An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

COMMENTARIES

  • Marching among heroes

    "Left. Left. Left-right-left." It was the first time I wore a flag harness and I didn't quite realize how much the heat would affect me while wearing my Airman Battle Uniform. Hovering at about 85 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity is somewhat unusual for this area of the Upper Midwest of the

  • Use care when speaking; words are spiritual containers

    "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Most of us learned from a very early age this is not true. We know from our own experience that words have power, either for good or for bad. The book of Proverbs tells us that "death and life are in the power of the tongue." In

  • A day at Arlington is a day for remembering heroes

    The alarm clock chimed at 3 a.m. on April 9 just like it was supposed to do. My wife hit the off button and the next two minutes before I stirred seemed like an eternity. This was going to be the start of a busy day. I had to get up early to beat the morning traffic between McGuire Air Force Base,

  • Are you ready?

    Seriously, are you ready? The Air Force of today is significantly different than the Air Force I joined 18 years ago. I can't imagine how different it is for our Senior Leaders. Part of that difference is that we are a more expeditionary force, a more fit force and a more intelligent force. Today I

  • First sergeant thanks you for serving

    When I enlisted in 1983, the world was a very different place. Russia was our enemy, the one computer our unit had was large enough to fill an entire room and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" created a new form of entertainment called the music video. "Back in the day," many of us joined the Air Force

  • Message to our enlisted force

    Wow! That's the first word that comes to mind when I reflect on my first few months as the 436th Airlift Wing command chief. My wife Terri and our family are so honored to be a part of this winning team. During our time here, we've been simply amazed by the amount of buzz generated by Team Dover.

  • Leadership from the 'heart'

    I was sitting in the front row of the auditorium in my son Jackson's school waiting for the spelling bee to start. I was anxious to see how Jackson would do amongst the best spellers in school. Once it started, he was the fifth person they called. His word was, "intermediate." He replies,

  • Seatbelts save lives: A firsthand account

     It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun was beginning to set behind the Blue Ridge mountain range and the air was crisp with a February cold on this Valentine's Day. I had worked a full 10-hour day at my primary job, visited my girlfriend for an hour and then was heading to my second job which was

  • If I only had one minute with each of them

    In the spring of 2001, I made my first visit to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. I was attending some training at Fort Meade, Md., at the time and during one of the weekends I was there, I went with a classmate to see this famed cemetery of heroes. It's a big place where you can see rows