No other commander I have ever worked for ever had the insight and fortitude to literally mean it when he said “We take care of our own”. Years later I am going into the county jail to minister to the prisoners when I am teamed with a retired Air Force F16 pilot. He retired as a Col. We had gone on several of these mission events and this one in particular we were talking about our careers and who we knew in common. Gen Welser came up. This Col had a daughter that contracted cancer and he was sent from Alaska to the Air Force Medical Center for his daughter’s treatments. Gen Welser finds out about it and orders the Col to terminate his Permissive Temporary Duty ( a temporary duty status where all costs are at the expense of the individual) and placed him on a permanent change of station. Apparently, the director of Operations for a command can order this.
This Col was then moved from his base in Alaska and moved close to the Medical Center where his daughter received her treatments and eventually overcame the cancer.
Now, I didn’t explain the initials WWIII. For the people that worked for Gen Welser it was more than his initials, the actually referred to him as World War III. His very first meeting when he was the wing commander, he pulls out a paper with a list of items to be completed by the former wing commander. He said he thought the former commander’s notes were appropriate and wanted to know the status of where everyone was in completing the tasks. One-by-one each person said that the former commander mentioned them, but never asked about it again so they ignored it. Things did not go well for them after that.
Gen Welser, in all his kindness was also rather firm. That day he became firm and as his time went on, he had to remain firm in order to accomplish what needed to be done. More than just doing their jobs. Whenever I took over a section I would come in with a hard attitude, but, once things started running smoothly, I would let up.
A former commander of mine, who also had the same attitude, summed it up well. Apathy is like water. It will always flow to its lowest levels. But there is a point where that apathy can be stopped, like building a dam. That is the attitude we all had. While there was a nature of apathy within our chains of command, apathy would not exist below our level or within our span of control. Because of this people resented Gen Welser. As for me, he is the kindest, meekest, most caring general I have ever had the pleasure to work with. I will forever respect him and raise my hand in a hearty, well deserved, salute.