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Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be.

Scott Lewton here with you on Supply Chain now.

Welcome to today's show, folks.

On today's podcast, I want to share a few thoughts I've been writing about.

And yes, I might just ramble a little bit today on two main topics.

Number one, maintenance professionals and number two, supply chain and career development lessons we can learn from the groundbreaking Apollo program.

Yeah, you know I'm a bit of a space nerd, right?

So if you'll indulge me a bit today, I would appreciate it.

And hey, I welcome your own thoughts in perspective on these topics or any other topics.

Keep the feedback coming.

Alright, so up first, one of my favorite quick trips I made last year in 2024 was back to my old stomping grounds, McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas.

I spent two years there on active duty with the United States Air Force where I served as a data analyst.

A especially focused on aircraft stationed at McConnell.

Back then primarily KC135s.

Now the KC135 Strato tanker has been flying in the United States Air force for over 60 years.

Get that?

60 years.

For decades it has been the backbone of the service's aerial refueling missions, which are absolutely critical for all sorts of reasons.

For one, aerial refueling allows our aircraft to loiter longer to maintain air supremacy or support.

And for two, aerial refueling can greatly extend aircraft ranges.

This is a capability that the United States Air Force has mastered on so many levels and really is greatly ahead of the rest of the world in terms of capacity and capabilities.

The KC135 is expected to be completely phased out by the more modern KC46 Pegasus.

Now I've flown on the KC130 five years ago on a refueling mission and it was absolutely fascinating.

I think we refueled a B1B and it's amazing the, the careful dance of these big aircraft, you know, tens of thousands of feet up in the air and just how delicate that dance must be.

The expertise of the pilots on full display.

It's absolutely amazing.

You can see out the back of the KC135, you can see the pilots in the B1 being refueled.

It's amazing.

And last year I toured the Pegasus and it was equally as amazing.

And expectedly, it was really cool to see how technology has completely overhauled the approach to refueling with the newer aircraft being the Pegasus.

But the absolute, by far best part of my trip was having the opportunity to listen to all the maintenance pros exchange stories about what they do or did to keep the fleet up, keep the fleet flying in, the mission, moving forward.

Over the course of some three hours or so, I walked around old and new aircraft like the KC135 and the KC46, and I simply listened to stories being swapped by these incredible maintenance professionals.

Some were currently on active duty, some were brand new, had just broken into the Air Force, right.

And a lot of them were retired and they were reflecting on what they had done over 20, 30 years of service.

It was remarkable, as is, quite frankly, the extraordinary work that these maintenance professionals do in this case to keep aircraft flying for over 60 years.

Unbelievable.

Now, I think one of the most under.

Not, not.

I think I know one of the most under recognized and unfortunately almost invisible jobs in all the world, military and private sector or civilian side, is that of the maintenance professional.

Yet they're so critical to keeping humanity running.

Not just our manufacturing plants and our transportation fleets, we, whether it's aircraft or ground vehicles, you name it, so much more, they keep us all, keep us all running.

For the last couple years, Supply Chain now has been honored to be able to serve as one of the sponsors of a program at McConnell Air Force Base there in Wichita, Kansas that they call Knuckle Busters.

Now, this is an annual event that celebrates the maintainers at the base, right, the maintenance professionals.

It started some 50 years ago and has spread to other Air Force bases as well.

Pretty cool.

So here's a reminder as I wrap up this first segment here today, especially for you out there in the aviation industry, please mark Your calendars as May 24th is celebrated each year as Aviation Maintenance Technician Day.

Now, a bit more broadly and more generally for all industries, Maintenance Worker Appreciation day is March 4th each and every year.

And if you're a regular part of our incredibly bright, intelligent global audience here at Supply Chain now, I certainly hope that you've added National Supply Chain Day to your calendar already.

It's coming up fast on April 29th.

Okay, so number two here over the weekend, I was watching a documentary on one of my favorite subjects and that's the amazing Apollo program.

It boggles my mind every time I think about what they accomplished, how fast they accomplished it, and the now archaic technology, but then cutting edge technology they used back in the 60s and early 70s.

Truly remarkable what this ground breaking program accomplished decades ago.

And I'll Tell you, I hope to see equally as ambitious feats being met during the intriguing modern space age where we've seen a really healthy mix of public and private sector come together.

But there was a moment in this documentary that was to me at least interesting to think about and equally as interesting to think about where else we could apply this perspective to all the non space missions all of us are on every day.

Now I believe it was astronaut Bill Anders who was talking about the massive Saturn v rocket, Saturn 5 rocket, right, that was a workhorse of the Apollo program.

It was taller than the Statue of Liberty and it still remains one of the most powerful rockets that humankind has ever invented.

The amount, the millions and millions of horsepower this rocket was able to produce to lift its really heavy weight just to rocket and then whatever else NASA put on top, off the ground and beyond Earth orbit to eventually deliver astronauts on the moon, it's just absolutely mind boggling.

Now back on to the astronaut.

Bill Anders was saying how they had practiced everything over and over again for the Apollo 8 mission.

With one exception, they hadn't practiced, nor were they prepared for the launch.

Riding atop that massive Saturn V rocket, he said that it was the most violent ride he had ever experienced due to all the noise and the massive rocking motions.

Anders said he felt helpless.

In fact, he said that they couldn't even communicate each other in the cabin during the launch due to just how violent of an experience that it was.

Imagine that.

But you know, even with the full fury of the Saturn 5 rocket, perhaps dozens of practice launches would have never been able to prepare any astronauts for that once in a lifetime experience.

And sometimes practice may not be practical, right?

And other times it isn't very popular.

Am I right?

NBA hall of Famer Allen Iverson?

We are what we repeatedly do.

That phrase has been attributed to Aristotle.

And there's so much universal truth in that.

Now two immediate thoughts come to mind when it comes to the notion of practice.

Practice, practice.

One, supply chain scenario planning.

Here in the golden age of supply chain tech, there are no shortages of powerful Saturn 5 like tech platforms that fuel a wide variety of scenario planning and simulations.

You know, being able to not only detect disruptions in advance, but also have simulation tested, whether thousand or even million fold contingency plans ready to implement all that is here and now.

And two, interviews.

I'm not talking about supply chain now interviews.

I'm talking about our career advancement interviews.

Right?

To get that next job, or to get the first job, or get the last job, or all points in between.

Or maybe.

Or maybe get the your next promotion.

So I'll tell you Me in the Supply Chain now team get asked all the time when it comes to career advice.

How do you advance?

Right?

And those are great questions.

I wish I had time to answer each and every one, especially all the unique versions of that question.

But I've yet to meet anyone that loves to use mock interviews to practice how they can present their best foot forward as a candidate, or as a promotional candidate, or for any opportunity or venture.

However, at the same time, interview skills are one of the top weaknesses that at least I've seen constantly and consistently throughout my career.

And on a personal note, I sure am glad no one recorded my first interview or two way back in the day, or maybe even my 20th and 21st.

I didn't like to practice either, but looking back, I sure wish I had.

And maybe you can relate lots and lots of applications from the space journey we've seen over the decades, both to Global Supply Chain as well as to our own earthbound journeys here.

And with all that said, and on behalf the entire team here at Supply Chain now, this is Scott Lewton challenging you to do good, give forward, and be the change that's needed.

And we'll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain Now.

Thanks everybody.

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