that task.
Interviewer: Absolutely.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yep.
Interviewer: Um, I, I’m just going to throw one in there for the next question. And it’s a what, it’s kind of along the same lines, but it’s a little bit different: What leadership traits, would you apply while leading others in your organization? So, it’s not leadership styles, but just, are there any traits that you would recommend as when you’re leading somebody within your organization?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Credibility is paramount. You’ve got to have credibility your people have got to believe in you and, what they’re doing, or they’re not going to do it so that’s probably the first one.
Honesty sincerity, honesty, sincerity, compassion, listening, all of those skills are important as a leader.
But I think the biggest one is if you’re trying to get somebody to do something as a leader and if they don’t believe in what they’re doing, and you don’t believe in what they’re doing then you’re wasting all your time, their time.
So, and people don’t like to waste their time. So, it’s going to be a credible task and, you know, sometimes in the military, we do some silly things, but they need to understand why those are happening. So that you don’t lose your credibility.
Interviewer: No, that’s great. It was there, just a few traits. I’ve been asking uh I’ve been asking a couple of people, all along and there are some, the traits and leadership styles, I’d like to do some best leadership practices on my site with some of the commonalities that I find with all the leaders, everybody that I’ve been interviewing. So, thanks for sharing, sharing those. I’m going to just kind of add a little, a little spot on the page with some of the recommendations or just some, you know, high common things that Maine leaders have stated as good leadership practices.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: For example, take back to your first days and basic training.
You know, away from home and all that stuff. And you, your Basic Military Training instructor.
The BMT instructor.
He had you fold your t-shirts into squares. The Air Force doesn’t care that you fold your t-shirts into squares. What they didn’t tell you is that you can follow directions you can start at step one, and you can go through step 12. And you can end up with a t-shirt and in a perfect square. As you can follow directions you can follow rules. And then, you know, when the instructor went through and yell nope and flip lockers upside down and did all this stuff, they used to do in the old days, and your locker wasn’t one of the ones that flipped up, it was that proud that you know what that pride in yourself. I did it right.
And then the next day you followed your t-shirt in the six-inch square, and you help your apartment next door do theirs. And then there’s two people that didn’t get flipped upside down, and that self-pride and you spread it to your mates around you and you’re smiling you remember what I’m talking about?
Interviewer: Yeah. (Laughs)
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yeah.
Okay, that was one of the silly things you have forced me to do, but it wasn’t about folding t-shirts, it was the ability to follow directions. We don’t think about it, what they were, you know, molding us to do back then.
And they did it in a kind of in the authoritative way because they had a short amount of time to produce, you know, 36/40 Airmen however many people are in your flight. So, the attention getting steps they used work on most of us.
Interviewer: Oh yes, they did for sure if not, you’d be recycled back.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yes, because that was a controlled group, and that method and that method doesn’t work day-to-day.
But, you know, in that environment is that time in our lives, young and impressionable. And then, I don’t think that stuff goes on a basic training anymore, that wouldn’t work on young people today.
They shut down and tell you to do it yourself.
So, flipping lockers upside down and stomping around that method of leadership, or authoritative leadership wouldn’t work anymore. But it worked on us back then.
Interviewer: Oh yeah. Yeah, I didn’t experience that going through BMT.
They did do the t-shirts and I think we had we had a designated t-shirt lady that helped us, and it definitely did form the, the teamwork. And the direction that they were trying to get you to, you know, formulate at that early stage of what it is you know you’re told what you need to do and that’s what it’s gone, from there to learn from one step to the next. The Air Force is definitely all encompassed of numerous different leadership styles to learn and apply from with leading a group of people.
Interviewer: That’s a great example though with, you know, just how basic foundations of where it started out with.
Thanks for sharing that. I’m going to lead right into the next question with it. It says: Has there been a leader that has inspired you to where you are today?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: I’m going to be a little bit sappy. My father died when I was young, I was nine. My mother raised four of us. I have a younger sister six, I was nine and I had a sister 12. I have a sister that was 14. We all have our education. We’re all married.
We’re all on our first marriage, for whatever good or bad, that is, but we were instilled with right and wrong, and the desire to, at this point, you know, she was a single parent raising four of us, to please her, to follow the rules.
I mean, she was feisty, but she wasn’t awful she wasn’t, you know, she wasn’t a punisher or anything like that. You obviously knew when she was disappointed in you, and you try not to go there again.
My sisters and I still, you know, I am 53, so it’s been many many years since my father died, we’re still all very close so she instilled some pretty, pretty good stuff in us.
So, yeah, a leader, no but it shows me how to act as an adult, and how to strive to, do good things.
