HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- As Col. Al LaPuma prepares to retire after more than 29 years of military service, he had a unique way of sharing his experiences during his ceremony here June 28.
He said after attending many retirement ceremonies throughout his career, the challenge has been to have both his military family and his actual family understand the roles each played.
“For everyone, we don’t get here on our own,” LaPuma said. “It took both groups to get me where I am and I’m grateful to them.”
Joking that he of course needed to make it a PowerPoint presentation, the now-former director of the Nuclear Command, Control and Communications Integration Directorate and the Air Force program executive officer for NC3 incorporated different media throughout to relay his messages.
For the members of his actual family, for them to learn a bit about how the military works, he showed a humorous video from “Pentagon Wars” describing the development of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. For his military family, he showed family photos of himself and his relatives.
As he’s a fan of Kurt Vonnegut, who LaPuma said often started out with an obscure reference, the colonel did the same, talking about a product called “Goo Gone.” He said the product can get sticky stuff out of anything, but you have to know how it use it. He also said it’s fairly expensive and as the military can’t bring liquids when they move, he often had to give his away.
LaPuma went on to talk about the top 10 things he’s learned in his Air Force career, telling the crowd that each one was a letter in an acronym.
The first couple were that ‘generations think differently’ and you should try to have an ‘impact beyond your generation.’ He told the story of bringing his children to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and looking up his mother-in-law’s brother, who died in Vietnam at 21.
The next items were to ‘go have fun’ and to ‘observe and help.’‘
“As a supervisor or a co-worker,” LaPuma said, “see what’s going on and try to help. Fit people to their passion and skills; everyone wants to succeed.”
Next was ‘erudite,’ because reading didn’t fit the acronym. He talked about the relatively limited number of books you have to read in college, adding that 50 percent of what you learn is obsolete by the time you graduate. He told the attendees to keep reading and keep learning because it’s a great way to have a connection to the world.
‘Stability’ was another area where LaPuma listed both his duty titles and his family titles, saying he’s not sure he got the balance right all the time.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “Strive for stability.”
‘Only good data’ followed. The director said he always tried to speak truth to power, which is hard to do, but for about 90 percent of the time it was taken well.
“I think most bad decisions have their origin in bad data,” he said.
Next was that it’s ‘not always about work.’ Usually the most important things in life, such as marriages, births and deaths, are not related to work.
'Transmit and receive’ was another lesson, in which he recommended personnel make sure that what they are transmitting is being received properly.
‘Observe and learn’ was something LaPuma said started with his father, who was his main mentor, but was reinforced by the Air Force.
“I learned the four ‘b’s’ from my father: be good, behave, be careful and be sharp; and when I got to the Air Force I realized the Air Force values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all you do lined up with them.”
LaPuma recommended everyone find a real mentor, “someone who will keep you straight.”
Each letter from the top 10 was displayed as the director spoke, now revealing “GI GOES ONTO.” LaPuma is not exactly sure what he’ll be going onto, besides moving to upstate New York where both he and his wife are from.
However, in anagram fashion, LaPuma rearranged the letters, and the acronym now turned into “IT’S GOO GONE.”
“Goo Gone aligns with my father's 4b’s and the Air Force values too,” LaPuma said. “It keeps you out of a sticky mess, it’s a sacrifice when you pay it forward and it requires special knowledge to use it correctly.”
When asked about his time at Hanscom, LaPuma said two of his three most challenging and rewarding jobs were here. He said the two were starting Battle Control Systems following 9/11 and then starting up NC3.
“As tough as they were, it’s always about the people,” he said. “They get you through.”
And while he said he’s going to miss being around his military family every day, he’s looking forward to being around his actual family every day.