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Rice becomes first
female Chief Master Sgt. Weapons Manager within Total Force
By Staff Sgt. Chris Jennings,
181st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Respect doesn’t come with a
prerequisite pertaining to gender. Proving this recently was Chief
Master Sgt. Anne Rice, 181st Fighter Wing Weapons Manager. Rice
became the first female Weapons Manager to obtain the rank of Chief
Master Sgt., not just in the 181st
Fighter Wing, or the Air National
Guard – but in the Total Force.
“This is
definitely a predominately male career
field, and I really hope this helps other females realize they can
do whatever they set themselves out to do, no matter what career
field they are in,” Rice said, not ready to consider herself among
the military’s elite Airmen. “But its not about gender, it’s about
doing your job the best you can and loving what you do.”
Rice
joined the Air Force 29 years ago. When she joined all she wanted to
do was be a mechanic. Rice chose nuclear missiles. Spending her
first six years in the missile silos at Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Calif.,
she was the only woman in her shop. She climbed the silos, turned
wrenches and got her hands just as dirty as the next Airman –
earning respect from her peers.
In
1985, she joined the 181st Fighter Wing, Hulman Field, Terre Haute,
Ind.,
as a “weapons troop.” Within the Wing she worked hard, eventually
becoming a key part of the leadership team within the shop.
She recalled a Weapons
conference she attended a year and a half ago where she just
happened to be the only female enlisted member out of the 200
personnel attending the event. Rice admits she noticed it for a
split second, but never really paid attention to it because she knew
she did her job just as well as anyone else there.
“I
remember my very first Chief from active duty, Chief Master Sgt. Roy
Stovall. He is the one who gave me my first stripe in 1979,” Rice
recalled. “And along with it, he gave me a clipping out of the base
newspaper. It showed every enlisted rank from Airman to Chief, and
it read along the bottom: ‘Never forget where you came from.’ I
still have that clipping to this day and always remember where I
came from.”
Rice constantly shies away
from the spotlight she has earned, always diverting the attention
back to her own troops, the 181st “Load Toads.”
“I consider them my kids, and I care for them like
that,” Rice said. “It’s my job to take care of them. They are the
ones who make everything happen.”
“I had the opportunity to observe Chief Rice in
her element—leading weapons personnel loading live ordnance,” said
Senior Master Sgt. Donald Felch, Armament Branch Superintendent at
National Guard Bureau. “To say the Chief has a flair for leading
would be an understatement; her people would very literally go to
war with her. In today’s fast-paced, expeditionary total force
environment, Chief Master Sgt. Anne Rice is the kind of Weapons
Chief we need in the Air Force—a leader.”
Rice feels that being a female has never slowed
her down in any way as she made her push toward the enlisted ranks’
top echelon. In her eyes, she’s just being herself, and she is just
doing her job. Despite her humble attitude, she just happens to be
the only female in the United States Air Force doing her particular
job, and her troops know she has earned the title.
“I’ve worked with her for over 20 years, and she is an excellent
supervisor,” said Senior Master Sgt. Ed Speer.
Speer recalls times when Rice
would just walk out with her troops, pick up a wrench or climb on a
jammer and start configuring a jet or hop in the truck to do arm/dearm.
He felt that she earned the respect of everyone long before her
promotion to Chief Master Sergeant, and deserves everything she has
gotten.
With Rice being so humble and so quick to steer
away from the spotlight, jokingly, Speer looked over his shoulder
several times before explaining exactly why he felt like she was so
deserving of the promotion.
“She means so much to our shop, and this base,”
Speer said. “She leads by example and cares so much for everyone.
She impresses airmen with her knowledge, on occasion just walking
out on the flight line and finding something that was missed or
needs corrected. It’s her leadership skills and her knowledge within
the field that give her such a great ‘supervisor’ quality.”
Caring for her troops,
leading by example, and always encouraging airmen to do their best
is the collective foundation upon which
Rice has built her leadership skills.
With the 181st Fighter Wing’s future shifting gears with the loss of
aircraft, Rice keeps a positive attitude toward what’s to come.
While she isn’t exactly sure where her future lies – whether it is
in one of the new missions at the 181st or another unit in the
country, she knows her heart will always be on those bombs being
towed across the flightline and the men and women who load them.
“It’s hard for us, knowing
that we are losing our jets. For many of us, that’s what our lives
have revolved around for so many years,” Rice explained. “I’ve got
seven airmen in Iraq
right now, and 10 more who have volunteered to go when the others
get back. And when they get back, they might not have a job at the
181st. That’s what has always made the 181st the best, the
selflessness they constantly display for their country. That’s what
will carry us into the next phase of our careers, and no matter what
we do from here, we’ll always be the ‘181st Load Toads, the best.”
Always the caring leader,
Rice already has care packages, letters, and other gifts headed for
Iraq
to her airmen in the desert. Her leadership skills and working
knowledge of the career field is what makes the airmen who work
under her willing to follow her anywhere.
Walking through the loader’s
work shop, every airman within ear shot had something to say about
their new Chief.
Comments like; ‘She so deserves this,’
‘she’s the reason why I work so hard and succeed in my career,’ or
‘our shop is better because of her,’ constantly come from the mouths
of the people who work for her.
“She’s the best boss I’ve ever had,” said Tech.
Sgt. Ryan Colclasure, who’s been in the unit for seven years.
“Literally, she made us the best we could possibly be.”
The devotion to their Chief
is unconditional and she returns that devotion like the best leaders
have done throughout history - by setting an example of excellence
for them to follow. Displayed in the shop are the three Weapons
Rules she lives by and also expects her troops to live by:
do what’s right; be committed to
excellence; and treat others as you want to be treated.
“Those are the only things I ask of my guys. When
they do those 3 things, everything else falls into place.” She is
quick to point out that even though she says “guys”, it collectively
includes the ladies that work for her. “We are a team at the 181st
and it’s all about teamwork—not gender. One for all and all for
one!”
She hopes her recognition will inspire airmen.
Rice remembered when she joined the 181st, and when she met with her
new Chief; she told him her goal was to take his job. Seeing her
airmen set high goals, and achieve them, is what she is all about.
While becoming the first female Chief Weapons
Manager in the U.S. Air Force is not what’s important to her, she
knows the recognition of becoming the first anything is noteworthy.
Rice continues to keep herself and her Airmen focused on being the
best they can be. Becoming a Wing Weapons Manager is something she
has always wanted to achieve. To her, the fact that she is a female
is just coincidental.
“I tell these guys to dream
big, and to never sell yourself short on what you could do. This
stripe belongs to the guys out there,” Rice said as she pointed in
the direction of the flight line and the gaggle of loaders working
throughout the shop, then to her sleeve.
“For me, each thread on this top stripe
represents one of those guys out there, and the hard work they have
always put in. I am extremely proud of their accomplishment.”
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