MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. —
Col. Jesse Lamarand, 5th Bomb Wing commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Wayne Sharp, 5th BW command chief, hosted a series of all-calls here, July 30.
The all-calls were Lamarand and Sharp’s first as the new 5th BW command team. The team took advantage of the occasion to introduce themselves, their leadership philosophies and their goals to the Warbirds of the 5th BW.
The new 5th BW leadership has an extensive and accomplished history in the Air Force. For one of them, this isn’t their first time serving in Minot.
Lamarand has served 24 years in the Air Force, bouncing around serving in Florida, Louisiana, California, Washington, D.C., Kansas, Qatar, and Alabama. Before serving as the 5th BW commander, Lamarand was the commander of the 2nd Operations Group at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.
During the all-call, Lamarand spoke about the importance of teamwork and while the coach was important, it was his teammates and supporters that got him through the game.
“Teamwork is the basis for everything we do,” said Lamarand.
One teammate Lamarand relies on a lot is Sharp.
Sharp has served 26 years in the Air Force, and being a child of an Air Force family himself, he has much more Air Force experience than most.
Like Lamarand, Sharp has done a fair share of moving. He has also served in many ways for the Air Force being a defender, an instructor, a 1st Sgt., the command chief of the 325th Fighter Wing, at Tyndall AFB, Florida and now the command chief of 5th BW.
This is not the first time Sharp has led Airmen of Minot.
From September 2017 to March 2019, Sharp was the 1st Sgt. for the 5th Maintenance Squadron, and from March 2019 to September 2019, he served as the superintendent of plans and programs for the 5th Security Forces Squadron.
Sharp shared his enthusiasm for rejoining Team Minot, this time as the 5th Bomb Wing command chief.
“I came here because I care about the Airmen at Minot Air Force Base,” said Sharp. “This is a tough base to work at, but boy y’all kill it every day and so I wanted to be a part of that.”
As warriors of the Air Expeditionary Force, the 5th BW and its fleet of B-52H Stratofortress bombers are a part of the Air Force’s conventional and strategic combat force. The members of the wing are capable of flying anywhere around the world and delivering a wide variety of precision-guided munitions.
With such an important mission, the 5th BW cannot fail. So how can its new leaders guide the wing to succeed with the pressures of the missions and the harsh conditions?
The new 5th BW leadership emphasized the phrase “fortitudine vincimus.”
“By endurance, we conquer,” said Lamarand. “The way we get through this is by the people sitting to the right and to the left of you.”
With the pressure of being a part of the 5th BW mission, to have the endurance to get through it, one must have their first line of defense be the friendships forged in the workplace and the family at home.
Team Minot welcomes the new 5th BW leadership, hopeful for the future success they will bring to this wing.
