WOR: What is it good for? Published Dec. 3, 2009 By Capt. Bryan Butler 90th Operations Support Squadron F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. -- Right about now many of you are thinking I forgot to spell check the headline. Not so. December is the first month of Warren's Operation Resiliency. This month's WOR theme will challenge us to step up and make responsible choices. The WOR initiatives, in conjunction with the year of the Air Force family, will aid us by providing the keys to succeed. Our base family will focus each month on specific topics to assist us in navigating through the challenges which beset us all. The December focus is "you hold the key." Throughout this campaign we will learn of the numerous agencies and people on base that can aid us through the obstacles of life and that we do not have to go it alone. My grandfather shared a story with me when I attempted to take on the challenges of this world alone. I feel it will sum up the importance of the WOR campaign. A boy stood staring at the sheer face of a cliff. It reared above him, stretching a thousand feet upward, the summit the old ones called the High Place. He had watched that cliff all his life, fearing it from the day he first realized that one day he must climb it. It wasn't so much the climbing that would make him a man. It was something unknown, something that would occur on the High Place, which would bring about that result. Those who had climbed it were respected tremendously, and more than all else, he wished for that same respect. He and his parents argued a great deal lately. They refused to trust his judgment, to allow him to make decisions on his own, like climbing this cliff. His mother pleaded that he not make the attempt, or if he must, to seek counsel from his father before trying. His father insisted that he be involved in the climb. The boy thought, "what a pathetic idea that was!" He needed to do it on his own to gain the respect he desired. So, the next morning he crept from the house while his parents slept. He began his ascent, focused on what his friends would say when they learned of his accomplishment. It was not so bad, until his hands became torn and bloody. It was late afternoon when the boy, exhausted, bloody and filled with terror at the thought of the descent, finally dragged his battered body over the lip to lie spent on the smoothly worn stone of the High Place. He made it, but he knew that he would likely die trying to get down. He stared downward into the depths, and no longer thought of the praise of his friends or the honor, respect and glory his people would show him. He thought only of his family, and what his death would do to them. Why, oh why, hadn't he asked for help, for advice? Bitterly, he cursed himself, and then tears stained his cheeks as he wept openly, his grief a combination of fear, self-pity and genuine concern for his family. A flash of white under a nearby rock caught his attention, and the boy wormed his way to it. He unfolded the paper and wondered what great message some previous visitor had left. He opened it, and as he read he felt the change that would take him from boyhood to true manhood: Son, We awoke this morning and found you gone; I came immediately to the High Place to await you. You took so long that your little sister, who came with me, needed to get home. If only you asked, I would have told you of the steps the old ones carved on the south end of the cliff. They would have saved you all the grief and agony of the climb. Son, the true test of manhood is not that you climbed to the High Place. Anyone can do that. The true test is how you did it. When a man is humble enough to involve those around him in his climb, then he is a man. Now hurry down the trail. We'll be going slow, waiting for you. Love, Father We need not fear the cliffs in our lives for we do not have to ascend them alone. The old ones, our chiefs and commanders, have gone before us and can provide a path to guide us along the way. We also have each other as peers, and at times we may be the old ones, sharing what we know of the climb. The WOR campaign will remind us we are an Air Force family and prepare us to ascend together atop the High Place knowing we did it by involving all those around us in our climb.