U.S. Air Force Col. Allison Black delivers a speech during a change of command ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Florida, July 21, 2022. (Miranda Mahoney/U.S. Air Force)
(Tribune News Service) — As her C-130H gunship approached enemy combatants in Afghanistan, former Air Force Col. Allison Black’s voice came across the field radios, shocking a Northern Alliance general.
A navigator on board, she was part of a crew that killed 200 combatants, and the Afghan general dialed into the Taliban frequency to tell them about Black.
“America is so determined, they bring their women to kill the Taliban. It is the ‘angel of death’ raining fire upon you,” the general said, according to an Air Force profile of Black.
It was a mission early on during the Afghanistan War that spanned a large part of Black’s 32 years in the Air Force.
She reflected on the war and lessons in leadership during a recent National Character and Leadership Symposium at the Air Force Academy. The event was attended by students from other universities and schools, such as the New Mexico Military Institute.
She started as an enlisted airman working as a survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialist, also known as a SERE specialist. She went on to work in Special Operations forces and flew 2,000 combat hours in the AC-130H Spectre Gunship and U-28A Draco, used for the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. She retired as a colonel and commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing.
Black noted that before Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. didn’t know how to fight specifically in Afghanistan in the air or on the ground.
“Our people were problem solvers. Our people came together and we adapted,” she said. As the U.S. prepares for conflict in Russia and China, those problems with fall to future officers studying at the academy. While those problems, on the ground, air and space, might be intimidating, particularly as officers, she encouraged them to rely on their teams.
She also encouraged her audience to learn from their failures and share them with their teammates, so they can grow together.
“Failure doesn’t taste good, doesn’t feel good, doesn’t look good, but what you do in that moment, what you do with that lesson, defines you as a warrior,” she said.
“Regardless of what color your skin is, what your gender is, we want good teams. We want people who want to mentally be there,” she said.
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