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Departing 379th Command Chief MSgt Daniel Crudup talks about his year at Al Udeid

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Alexandre Montes
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

Chief Master Sgt. Daniel Crudup, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing command chief, sat down with the public affairs office to share his thoughts about the past year as the command chief at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. Crudup spoke on experiences, changes that occurred, living conditions, developing the airmen he worked with and what he has learned from them. Each answer is hyperlinked to an audio source to hear what he had to say.

1 Q: How do you feel about your tour here and now that it’s coming to a close?

A:  I feel a lot actually; it’s been an honor and a privilege to be here.  As general Hartford has said a lot, ‘it is a historic time’. This last year we have accomplished so much here. It’s a bit overwhelming at times, but extremely rewarding. So I’m going to look back at this time as the most challenging but rewarding time in my career. It’s been fun, it’s been frustrating but it’s been remarkable. To watch the airmen accomplish the things they accomplished over the last year has been amazing. So I walk away from this job, learning a lot, seeing a lot and with a deeper appreciation of what our airman do on a day-to-day basis.

2 Q: I know there have been some changes here.  I spoke to an airman while driving on the flight line the other day and he mentioned that half the things here weren’t here last year.

A: There have been a lot of changes on the base over the last year. Some of them should’ve happen years ago, and they’ve been in the works for many years. Again, it’s been a remarkable year, and we’ve done a lot here, we’ve accomplished a lot here. But there still a lot left on the table to take care of.

3 Q: What will you miss the most from Al Udeid?  

A:  (sighs) That will probably be the easiest question you ask me: the people. Beauty of this job is every three to six months I get a whole new set of airman to get to know, influence and mentor. And for a chief, that’s heaven. So this place affords you the opportunity to meet a bunch of the best airmen in the world. So that is the part I will miss most about this job. Being able to see and influence a large group of airmen over a long period of time.  

4 Q: Is there anything you wish you finished or accomplished while you were here. I know you touched a little bit on that subject at the mentor breakfast the other day.

A:   This is something that I realize that is not in my exactly my hands to do. I wish that we could’ve got more airmen out of the CC trailers and into hardened billets.  Again, I understand that that’s not something that Gen Hartford or I could do, but the walking into the door we expected way new building to be online by now and more airmen out of those trailers so I wish we could’ve got our airmen in better living conditions, that would be my one regret walking out of here.

5 Q: I noticed there are some changes happening with the new dorms being built. Is there anything you see that will be beneficial to the airman in the future?

A: I think once all the new facilities come online, once all the double stacks are opened up and the other two BPC buildings open up, I think the quality life for our airmen rises dramatically. Getting indoor plumbing for everybody on this base makes everybody’s lives a lot easier. I think for the most part we do, as a wing, do a very good job of providing support. Providing events and concerts to kind of give people the opportunity to let their hair down. And try to give them the best facilities that we possibly can for them to be comfortable during those off hours which are not very many. We understand that people have to work really hard here, for a whole lot of hours and for a whole lot of days every week. So if we can give them a better quality of life when they’re off duty, that is the focus, and that’s what we should strive to do.

6 Q: With the new CMSgt coming in, do you have any words of advice, tips, trick anything to pass along?

A: (laughs) No tips or tricks. I think the best thing for him is to take it slow. There are so many different things going on in this wing and when you first walk in, it can be extremely overwhelming, so making sure to take the time to really wrap your mind around everything that’s going on here is probably the best route to go. This is not something you can really jump in with both feet and just start running at 100 miles an hour in this job, because there are way too many things going on.

I tell him to give our airmen support, give them direction, and then get out of their way. Let them do what they do, and everything will work just fine.   I think at times, we as leaders get too involved. Airmen are so capable today of doing so many great things that if we get out of their way, give them direction, and give them support, everything else tends to take care of itself, which would be my advice for him. Take the time to learn what’s going on here.  Again, provide direction, provide support, step back and let them go.

7 Q: I’ve only been here a month, and noticed you going around and interacting with the Airmen daily. I’ve seen it from other chiefs but it doesn’t seem as meaningful.

A:  I think it’s important. For one, I hate sitting in my office all day; it’s just not what I do -- I don’t like it. I’d rather interact. I think it’s extremely important for airmen to see leadership to be able to interact and ask questions. Part of my job and part of my number one of my priorities in this job is to be able to have my boss to come to me and say ‘Chief how are the airmen doing? What’s the morale like in the unit?’ if I’m not out and about, if I’m not interacting with airmen, I can’t answer that question. So to do my job and do it effectively, I need to be out. I need to take the pulse, quite often, to find out exactly how people are doing, what the big issues are, what problem you’re having. It’s very easy for us to be insulated in this office. I can sit in this all day, and think everything is running just perfectly because nobody is telling me it’s not.

But to get out and talk to airmen, like I purposely have lunch with a group of airmen every single week from each of the different groups every single week. A different group whether it be airmen, NCOs, SNCOs; a month of airmen, month of NCOs and a month of SNCOs. We rotate that every month. I sit down with them and talk about the issues going on. I glean so much from those conversations that I can better advise my boss on how to make decision and what issues there are bubbling up. This gives us the opportunity to fix issues before they become problems or answer their questions, or maybe to dispel rumors is the biggest part of that -- because there are always rampant rumors running around this base. That gives us the opportunity to put the truth out there and that airmen are informed as much as possible.

One the last questioned asked was how the chief felt he has grown personally since being here. He touched on several subjects, mainly the airmen, and his previous career experiences what he has learned. Crudup said he is walking away a much better CMSgt and much more capable and knowledgeable. Crudup also gave his last message to the men and women of the grand slam wing and their accomplishments.

(LISTEN TO CMSGT CRUDUP’S PARTING WORDS HERE)