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  • Tis the season of food, football and family!

    The leaves have fallen and the air is cool and crisp, which marks the harvest season and a time that we traditionally take stock of the things we are thankful for in our lives. It's my favorite time of year not only because our families get together to celebrate and eat great food, but we also enjoy

  • 10 useful tips to make it through the holiday season

    Once again, the holidays are right around the corner, and whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or New Years, it is a special time of year. It's time to visit family and friends, have fun, stay up late, over eat, over spend, and over tax one's energy reserves.In short,

  • A/TA 2012: An Airman’s Perspective

    Residents in Anaheim, Calif, were greeted by an unexpected sight Nov. 1-4: they found themselves suddenly inundated with bus-loads of men and women in uniforms arriving from across the globe. 1,900 Airmen, government employees and defense contractors, representing the entire spectrum of the Mobility

  • Total Force: Everyone has a contribution to give

    If you don't think what you contribute to the mission matters, think again. I was recently reminded of what we all contribute when I attended the 2012 Airlift Tanker Association conference as a member of the Phoenix Stripe program. I enjoyed a week of professional development as I learned more about

  • Lessons from the ‘Toof’ Fairy

    I'm sure all the parents out there can relate when I say that children are great at "calling it like they see it." Tact and social-restraint are foreign to a 5-year-old and it doesn't matter who might be within ear shot. As a father, I've experienced moments of sheer terror when my kids loudly point

  • Servicemembers will still be hard at work this Veterans Day

    From delivering blankets to power vehicles to fuel and water, the U.S. military has rallied to support hurricane relief efforts all along the East Coast, and as we head into Veterans Day weekend, my thoughts are focused on all the servicemembers who'll still be hard at work as the nation takes a

  • Trust the ‘bear’

    Just inside the darkened doorway of a local restaurant there is a "bear." Not your menacing, clawed and fanged, grizzly type from any cable tv "human vs. nature" show, but a tall, placid, smoothly carved wooden one with a slightly raised right paw. Around the restaurant are his colleagues busily

  • Communication is key!

    It is clear that no matter what we do, or how many times we do it, and no matter what rank we wear, communication is critical to our success! And, as you may have noticed, oftentimes those messages are repeated so that the information "sticks."For instance, we just hosted the Senior Enlisted Advisor

  • Wingman Day—Principled Decision Making

    Thank you Team Scott for your patience with the wing as we participated in the first of several Operational Readiness Exercises that we'll be holding as we prepare for our June Operational Readiness Inspection! Our team spent 10 days getting reacquainted with our deployment procedures and employment

  • Training and exercises are an essential element

    Military training begins the moment one signs up for service, learns military hierarchy basics, service customs and courtesies, and continues with increasingly advanced stages throughout their military career. My earliest memory of military training takes me back to 1990, when I joined the Army