Today’s Airman influence tomorrow’s warriors: Be an inspiration

  • Published
  • By Capt. Paul Theriot
  • 436th Airlift Wing Plans and Programs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  American society seems to reserve the memories of war to the minds of veterans, pages of books and scenes in Hollywood's reenactments.

I hope you have room for one more memoir about a home front for a war that ended nearly 16 years ago and inspired me to become what I am today.

In 1990, in the safe foothills of San Diego, where the average yearly high is 70 degrees, a 14-year-old boy and his family were returning from Japan. Then the headlines were focused more on Santa Ana winds kicking up brush-fires than any distant trouble.

However, a far different story was unfolding in Kuwait, a place that shared little more than geographical latitude with my hometown.

I focused on adjusting to life back in the U. S. Mostly, I worried about being a freshman at a new high school.

It is fair to say, that at this particular time in life, I didn't watch the nightly news with my parents, but that changed in the fall of 1990.

On Aug. 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein made a bold and ultimately fool-hardy move to invade and occupy the neighboring country of Kuwait.

Though I was not a geo-politically savvy 14 year old, I was able to grasp the significance of this move and soon found myself watching the news with my parents and wondering what would happen next.

When 100,000 Iraqis and 700 tanks made their fiery move into Kuwait, I understood what made the Cold War 'cold.' This was a real war!

Over the next five months, I adjusted to life back in the states. I paid close attention to headlines and watched the U.S. military stretch its muscles, warming up for a battle-royale.

Then, on Jan. 16, 1991, the U.S. and its allies unleashed their fury through Operation Desert Storm. As hard as it is to impress a 15-year-old boy, I was enthralled.

I imagined long lines of rucksack-laden Soldiers boarding transport aircraft and fighters taking off from distant lands on bombing runs. Then, all of a sudden, it was over.

President George H. W. Bush declared the end of Gulf War Feb. 27, 1991. This conflict, which lasted all of one and a half months, had an impact on me that stretched far into the future.

I was inspired on many levels, and though I did not grasp it at the moment, I can explain it now in one simple refrain, 'airpower.'

Jet engines, props, bombs, guns and planes had captured a piece of my mind forever. It motivated me when I applied to the U.S. Air Force Academy, received a commission and attended pilot training. Now, I am a C-17 Globemaster III pilot stationed here at Dover.

I am senior captain about to pin on major, a long way from that 15-year-old boy living in San Diego.

I can see now how the actions of the Air Force then guided me to become the person I am today.

I often wonder how many times over the last 200 years young men watched their country go to war and have been inspired.

I know that those of us fighting for freedom in the Middle East are inspiring the next generation of great Americans to serve their country.

Every time a child climbs into a cockpit on a Space-A flight, watches a Security Forces K-9 demonstration or reads headlines about The Global War on Terror, he or she is seeing what I saw: the high-flying U.S. Air Force doing its job; and this child's war memoir begins, just like mine did 16 years ago.

It is refreshing to know that I am a piece of this enthralling force that once inspired me.