WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --
Name and rank: Senior Master Sgt. Benjamin Seekell
Duty title: First sergeant
Unit of assignment: Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
What do you do at Wright-Patt?
I provide leadership for over 60 (continental U.S.) and OCONUS units while serving 28,000 military, civilian and contractor personnel. Furthermore, I advise the commander on the health, morale, welfare, esprit de corps, mentoring, career progression, recognition, safety and discipline of all assigned members.
I also coordinate crisis resolutions with local referral agencies and make quality recommendations for all annual performance reports, decorations, promotions, retraining and assignment actions. Finally, I ensure personnel comply with organizational policies, optimizing a mission-ready force for the commander’s utilization.
Why are you and your job important to the Air Force and WPAFB?
My job is people, everyone is my business – that’s the motto of the Air Force first sergeant. That being said, there is no job in the department that is both so very specific and yet deliberately broad. The importance of our job to the Air Force and by extension the base is almost immeasurable.
But as far as where it rests on the scale of importance, I will suffice to say that the Air Force’s No. 1 resource is people, and it is the first sergeant that is charged so specifically with nurturing them. The duties of a first sergeant take them into two very distinct worlds, the professional and the personal. You will find that our footprints traverse back and forth between these worlds often as we attempt to balance the needs of the mission with the needs of the individual.
We are the one-stop-shop resource and the connective tissue up and down the chain of command that connects each of us to our mission partners across the installation and beyond. We are whom our teammates trust with their concerns and where they turn for guidance and direction. Best job in the Air Force!