Commentary Search

  • The Measure of 'Guard Family'

    "Whatever happened to our Guard Family?"It's certainly a not-uncommon question to hear in our wings or our armories. If you've been in the Guard for more than a minute, you've likely heard someone bemoan the loss of a sense of "Guard Family" that once was uber-essential to the unit.But in order to

  • How Whiteman Airmen fit into the global nuclear deterrence mission

    For the last several years, I have come to Whiteman Air Force Base for two days every month and two weeks every summer. However, I've never felt that I am making a difference in the world.I joined the military to be a part of something bigger. I wanted to enlist Sept. 11, 2001. I spoke with an Army

  • Life lessons learned on the diamond

    When I was a kid, my parents moved around a lot. I was not a military kid -- my parents were always in search of a better home closer to one job or the next. In addition, I was what was referred to as a "latchkey kid." My afternoons consisted of eating snacks, doing homework, doing the very

  • Strategic Air Command - 70 Years of Heritage

    As part of a continuing series recognizing the 70th anniversary of Strategic Air Command, Gen. (Ret) Kevin Chilton, test pilot, NASA astronaut, and former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, addressed a gathering on May 20, 2016, at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. 

  • Find your fitness self

    When you start, it's all about losing weight or finishing a race. Then, it may be about finishing in a certain time. You may want to get leaner, faster, and better. But, before you know it, it might turn into how many hours you put in compared to so and so. Maybe, they rode a hundred miles this

  • Graduating From the College of the Wild Blue Yonder

    I wish that I could say I joined the Air Force because of a deep sense of pride and the honor of serving my country. The truth is, at 18 years of age, I had yet to develop the capacity to understand what that even meant.  Like many others I have served with through the years, I joined the military

  • Zero Degrees of Separation

    "Six degrees from Kevin Bacon" is a longstanding cultural meme; indeed, it's so old that it pre-dates the term "meme" -- and the Internet that fosters them.  Its eternal youth can perhaps be attributed to the truthiness of the statement (if not the similar timelessness of Bacon himself), which holds

  • Nine Military Mantras to Guide Any Work

    I had two learning intentions when I joined the Air Force almost 20 years ago: to get the G.I. Bill so I could return and finish college, and to learn a skill that if that college didn't work out, I'd have a fall-back career.  Along the way, I picked up a lot of intangible learning - the so-called

  • Wait! Put that phone down

    Flash back to 1996, a young Airman walks into his team-building class. As he makes his way to the waiting area, other Airmen are standing around making introductions and carrying on in conversation. As the clock nears the starting time, the members already have an idea of who is who and where they

  • Summer Camp Leadership Lessons

    "Summer camp" - the term of affection commonly applied to annual training at Air National Guard units across the nation, has come and gone for the 131st Bomb Wing here.  But in the coming weeks, a number of Citizen-Airmen will trade in their Air Force uniforms - and also their civilian business wear