This talk about the Air Force, and I don’t think this or that flight or how many planes we need. Because the people, the people, the wetware, and not the components are what really matters when it comes to what matters.
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At an Academy graduation celebration we threw last week, I had the honor of spending quality time with some just-commissioned Air Force soldiers ( and more than a few drinks ) and let me tell you, the future looks promising.
The VodkaWifeTM spent 16 of her first 18 times in NATO and was a child of the Air Force. Her father conducted combat operations over Vietnam before assuming the order of fighter squadrons and finally a few outposts across Cold War Europe. Cammy, her best friend in high school, married a fighter aircraft, Julian, who now wears two superstars on his shoulders, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she wasn’t really another Air Force child.
Your community VodkaPundit says,” We’re elbow-deep in blue outfits around around,” but not without satisfaction.
Their brother, who I’ll stay an oath, followed their father’s example and was accepted four years later. Since the Academy is only a few minutes away, Melissa and I naturally started hosting a smallish group for “our” student and his best buddy and Academy roommate each drop during Parents ‘ Weekend. He’s then also one of “ours.”
We insisted on holding the graduation party and instructed them to send as many other graduates as they wanted. There must have been more than a hundred people present that night because my household, our two Academy households, and more graduates than I was fairly count.
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Did I mention that both younger men were given jet by the government? If their kids had tied for dean, their parents couldn’t have been braver. We couldn’t possibly.
The 48 hrs it took me, a skilled drinker, to return from it was one terrible knock, and that is all you need.
But that’s not the whole history. The story revolves around those newly created officers, the responsibilities they have taken on, and, more important, the sentiments they brought with them.
I’d never been to a commission service, even after 20 plus years of marriage by proxy to the Air Force. What followed was more passing than I could have anticipated, despite the impressive sufficient accomplishment of watching an overall Academy fleet take their oaths of office one by one.
First, their Second Lt. “butter pubs” go on and their cadet make boards come down. In almost all cases, those mothers, parents, brothers, sisters, and aunts pinned those bars on.
However, Yours Truly did not escape a single pull or two from him.
Each brand-new officer’s first welcome was when.
I once worked as a lowly high class cadet at Missouri Military Academy, earning only three colors, so I can tell you that trainees do a LOT of saluting. I had to salute almost everyone, including student soldiers, university officers, and even the two active-duty Army commanders who served as student officials.  ,
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It’s simple for me to picture what it may feel like for a past student to suddenly give his first welcome, but it’s the who, not the what, that bothered me.
Imagine a retired master commander hobbling up to his fresh Air Force ( or Space Force ) officer to give a sharp respect. This is one’s father, brother, or coach. Then imagine the happy youngster or girl who returns it. I may include shed a few tears as I write these words, but I can assure you that they are still powerful.
The group was a riot, but the commission ceremony also provided a briefing of seriousness.
” What’s subsequent”? a little group of recent graduates gathered around my house island’s pulled pork station. When do you submit your first homework? Where are you headed?”
One young commander, who was about to begin his fighter pilot training in Ohio, added some colour after hearing a number of responses. The training plan has been compressed. It resembles World War II a minor.
” Is it just that they need to put a lot of bottoms on the chairs”?
” Yeah, precisely”.
He wasn’t concerned. He had a point of fact. Every graduate I spoke with next year expressed that approach. They have the impression that something terrible is about to happen, but they are prepared to deal with it almost cheerfully. All of this came just weeks after Memorial Day, when the nation took occasion to honor our fallen soldiers.
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Some of those men and women — these amazing men and women — will probably form the core of today’s Air and Space Force leadership as Academy graduates. Some people will use eagles or perhaps stars tomorrow, but most are still cheese bars today.  ,
They’ve already impressed their people. They’ll now do the hard work, making the nation happy.
I’m eager to see what they do.
WhyWon’t Trump 47 Enforce the Law Trump 45 Wanted?, is advised.
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