I had a Boy Scout leader that knew I was from a single parent, and he knew the whole circumstances. So, when he would take his son, fishing, I got to go fishing, he exposed me to the outdoors of Maine that I know and love to this day that I’ve exposed my family to.
So, there was him. And that was a positive impact of my on my life and someone going above and beyond for a neighbor’s kid to do the right thing and, you know, I greatly appreciated that because of my love of the outdoors, was because of them spending their time with me.
And then there was a Chief here when I first became a Boom, and he had a way about him that was phenomenal. He still volunteers out here now with our Honor Guard. He’s been retired well over 10 years.
And he’s just a phenomenal person he is a great family man. The love of his wife, of his children, is a great example. And then his, his love of the Maineiacs – the Maine Air National Guard and the people of Maine was inspiring on me. And he taught me when I was young, I told you I was a bull in a china closet sometimes.
A lot of those times I was not wrong how we approached the subject, but how I approached the subject was very wrong.
So, I may have been right. But how I went about trying to express myself was very wrong. And he taught me, you know to bite my tongue and to count to 10 and try to see things from other people’s views to include see how they will see me when I was trying to get my point across, and, and there were definitely better ways.
He helped me mature as a person and then, you know, eventually evolve into where I am now.
And I emulated a lot of his techniques because he was a pretty neat chief and that was Chief Hosted.
Interviewer: Well, thank you for sharing that. What, developed your relationship with this leader and I, you kind of answered this already, so if there’s nothing else you want to say it’s question 10 so you kind of answered them both at the same time, but has it a: What developed a relationship with this leader and how did it impact you and developing your leadership skills and abilities?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: The fact they saw something promising in me whether you know, it was a Boy Scout leader, or, you know, Chief Hosted, that they saw something in me worth fostering you know. I don’t want to call it bad behavior but putting up with some immaturity and seeing things black and white.
Our society strives and gray and not everything is black and white and helping me see past; you know my preconceived notions. So, you know, most of it was personal growth.
Interviewer: I just have another kind of an impromptu question that I kind of threw in there. Just a with a: Have you inspired others while leading them in your organization? And how did you recognize this and what did you do in a situation to inspire them further?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Well, the gentleman I helped with a very similar project. A newer person to our unit, a new Inflight Air Refueling Specialist came to me, and he got the flying bug.
He’s like Chief I love my job.
I love being a Boom Operator. I think I want to be a pilot.
I said: Awesome.
All of our boom operators that have become pilots are our best pilots.
So, what are we going to do to get you there? And I think I surprised him because I didn’t try to hold him back.
So, you never want to hold anybody back.
You want to support them in their education, and their personal growth, and their military growth.
This kid will be a pilot someday; I can tell you that. And he’s going to be a damn good pilot.
It’s who he is.
So, here. He’s going to Penn State online, he enrolled in classes, took 14 credits last year while fighting the war on terror from home station.
He did another 14 credits this spring to include a big project such as this one, that he and I got an A on.
But, in some ways, he came to me like a father figure because he couldn’t wait to tell me our grade or his grade for this project that he did, because he wanted me to be proud of him that I went out of my way to help him, and he wanted me to know what the result was. So, I always encourage, and everybody needs different types of encouragement.
Some people need a little push. Some people need a hug. But each person is different, so you have to figure that out on an individual case by case basis, but everybody needs something.
So, you just need to figure out what it is for that person, what makes them tick. And what motivates them and get them going.
Interviewer: Now that’s a good example. I’m glad to hear that you guys got an A to hopefully this project, maybe I’ll get an A on this project I’m not sure, but I’d like to do a little bit, more with it, maybe I’ll take it a little bit further I’m trying what we’ll see if the graduate school likes it. I really appreciate your time Chief.
Question number 12 is, you’ve had some great examples. This one is:
Do you have any advice on how to best lead others moving forward into the 21st century?
So, kind of moving forward into the 21st century.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: And we are out here guilty of this, and I am one of the ones trying to get us to look to the future, to see what we’re going to evolve to. You have to be opened to change.
We do a good job out here on our day to day everything we do; we do a good job.
But I think we can do better.
I can do better; my supervisors can do better, and they do a good job.
But we’re kind of stuck in a rut.
We rest on our laurels that we’ve always done a good job will continue to do a good job.
Because we’re very comfortable where we are.
But we need not to be so comfortable, we need to look to the future. Don’t, rest on past accolades.
Seek out for us new missions, new ideas, new technology.
Just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean that’s the best way. It may be in the end, but we were not opened to exploring new ways to get a task done and we need to be.
