"Doctor Major Keith Curtis Sir!"

Mid 1974 - Notified of "direct commission" as officer in the Air Force Medical Service Corps.
What an exciting time that was!  All noted in this episode: "Yes!  Lightening Can Strike...". The Luke AFB newspaper even published an article about it: "Is the Sergeant, er, Lieutenant In?"

Late 1974 - Notified of first assignment as Second Lieutenant to USAF Hospital at Mountain Home, Idaho.
Julieann and I were always pretty dialed in to living somewhere in the West so this was a gift from the powers that be (It was Colonel Harold Batiste I believe).

Dec 31st,  1974 - Left Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.  Last day as Air Force Staff Sergeant. Drove to Idaho.
We had a 1970 Cougar that sported a 351 Cleveland V-8.  We were ready to tackle the world.

Jan 1st, 1975 - Reported for duty at Mountain Home Idaho.  First day as genuine brown bar.
First job:  Hospital Squadron Commander. This was a crazy experience to be sure.  Overnight, I had to turn from someone who didn't care about Air Force Grooming standards as mandated in the infamous Air Force Regulation 35-10, to someone who had to enforce it.

Spring, 1975 - Attended Health Services Administration course at Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls Texas...to learn fundamentals of being a health care administrator.  Instructors/gurus; "Smokey Stover", Major-Logistics; "Mac" McClean, Captain-Registrar-Patient Affairs; Gary Weishauer, Captain-Resource Management.  Overall course supervisor, Keith W. Curtis, Major, MSC, PhD.

Members of our MSC class quickly became aware of the Curtis management style - sort of a blustery, straight forward, size-those-young-whippersnappers up Lombardi style that could be a little intimidating at first.  He was right in our faces most of the time and we took to calling him "Doctor, Major Keith Curtis Sir" in recognition of his obvious pride in having a PhD.  This, never to his face of course.

Some of us thought he pursued the "Dr." title to give him a more equal platform with the whacky group of physicians (can you say "Berry Planners?") we had in the Medical Service back in those days.  For those of you don't know, Berry Plan docs were draftees in various stages of their medical training.  Many were disgruntled (understatement) because they were in the military making a lot less money than their civilian counterparts.

We all made it through though...with very few hiccups, some great presentations from our instructors and guest speakers and some heavy O'Club partying to work off the tension.

I'll never forget, but I wish I could remember more, about the parting presentation to our class by "Doctor, Major Keith Curtis Sir."  He had obviously taken a lot of time to prepare it, using color - I think fluorescent chalk on blackboard plus slides.  His theme was a metaphor that went something like this; as MSCs, our job was to stick our hands in a "bucket of worms" and pull out something good.  I was pretty dazzled although a few of my classmates thought it was over the top.  But then again that was me, a North Dakota kid who had a patent on the word Naiveté.

Circa 1986 - The next and last time I recall seeing the Doctor was when he was a Colonel and Administrator of Big Willy.  He had a couple of MSC interns with him and had stopped by the MSC assignments section at MPC where Paul Murrell and I were working.  He gave me 'that look' and said something like; "So where do you want to be one day?  In my job (as Administrator)?" He was referring to Wilford Hall Medical Center of course and I said; "Absolutely!"  I left out the "Doctor Colonel Keith Curtis Sir" part out of my response and as a result now live to tell about it...

Spring 1987 - I loved the Corps but retired out of MPC and the Air Force with 24 years, almost half as an enlisted person.  My second career in health care management went well plus Julieann and I got to raise our kids in one spot from then forward.  Nevertheless, I have often wondered with some regret what it would have been like to stick around and compete for that Big Willy job...in the place where I pulled graveyard shift KP, peeling potatoes in the fall of 1963.

Circa 1990? -  The good Doctor had retired and went on to become a management professor in the Health Care Management masters program at (I believe) the University of Oklahoma in the city.  While there, he also wrote a textbook on management; "From Management Goal Setting to Organizational Results." Special price for university students...$85.  I wanted to buy one but not at university prices.

Years later, I managed to locate a used copy on Amazon for a lot less and bought it.  The book turned out to be an academic treatise  quoting folks like Toffler, Maslow and Drucker.  It had good basics and memorization pain for grad students but not for me as I had already studied most of those.  I wanted to read something more visceral...about sticking my hands in a "bucket of worms" and pulling out something good.  I wanted to be able to say; "Keith...you were right and I have done it.  Thanks for the heads up!"  So I'll just write it here.  Now.

"Dr. Major Keith Curtis Sir" was a damn good man.  I am proud to have known him. 

To My Pals (You Know Who You Are)

Okay…these are the sites I draw my news from.  It’s all mainstream stuff and I’m sure “fake news” often creeps in but they are nothing at all like extremist left and right fringe media.  I also like to focus on transcripts, live telecasts on CNN (Congressional News Network) and what appear to be facts supported by multiple sources like Snopes, Truth or Fiction and Politifact.  Can all of these sources be wrong at times?  Of course they can but on the whole - they are the best we’ve got. And don’t forget Twitter - knee jerk thoughts posted in 240 characters or less straight from the horse’s mouth…and very often from the horse’s ass.

To me, fringe media exists for one purpose - to exploit and incite fear and bias in their audience.  I’m going to include fringe politicians in this as well although I realize our definitions of “fringe” vary widely.

Unfortunately, I believe pointing this all out is…pointless as old white guys, “OWGs” have their minds made up and that’s that.  It’s a new day though and I wish I was going to be around to see what is sure to transpire over the next 10-20 years.  It’s going to be a noble experiment and, like the Affordable Care Act, I am sure there will be hiccups but again, as with the Act, the good (“preexisting conditions”) will outweigh the bad.  I sincerely believe lives will be saved and the Common Man will have a better opportunity to work and live a decent life.

