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MXS leader earns academic excellence, encourages team work

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Bobby Pilch
  • 315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. --  Serving in today's Air Force Reserve requires individuals to possess a variety of skills and key characteristics; a strong work ethic, dedication to selfless service, leadership, physical fitness and a commitment to professional military education.

Continuing education is not only the foundation to advancing in the civilian world but is mandatory for excelling and promotion within the Air Force.

After completing two years of correspondence learning and attending PME seminars, Lt. Colonel Cade C. Gibson, 315th Maintenance Squadron commander here, rose above the clouds by attaining the highest academic average of all 2,256 Distance Learning program graduates of the Air War College May 23. This earned him the Academic Excellence award.

"I appreciate all the people who got me to that award," said Gibson. "I do not think I could have done it by myself. If I could go back to Cade Gibson 21 years old, and say, 'Hey dummy you can do much better if you actually studied and read the materials rather than just trying to cram it all in at the last minute.' I would tell my young self just that."

"It blows my mind that I had the best GPA," said Gibson.

The Air War College mission involves educating officers to serve as strategic national security leaders and provides students with the opportunity to further develop the knowledge, skills and attributes required to serve as senior leaders.

"The last class I had to take was a team exercise, so I really owe a lot to the people who were in the seminar with me," said Gibson. "My classmates were a big reason that went really well. I had a great group of people."

Gibson is no stranger to hard work and persistence when it comes to education. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of South Carolina and a Juris Doctorate from Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law.

"I'm really not that smart though," said Gibson. "I did not do especially well at law school. Law school is kind of cut throat, it's all about grades whereas business school is about working in teams."

While wrapping up his law degree in 2006, Gibson took the bar exam just before he deployed to the Middle East. The results were not favorable.
"I was in the desert when the bar results came out and I did not know what I made. So, at about 1 a.m., I go over to my "hooch" to check the bar results and find out that I failed."

"I did not want to take that exam again," said Gibson. "So, I came back from the desert and had less than a month before the next bar exam. I thought to myself that I could just sit it out or I could just gamble and try to take it again. So, I took it again and that did not go well."

Gibson did not give up; it is not in his nature.

"You have these certain moments in life where you are like, God I've really studied as much as I can and it's in your hands and you kind of become at piece with it," said Gibson. "Then, I finally passed."

As a leader, Gibson does not ask of others what he himself will not do. He believes an individual must "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" while preparing for the future.

"I have 200 people that work for me and if I am going to tell them 'Hey guys, you've got to do your PME, then I better do my PME," said Gibson. "It's not rocket science, if you want to get promoted, then you need to have the degrees. You need to position yourself to be ready for that next rank. "