JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
Aspirations of being a command chief in today’s U.S. Air Force never crossed his mind growing up, but that’s exactly what happened.
U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Kennon Arnold, the newest command chief for the 633rd Air Base Wing, the host wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, never thought his love for taking care of others would guide him through a successful career in the U. S. Air Force.
Growing up in the small town in northern Georgia with one brother and eight aunts and uncles, Arnold’s family values and support were reinforced through family get-togethers and regular family vacations.
His youngest uncle, just four years-older than Arnold, was his inspiration to enlist in the Air Force just 20 days after graduating high school.
“He and I did everything together and when he joined the Air Force I saw how the Air Force affected him and how what he was doing affected others, I decided that was what I was looking for as well,” said Arnold. “He’s still enlisted today; he’s my mentor and we bounce things off of each other because we know we’ll give each other a straight answer.”
After joining the Air Force, Arnold was still that same person who loved playing sports, riding motorcycles, being a “motor head,” but slowly began to grow another passion; people.
“I wanted to help people. At the time I felt like helping people meant healing wounds and fixing broken bones,” said Arnold. “However, over time I learned that taking care of people comes in many different forms.”
The “service before self” and helping others mindset led him through several other stages during his career. Though he admits to focusing less on his future goals than he should have early on, his first taste of Air Force leadership was Airman Leadership School, which changed Arnold’s outlook and made him realize that helping people could be accomplished in different ways, such as being a supportive supervisor.
“When I was an Airman, I focused on learning my job and I was good at my job, but like most Airmen, I definitely had that period where I was living for the weekend, not thinking about the future,” said Arnold. “Making rank did not come easy. It took going through ALS for me to realize that it’s about more than just me, that it was time for me to step-up and take care of other people because I was going to be truly responsible for new Airmen.”
As his career began to flourish, his passion for others did the same. He progressed throughout his career as a craftsman, supervisor, additional duty first sergeant, flight chief and various superintendent positions all while putting a major focus on the Airmen and building relationships with his wingmen.
“Just like in my childhood, I quickly realized I have wingmen that come from different backgrounds and I needed to be that person who knew these things about them and knew how to support them in any way they needed,” said Arnold. “I’ve learned the only thing that really changes throughout your military career when it comes to leadership is your span of influence. As a senior airmen or a staff sergeant you may be a leader of a few Airmen in your section, and next thing you know you’re leading 50 or 100 Airmen, you’re leading these Airmen and also taking care of their wellbeing so we are a stronger Air Force family in the future.”
Arnold attributes most of his success to his Air Force family, as well as his immediate family, his wife and their four children. According to Arnold, quality over quantity is what matters when it comes to spending time with the ones he loves.
“My wife and my kids are my biggest cheerleaders and I just want to make them proud of what I do every day,” said Arnold. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without them, and I know the job gets busy, so it’s important to me to make sure we are doing things together as a family and spending quality time together as often as we can so I can show them how much their support means to me.”
Arnold intends to bring his family values to the installation to help service members see each other as brothers and sisters in arms to ensure mission success.
“I’ve always wanted to build relationships because you can’t have a family without relationships and trust. If we think of each other as brothers and sisters…I know I have someone out there that will be there for me regardless of the obstacles I may face,” said Arnold. “It is important to me that everyone knows what they do is valuable, no matter what the job is; it ties into the big picture which is taking care of our Air Force because the Air Force is a family business.”