JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
Tech. Sgt. Quinn White watches as the Airmen in full service dress is read discharge orders via telecommunication by the 336 Training Squadron commander at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.
White, 336 TRS Air Force Detachment 2 flight chief and military training leader, and the Airman, a student at the Defense Information School, are in a small office at Ft. Meade, Maryland. Under normal circumstances the detachment commander would read the orders, but the detachment is without one.
“[Watching an Airmen be discharged] takes a toll on a leader,” said White. “You always wonder if you could have done something different or helped in some way. Ultimately, it’s about the member making their own journey, but as a leader you want to help in the best way possible.”
White was the flight chief of DET 2 for four years and oversaw approximately 2000 new and prior-service Airmen as they attended DINFOS.
With that number of personnel to oversee, White found out there were times that no matter how much she tried, she didn’t always get the happiest endings.
“I think a lot of the time the word resiliency is used without knowing the definition,” White said. “Having to balance the problems we faced with Airmen, location, base issues, and still deal with personal issues going on, different resiliency techniques helped,” said White.
The technique she looked to the most was counting her blessings.
“Work is tough, and things don’t always go as planned, but we need to count our blessings,”
White said. “Serving is a blessing and, while we serve, not everything is going to be perfect.”
Now, as the 11th Logistics Readiness Squadron NCO in charge of vehicle operations at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, White is coming across new challenges she can help solve with the plethora of knowledge and experience she has acquired during her career.
“A lot of the problems I deal with now are due to career issues,” White said. “And in tech school the focus was transition from civilian life into military life.”
White said she could react better to different scenarios and find solutions quicker because of the unique situations she had to deal with as an MTL.
“She’s been out of the career field for so long but she’s like a duck in the water, back in her element,” said Master Sgt. Paula Rojas, 11th LRS executive driver service supervisor.
However, White said she needed to change her focus and mission mentally to make that graceful transition back to her job in logistics.
“I feel I was so focused on the basics of being a new Airmen that I lost how to mold seasoned Airmen and NCOs,” White said.
Now when Airmen stand at White’s desk she has a different role as a mentor. Instead of mentoring new Airmen transitioning from basic training to Air Force life, White is using the knowledge and experience she gained as an MTL to mentor Airmen through the next part of their career.
“She genuinely cares about the Airmen and taking care of them,” said Rojas, who was also White’s first rater in the Air Force. “But at the same time she cares about holding them to a standard in their professional development.”