The Most Unexpected Masterclass in EMS Leadership: Watching Thunderbirds

ROCKET PR
Jun 17
4 min read

Author: Kaleb Lachenicht, Chief Clinical Officer of ROCKET and Director Epic EM

The Show That Taught Me More About EMS Leadership Than Any Course Ever Did.

How the Thunderbirds changed the way I think about EMS culture, trust, and performance.

Recently, my wife convinced me to watch the Thunderbirds on Netflix - I'm not usually one for this kind of show - I didn’t expect to take leadership notes while watching a documentary about fighter jets.

But somewhere between formation takeoffs and post-flight debriefs, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds delivered one of the most relevant masterclasses I’ve seen — and not just for aviation.

I was struck by how similar the leadership thoughts and culture ideas are in the aeromedical retrieval space.

I was amazed by the precision.

The trust.

The uncompromising culture.

As I watched, I couldn’t help but reflect on our world at ROCKET HEMS, in the aeromedical retrieval space, where teams operate under high pressure, with minimal margin for error.

✈️ 1. Trust Is Everything

“If you don’t have blind trust, this show will not work.” – Lt. Col. Justin “Astro” Elliott

The Thunderbirds fly just 18 inches apart. At Mach speed, there’s no room for micro-corrections, only complete interdependence.

That same level of trust is what sustains us in prehospital and critical care transport. And maybe even more so in the rescue space on our HEMS team.

Whether it’s a rural neonate retrieval or a complex multi-agency trauma response, or collecting a patient from the hillside, our people MUST act on trust, built through training, consistency, and shared experience.

We don’t always have visibility of the whole system. But we know our teammates will hold the line.

This is what makes a team safe.

🧭 2. Culture Is Not a Poster — It’s the Invisible Force That Holds the Line

Before the Thunderbird pilots even touch the throttle, they learn The Thunderbird Way — a set of values, expectations, and disciplines that bind them long before they ever fly together.

This is what we try to excute on in the ROCKET space:

“We bring world-class service to every patient, everywhere — the ROCKET Way.”

Culture isn’t what we say on onboarding slides - its not enough

It’s what shows up in a midnight pre-flight, in how crews debrief after a tough case, in how leadership responds to a near miss.

If culture is the thing you rely on when systems fail, then it must be designed, not assumed.

📏 3. Standards That Pull You Up — Not Weigh You Down

What stood out about the Thunderbirds wasn’t that they never made mistakes — it’s that they didn’t let those mistakes become habits.

They debrief relentlessly. They coach without ego. And the bar never drops.

That’s the kind of leadership we need in EMS!

Mistakes are part of learning, but we owe our teams and patients a system that reflects, recalibrates, and continues to rise. We CANNOT afford to drop the exectations.

“If I’m not good enough, the mission isn’t safe.”

That’s not harsh. That’s professional accountability

4. Calm Is Contagious — But So Is Complacency

From how the Thunderbirds wear their uniforms to how they communicate in the cockpit, there’s a discipline of presence that builds both trust and safety.

In EMS, calm leadership doesn’t just steady the team — it protects the patient, and the team

But the inverse is true too....

When leaders stop paying attention to the little things, the drift begins. And drift is how great cultures fail — not with a bang, but a slow slide. We need to constantly ask ourselves:

Are we still flying 18 inches apart? Or have we let space creep in without noticing?

5. Support Without Lowering the Bar

When a Thunderbird pilot struggles, the team steps in, not to lower expectations, but to raise support. And keep the line.

There’s no compromise. But there is compassion.

That balance is critical in EMS - support doesn’t mean easing off. Support means finding the team were they are, and expecting the best from the team - whilst providing the support for EVERY single member to get there.

It means investing in people so they can meet the bar — not avoid it

High-performance teams aren’t built on forgiveness.

They’re built on belief and boundaries.

Final Reflection: Leading at Mach Speed in EMS

Emergency care may not look like aviation on the surface. But the deeper I looked, the more aligned the lessons became:

✅ Precision saves lives

✅ Trust sustains teams

✅ Culture holds the line

✅ Coaching prevents drift

✅ Support strengthens standards

If there is one learning I'm taking back to my reality - it’s that excellence doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t happen in isolation.

We don’t succeed because we work fast.