This little rant will not change a thing though within this little email group we have had going for many years - there are far too many divides.

So with this, I am bailing on the hurt and disappointment I feel when I see one of us being lured into the extreme edges of race (muslims, etc.) and guns (bump stocks and automatics) along with other issues of our time.

Thanks Dooooooooods.  It’s been a hell of a ride, culminating in a fantastic reunion in Las Vegas a year or so ago.

"It’s not hard to see at all…

Except for those who refuse to look."

- 6/25/2018

PS - I wrote this a couple of days earlier but decided to hold off on sending. I was considering some advice once shared with me by our very own Harold W. (Bill) Grinstaff that went something like this; “When you write something that some might find disturbing, put it in a drawer overnight and let it simmer.  You might change your mind and decided to defer.  Well, I did...and I didn’t.

"Leadership" - Just What the Hell is It?

Yes, I had to study it in grad school, and yes, I had study it in the military.  But wait...what the hell IS leadership really?! Reduced to its purest elements and in no particular order, I would say it, at least the successful "it," consists of nine critical factors:

1. Sincerity - Believe in people.  If you are not sincere in this, they will pick you off from a mile away.
2. Enthusiasm - It's infectious...really!
3. Curiosity - The search for understanding...for knowing what is right, and what is wrong.
4. Innovation - A hunger to do things better.
5. Decisiveness - You have to be ready to get out on that limb when it's called for.
6. Compassion - The desire to help
7. Humor - To diffuse stress and discomfort in yourself and others when the pressure is on.
8. Smile - A killer, light up the room sort of smile.  If you don't have it that's okay...see #7.
9. Tolerance - Of ambiguity that is.  This is a biggie.  If you can't do this...you can't do it period.

Aside from whatever schools might teach you, I believe these elements have to be part of you...going in.

Now here's some old fashioned and modern day "click bait" (Without links...you can Google them ok?) for wannabe' leaders:

• High Reliability Organization
• Lean Management
• Management by Objectives
• Zero Defects
• Performance Improvement Program
• Six Sigma

Yeah man; these and others like them will have you buried in the books for a while. While I generally shy away from newly spun management fads, certain elements of all these programs can add value for a leader and his gang.  Examples include wrapping some measurable objectives (MBO) around your organizations goals and using statistics (6S) to help you track and locate areas you can improve.

From my old "I Love Me"
Collection.  It's about "spirit."
Thanks Charlie Brown!

As an aside and personally, I would like to have a Certified Project Manager at my elbow to help me and my gang figure out the best way to get from point A to point B. Assuming of course...we are headed in that direction.  Also assuming we have a bunch of independent and dependent variables to consider.  (Now I am really wandering off course here right?!)

So a successful leader has to have some built in attributes and should cherry pick some useful management tools.  What attributes and tools would you add?  Or do you think a good leader should be something else entirely?

My credentials?  I have worked for some of the most amazing bosses. I have led some wonderful Air Force health care teams.  I have also led dozens of wonderful, whacky, sometimes toxic and most often talented multi-disciplinary health care contract teams in well over half the United States.  (For more on this, Google "herding cats.") 

"Louie Louie...Oh No!..."

No, not the "Louie Louie" of legendary music fame.
That is just what the millennials call "click bait" and yeah, I am as guilty as anyone of spinning that stuff from time to time.

Actually, here I am referring to "Louie" the tournament Texas hold'em poker player of Sacramento's now defunct Casino Royale fame. I played with Louie in a number of tournaments at that Casino although it was not my preferred location for weekday events.

I would often begin the day at Capital Casino and at times would be eliminated early. There was no reentry option at Capital back then so when it happened, I and few others would race up the freeway a few miles to what we called " Plan B", actually Casino Royale, to enter their tournament. Timing was usually tight though as both tourneys began at the same time and entries closed an hour or so after they started.

Louies favorite, Casino Royale

Louie was a quiet, friendly old guy, bearded, possibly of Mexican-American descent.  With a habit common to  more than a few tournament players, he carried a back pack filled with a lot of sundries one might include in anticipation of a long day at the tables. I think most people, upon meeting Louie would think of him as a sweet, innocent old man....(kinda like me without the "sweet" and "innocent" part).

Not a particularly good poker player, Louie nonetheless showed up  at the Royale regularly and made contributions in the form of tournament entry fees. Over time, I noticed he also liked to occasionally pull out a small spiral pad and make notes. I thought it might have been to note play details for his future reference as some of the more serious players do.

One day at a Capital Casino I overheard another tournament player mention Louie's name and when I asked was told he had been banned from play at the Casino Royale. Apparently Louie had been pocketing chips from his tournament stack for use in later events.  He must have thought by adding accumulated chips it would give him more chances to end up cashing in some future tourney. I am guessing his notes may have included a running total of chips he had stored in his famous back pack.

Around that time, Capital Casino added a reentry option to tournaments there and that ended our rush to join the "Plan B" event at the Royale. Not long after, I heard that the Royale had let Louie rejoin the tournaments there and as a result many of their regulars had angrily quit patronizing it.

The Casino Royale later moved and then closed.  I don't know what happened to Louie. He is the only known cheater I have encountered in a dozen years of studying the nuances of playing tournament hold'em poker.

I kinda' miss old Louie. Sure he was cheating, but I don't think I ever saw him hit a final table let alone cash.