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Executive Insights
Gen.Gjede Liked, 'Believed in What I Was Doing'His enthusiasm built esprit de corps in 910th Airlift Wing.After 36 years as an officer in the Air Force, Michael F. Gjede has stepped down "from the best job in the world, being wing commander at your own air base."He never "planned on a military career," Gjede said shortly before he was set to retire. "And I certainly would never have guessed [in 1968] where this would all lead." Where this would all lead began at Officer Candidate School inNovember 1968, followed by training on B-52s and service over Vietnam -- 140 combat missions, one nearly fatal -- and 11,000 hours of flying time before ending in Vienna as the first general officer to command the 910th Airlift Wing. Gjede has seen the world from Antarctica and the northern tip of Greenland, the jungles of Ethiopia, Thailand and Vietnam and the deserts of Arabia and Egypt. He has also been to Australia and New Zealand.The brigadier general has seen most of the United States and western Europe from the air, and his posts have ranged from Loring Air Force Base, Maine, to California. He was commander of the 934th Air Lift Wing in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn., before being assigned to Youngstown. In short, Gjede has flown over most of the United States and western Europe and landed at more destinations than he can recall.Gjede has either ferried or overseen the ferrying of U.S. troops and their equipment to the world's trouble spots in war and periods of heightened tension. Closer to home, Gjede has also supervised the spraying of insecticides over much of the eastern United States.In 1974, Capt. Gjede helped transport the limousines President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used to attend the summit held that year in Warsaw, Poland. Soon after landing, his plane was surrounded by heavily armed Polish soldiers, none of whom spoke English. Fortunately, the commander of the craft knew Polish and defused the tense situation, Gjede remembers. When he began college at Northeastern College in Boston in fall 1962, Gjede signed up for Army ROTC. That "lasted 10 weeks and I said, 'That's not for me.' " As graduation neared, he interviewed with the Navy and Air Force and chose the latter, planning to fulfill his five-year commitment as a junior officer and return to the civilian world and put his major in marketing to use. Upon separating (he thought), he began interviewing for jobs but quickly found himself back in the Air Force Reserve. He's been there since.Based in Guam, he had two 179-day rotations that took him on 140 missions over Vietnam. It wasn't until the conflict escalated as President Nixon ordered the bombing of North Vietnam that things got scary. In one of the first groups of B-52s to fly over Hanoi in December 1972, Capt. Gjede and his crew mates earned the nickname "Missile Magnets" as North Vietnamese batteries hit his craft."We almost got blown out the sky that night," Gjede remembers. "That was as close as I ever got to [harm]." Twenty seconds before Gjede's B-52 reached its target, the bomb doors opening and ready to release its payload, the tail gunner saw the flames of a missile headed directly at them -- the plane was seconds from taking a hit.Gjede, the navigator, heard the tail gunner's warning in his headset and the pilot banked sharply, but it was too late. The missile exploded just below the belly and ripped the bottom of the jet. Hot shards of metal tore holes in the craft, alarms sounded and the bomber "screamed in agony" as three of its eight engines failed.As Gjede tried to stay focused on his assignment, he felt something "extremely hot" pass his right cheek and stop in his station as it showered the cockpit with sparks.Smoke poured from the damaged engines, air whistled through gaping holes -- 156 were counted after they landed -- and fuel leaked heavily from the tanks.Undeterred, the crew dropped their bombs as close as they could to the target and turned the craft around. "The adrenalin and training kicked in," the general comments. "It's not until later that you realize what you just did."The Air Force command post, aware of the crew's situation, radioed they would be sent more fuel and to recheck their controls. Looking outside, Gjede and his mates knew they'd be lucky if anything lasted until they returned to Guam and chose to try to make it to a U.S. base in Thailand.They did, and their commander couldn't make up his mind whether to reprimand them for going against orders or to honor them for valor.All received the Distinguished Flying Cross.After being checked out and "getting a beer, we did it again the next day," Gjede says. While he never again found himself in such peril, flying troops and supplies into the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and sending and leading his charges into Afghanistan, Iraq and bordering territories after 9/11 was no less dangerous."I've liked what I was doing. I believed in what I was doing. The question always was, 'How do I make that happen?' " Gjede says of his many and varied assignments.He's succeeded because of his confidence and trust in his colleagues and subordinates. "Air crews are what make it happen in the Air Force," he says. "We have an attitude of 'whatever it takes."His wife, Jerlynn, says, her husband's accomplishments are based on "Michael's respect for all [members of the Air Force as] human beings.""You take care of people and they'll take care of you," he agrees. "One question I ask [at the outset of every exercise] is, 'What can I do so you can complete your mission?' ""He does not micromanage," Mrs. Gjede continues. "He trusts his people to know their job. I've had people tell me, 'He lets me do my job.' ""I have no problem letting people do their job," the general adds."And Michael selects good people," his wife says."They end up making you look good," he says.Also contributing to Gjede's success as a commanding officer isconstantly evaluating the information before him, collecting as much data as he can before making a decision or issuing an order."I try to instill in my young officers that the first story they hear won't be 100% correct," he says. "They must ferret out the other side. You must always leave the door open for the last piece of information. I do this so I can change my decision up until the last minute."One result: "I've never had a critical decision that boomeranged on me."Gjede's instilling and maintaining the esprit de corps at the 910th has led the members of his command to go well beyond what's expected.Example: The 910th led the first Expeditionary Operational Readiness Inspection in the wake of 9/11, five major inspections in two months. "That was unheard of," Gjede says, so many major inspections in such a short period of time."We could suck it up and get it over with," he says, or ask for an extended schedule. He discussed it with his senior staff andcommanders and, he says, "We decided to go through with it," and be the first unit to undergo the exercises. "We do best when we're in a leadership role," he says proudly. "I hate being a follower."For its efforts, the 910th received "the highest rating possible," as Maj. Gen. James D. Bankers noted in presenting Gjede the Legion of Merit during retirement ceremonies. Bankers is commander of the 22nd Air Force. What makes me the happiest is knowing that I'm going out on top of the world," Gjede says. "I've loved every minute of my job. It was such a wonderful experience I could do it for another 10 years."It isn't often that the chief executive officer of an enterpriseleaves his post as enthused as when he arrived. But Gjede has all the energy, all the passion, as when he arrived. His enthusiasm for the base and the region is reflected in his and his wife's decision to remain here and work with SOAR -- Save Our Air Reserve base -- as Congress wrestles with the next round of military base closings. "