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COMMENTARIES

  • Achieving greatness through effective decisions

    New commanders traditionally provide their squadrons a road map for organizational success. Most road maps incorporate mission statements and visions to help unit members understand the part they play in the larger team effort. Squadron objectives naturally nestle under group objectives to ensure a

  • The day autism was made into a fool

    It was April 1, also known as "April Fool's Day," and I saw a 14-year-old boy make autism into a fool.The 14-year-old is my son Jackson. On April 1, 2011, he was competing in the Chicago area as an Illinois state finalist for the National Geography Bee representing the entire Mascoutah, Ill., School

  • Significant dates are reason to raise situational awareness

    Terrorists do not wear identification badges or uniforms and you cannot pick them out by appearance. By paying attention to your surroundings and taking note of unusual or out-of-place behavior and reporting it, you may help frustrate an attack.Terrorists often pick meaningful dates to schedule

  • Focus equally on working out and eating right

    As the flight chief of nutritional medicine, I am often asked questions relating to weight loss, healthy diets, fad diets and general nutrition. Additionally, as the unit fitness program monitor for my squadron, I also receive many questions related to fitness. It's a natural fit, nutrition and

  • Lessons from each assignment

    As I come to the end of 30 years in the Air Force, I find myself looking back. Like every member of the military, there have been good and bad aspects of every assignment. I want to focus on the positive lessons I learned from each assignment.I was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Fla., where warm

  • Joining the Air Force: Something to be proud of

    One of the worst experiences in my life brought me to one of the best decisions I have ever made -- to join the Air Force. After graduating high school in 2007, some would have called me a gypsy, drifter or some other transient as I bounced around from one friend's home to the next while working

  • The gingerbread house experiment in leadership

    The first job of a leader is to build more leaders. To live, learn, and pass it on. These are just a few sayings that highlight the importance of each of our roles as leaders. All people do it. Certainly at different levels, but all people do it. Nowhere is it more prevalent in my mind than in the

  • Emotional awareness is key to positive state of mind

    Everyone goes through rough patches in their lives when things seem to never go their way. They beat themselves up about every issue and many think they will never get through it. This can lead many people into a state of depression and leave them feeling worthless with a low self-esteem.Issues like

  • There I was ...

    There I was answering my nation's call, in-processing at a base in Southwest Asia starting the sixth deployment of my 15 year Air Force career. Even though I had done this many times before, I was excited about the opportunity to apply everything that I had been trained for, and to do my part. This

  • Do the right thing

    I want to share with you today what I consider to be the essence of being a good leader AND a good follower. It's quite complicated, so please give this your full attention -- do the right thing.That's it. If you do the right thing, you will rarely have a problem. It's been my experience that in