LANGLEY AFB, VA. –
The 1st Mission Support Group commander has endured and adapted to changes for 24 years. Now he faces the biggest change yet – retirement.
What better way to finish a career than at colonel and from one of the Air Force’s “flagship bases?” asked Col. Kevin Rumsey during a recent interview.
He was commissioned in 1982 after graduating from the University of Michigan on an ROTC scholarship. Though he was commissioned during the Cold War, this commander is not a throw-back to that era. His ability to learn and grow as a man and an Airman has helped him better his life and the lives of those around him.
Just before the Cold War ended, President Ronald Reagan was telling all service members to “defend the promise of freedom,” yet many service members struggled to find their place in the military without a definitive enemy.
With the help of inspirational leaders, Colonel Rumsey found his place and drove on. At the time, those mentors were Air Force colonels; when they retired, each one had achieved a two-star rank. They didn’t attain their rank at the expense of others. They created an environment where Colonel Rumsey and his peers were motivated.
Since the Cold War, Colonel Rumsey has seen many changes in the Air Force paradigm. Some of the Air Force’s recent changes are the most notable for the colonel.
During the Cold War, the only Airmen in the Air Force were airmen and airmen basic.
Today, all are Airmen, and it is an Air Force change the Colonel Rumsey welcomed.
“Before ‘Airmen’ applied to everyone, there were too many monikers – pilot, personnelist, engineer,” he said. “This has helped us become expeditionary; it helped us shed that part of us that just want to be that one AFSC.
“Now we are working together in jobs not covered in traditional areas,” he added. “In Iraq there are security forces, logistics and other personnel working together on convoys in support of the Army. Everyone performing as a unit has produced fantastic results.”
Since 1982, personal changes in the colonel’s life have shaped his leadership style. If it weren’t for the master sergeant at Pope AFB who took Colonel Rumsey under his wing, he wouldn’t be the man he is today.
“He taught me the ropes. And when he was done, he wrote a hand receipt for me and gave me to a chief at Bitburg AB who taught me even more,” the colonel joked.
Currently, Colonel Rumsey chooses to “lead by bumper sticker.”
“If you can read this … my trailer fell off,” he likes to tell others. “Through life, you will lose things. You will be part of a changing environment – jobs, people and locations. But these things are not your identity.”
The colonel tries to get young Airmen to realize that it is not the things around them that create their identity, but the way they act and the things they do.
“There are different issues for everyone,” he said. “Every person should find his element and be aware of his surroundings.”
One of the most important lessons Colonel Rumsey said he could pass about leadership is that no one person can do everything. That person has to do what he ‘can’ do and make sure the people around him have the resources and training to get the mission accomplished.
Colonel Rumsey doesn’t know where his retirement will take him, or what he wants to do, but he said whatever company he works for next will have to have the same values that he learned in the Air Force. He also said he plans to use his civil engineering background to secure a job with that company.
Who knows, the next, great Hampton Roads bridge tunnel could have a Kevin Rumsey bumper sticker on it.