SEPTEMBER 29, 2023 – Taking care of our people and preparing for mission execution are the Space Training and Readiness Command’s (STARCOM) top priorities for 2023, unveiled this week in a commander’s call by STARCOM Commander Brig. Gen. Timothy A. Sejba.
The new priorities, each with four focus areas, were created from the ground up, after interactions and observations with Guardians from STARCOM’s five Deltas, said Sejba.
He emphasized the two command priorities – mission and people – are inextricably intertwined.
“People and mission. At the end of the day, we can’t get the mission done without our people,” said Sejba. “This is not a surprise, and as we think through it, we must look out for each other. We balance getting the mission done while taking care of our Guardians and families.”
The command’s first priority is to Take care of Guardians and their families and includes focus areas of engaging commanders to solve Guardian issues; to connect and engage through routine professional development; to deliberately plan and execute personnel matters related to relocation to ensure no Guardian is left behind; and to promote an organizational culture that executes ‘ruthless prioritization.’
The command’s second priority is to “Prepare Guardians to execute their mission” and includes focus areas of transitioning and completing the stand-up of the command; to develop total force Guardians; to plan and deliver a test and training capability to help close the kill chain; and to implement the USSF Integrated Test Concept.
These priorities are an initial layout of where Sejba sees the command going in the next several months. The men and women of STARCOM are encouraged to think through these concepts and the team’s inputs could influence what the command priorities look like as the command’s mission continues, said Sejba.
“Certainly, as we continue our deep dives with our Deltas, if there’s something that hasn’t been considered, we want to hear about it,” said Sejba. “Our people are our number one resource and will influence what these priorities look like in the coming months.”
Sejba’s vision for the command was crafted by his previous operational experience, noting that when a warfighter is in dire need of a capability, a sense of urgency and teamwork is critical.
“Working on an ops floor, we had a capability that was collecting on bad guys,” said Sejba. “That was an awesome responsibility. I tell you, if we ever had an outage, the sense of urgency across the entire team—military, civilians, contractors—everyone was focused on how to try and get back in the mission as soon as possible. Every minute, every hour of every day when we weren’t ‘in mission,’ we weren’t delivering some kind of critical requirement.”
STARCOM’s force must all row in the same direction, at the same pace, and with the same cadence, similar to a crew team racing in a boat, said Sejba. In the operational realm, teammates lean on each other and pull one another along to accomplish the mission.
“I took that thought as I moved on to other duties in my career,” said Sejba. “Every day counts when it comes to our mission. We are either ahead of the threat, or we are allowing the threat to catch up to us. It’s our job to make sure we make every second count to enable operations, to deliver capabilities and to stay ahead of the growing threat. Our Guardians, our joint force and our nation depend on what you do every second of every day to educate, train and test our force.”
Courtesy Story
Space Training and Readiness Command