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  • A simple plan

    I will never forget the morning of Sept. 2, 2006, which was the day I deployed from Cheyenne. I awoke at 3 a.m., got dressed and stood in my kitchen, running through mental checklists to ensure I had planned for everything. Then I walked through my home, trying to memorize it for easy recall later.

  • Keep a positive attitude

    The stress of daily life can sometimes make keeping a good attitude a challenge. As we spend most of our waking -- and some of our nighttime -- hours at work, it is important to enjoy what you do and who you work with. This sometimes can be difficult as you may not particularly like your current job

  • Visiting VA Hospital a rewarding experience

    Do you respect veterans in all their glory, or do you not think of them until Veterans Day?These are the people who served before you and possibly the ones who inspired you to join. Here is a bit of reality: they cannot visit you. Why not visit them? After Airmen get over the initial discomfort of

  • MLK's leadership of military relevance

    The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was considered many things by many people -- a minister, activist, hero, some even thought him to be a communist. However, even his greatest opponents would probably agree that he was a leader -- one with an absolute belief in the strategy of nonviolence and the

  • A time to play crud

    What is crud you ask? I could spout off the book definition of the fast-paced military game originating in the Royal Canadian Air Force played on a snooker table. However, my personal definition of crud would describe an historic game of camaraderie played throughout every club in the Air Force. I

  • A promotion story

    As a young senior airman in the mid 1980s, I didn't put a whole lot of effort into Weighted Airman Promotion System testing. With that said, I was one of the lucky ones. I made staff sergeant on what was then called carry over: WAPS scores were carried over six months later and promotion selections

  • Three deadly sins of supervision

    We can't afford to have weak supervisors.  With security forces manpower scare in my unit and with many other career fields in similar shape, the Air Force at war can't afford sloppy supervision.  I'm not talking about poor handwriting on a feedback form you gave or even a late EPR.  I'm talking

  • Post deployment a rocky road for returning Airmen

    Now that most of our AEF 3 Airmen are back, it's a good time to share some tips and observations on the personal side of post deployment. Many first-time deployers talk about difficulty sleeping when they get back. Usually that's just jet lag. You should expect to need a one day readjustment period

  • Believing in what you do

    On a cold, snowy night in February 1985, an image was burned into my memory that I'll never forget. I had driven home to Kokomo, Ind., from college to see my parents. My dad was working at a local supermarket, and since he was on the late shift, I thought I'd stop by the store and surprise him. As I

  • Life is tough

    "Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education." -- Jean Jacques