Sometimes we create more work trying to avoid something then if we just done it.
So, we’re very, very set in our ways, and I think Mainers are set in our ways.
That’s one thing we are stubborn. And we need to grasp technology. We need to utilize technology. And we need to think outside the box to push Maine forward, to push the Maine Guard forward, to push our communities forward without losing, you know, our identity also.
Interviewer: Now that’s great example I really like your example of technology. This, this is doing Zoom right now is a prime example of it.
I wouldn’t have been able to for the past year, with things, like Zoom becoming so readily available and people using it so much with doing things and different areas all over the state Zoom in technology has advanced so much.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Remote learning all of it, and, I mean, we did this in a matter of weeks last spring. And, you know, I think we had some failures, but we had an awful lot of successes.
And now with something out of everybody’s comfort zone, teachers teaching to 30 kids over a laptop and, you know, kids actually still learning.
If they were scary last spring, you know when afraid that someone looked at you crooked, you’re going to catch COVID-19 and die, or it was going to your family members get sick.
So, we, gravitated toward quickly to try to keep some resemblance of balance in our lives, to keep kids learning to keep kids in school, to move them forward so they didn’t get left behind.
I think all in all, you know that most households. They might have been stressed but they got it.
Interviewer: Just the last question I’m going to leave you with: Do you have any recommendations for future leaders of Maine?
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Our state’s a unique place like I talked about it earlier, you know, people gravitate towards our way of life. They really do and the group that came over here last year. They came away from congested areas from the rats. Rat’s life, the craziness of big cities.
And they’ve evolved to us, which is maybe not a slower pace a different pace than what they’re used to.
And they like it. And, as we said earlier, they’re not trying to change our identity to be like where they came from. They’re happy here.
So, we need to push technology. Every kid should have access to Wi-Fi, and some type of computer in our homes that are school aged.
That should be, whether it’s given through the state through the school departments,
parent funded whatever that is. I think that’s a necessity to stay up with the world. University of Maine has, you know, one of the premier engineer schools but we don’t talk about it.
It’s not sold that we produce, you know, phenomenal engineers. So, we don’t brag about ourselves, either we don’t sell ourselves really well.
Our little hidden gem that you and I know we’re family out here we have all the problems that family has. We agree we disagree. We build each other up we knock each other down. But we’re a family, and some of that’s going away.
And that may be some of the things that we don’t need to be afraid that some of the changes that we shouldn’t want to change.
You know, being involved in our community is helping all that stuff.
Um, I don’t know if you’ve had the opportunity to volunteer with anything with your family, the community projects, the Church sports anything like that but it’s the same people that get involved and there’s so many other people that take advantage of them. And sometimes they, they’re just not asked to, you know, come out.
And they’ll give you the normal excuses I’m busy. I’m doing this I’m doing that.
You can tell them well, we all are, we’re all busy we all have that thing called life going on, but you know, they don’t have to do it all, but you know find that one thing.
Be the, the parent that helps her kids in between games or whatever it is, to have all to that special place that we know.
But also, don’t be afraid of grasping technology, selling ourselves for all the good things we do when we do a lot. But the rest of the country doesn’t know about it because we don’t tell them.
We’re very proud people privately. And we don’t share well, that information.
And a lot of the stuff we do we, you know, the state has a right to be and should be proud of what we do.
Interviewer: Well, I’m going to share some of your experiences and knowledge that you have here, I’m going to share a little bit. So, I appreciate you putting time into here and allowing me to use your, your words and your experiences and I’m going to share your story that you’ve done, and I appreciate your time.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: Yeah, glad to be able to help you and look forward to you doing well and whatever your endeavors and wherever this is going to take you.
Interviewer: No, no, I, I hope to go further with this, I’d like to be able to the website maybe go further with it and maybe apply for a further education down the road, there’s a couple of different other programs.
There’s further research I’d like to be able to do with in leadership skills and leadership styles, but I would like to go further with it, so I’ll just leave it at that. But I really appreciate your time Chief, and I was surprised that you’re able to do it. I was not sure if I was going to be able to interview you. I have retired members and I have active members.
CMSgt Gerald Martin: I’m actually working this evening; our local flyers are out doing their thing so I’m just here in case of an emergency. So, I’m here until 11pm so I would have caught up on something but it’s nothing is important is helping you with this.
I think you’ve always conducted yourself very professionally.
I’m watching you grow through the years. And I’m glad you are going outside your comfort zone and seeking higher education. And I think you’re going to make a difference and that’s my opinion.
Interviewer: No, that’s great. I will email that to you after today. I really appreciate this time that you have taken.