Command Chief for higher education

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Marjorie A. Bowlden
  • 911th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
PITTSBURGH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AIR RESERVE STATION --  Chief Master Sgt. Brian Zator, command chief with the 911th Airlift Wing, has something interesting on the wall of his office. It's not a painting, nor a photo, nor anything decorative at all. It's not even all that noticeable. But pounded into the wall, below his two Community College of the Air Force degrees, there sits an empty nail.

That nail may not seem significant, but to Zator, it's so much more than it seems.

"Every time I turn on the lights in the morning, it's there," said Zator. "It reminds me of what I have to do. If I'm going to preach something, I'd better walk it, too."

Zator has been encouraging Airmen of the 911th AW to pursue their CCAF degrees since he became command chief in January 2013. But if he was going to be counseling others to gain a higher education, he knew he had to do the same for himself. He is therefore pursuing a bachelor's degree, and that empty nail waits for it on the wall of his office.

"If I'm going to stand in front of the 1,300 Airmen of this wing as the command chief and enlighten them on higher education, then I'd better have mine," he said. "If I can do it at my age, married, with a 13 year old child, a nine-hour work day and a two-hour round-trip commute, then someone can look in the mirror and say, 'I can do it, too.'"

After becoming command chief in January 2013, Zator met with other command chief master sergeants from within the 22nd Air Force. Since the CCAF degree held more weight in the active duty component of the Air Force, there were discussions of a new Air Force Reserve Command policy to make it a requirement for promotion. He quickly brought that information back to Pittsburgh and started addressing it with zeal.

"In order to better align the reserve community with active duty, the command chiefs were looking for a policy," he said. "So what I started doing was coming back, talking to the wing and educating our force to get ahead of the curve so that when it hits, we are in a position of success versus trying to catch up."

However, there were several challenges to the installation in providing support for Airmen to pursue their CCAF degree.
"If they're on an associate base, such as our counterparts at Andrews, Dover or McGuire, they have at their disposal the active duty education office which traditionally has multiple universities teaching classes on base," he said. "As a standalone reserve base, we don't have those types of capabilities. What I did was benchmark off of Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, which had a partnership with a local university that came on base and taught classes."

Now, local universities offer classes on base as well as online courses for military members in the local area. Because basic military training, technical school, skill level training and other professional military education courses fulfill a majority of the credits required, these partnership courses mainly focus on general education requirements.

"I can't take all the credit because I didn't come up with this," said Zator. "The wheel was already invented; I just cleaned up the spokes and made it unique to Pittsburgh and the 911th [AW]."

Since the start of these discussions and processes, the number of Airmen receiving CCAF degrees has increased, said Zator. In November, the base presented 35 degrees to 32 Airmen, the largest graduating class in wing history.

Zator himself is now only six credits away from obtaining his bachelor's degree, and that nail on his wall won't sit empty for much longer. He said he hopes that Airmen of the 911th AW will continue to do the same, and that eventually the base will be No. 1 in amount of CCAF graduates in Air Force Reserve Command.

"Never stop learning," he said.  "We want the most professional, competent and technically sound Airmen possible."