Can an Airman Know the Air Force?

  • Published
  • Commander, 436th Civil Engineer Squadron
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  

Philosophy professors sometimes ask their students if it’s possible for a fish to know or understand water. Many students are dumbfounded by such a question.  “Of course it can,” they think. “The fish spends its entire life swimming in water.  How could it possibly not know about water?”

The professor then explains that in order to fully understand a concept, we often have to compare and contrast that concept with other opposite concepts. It would be very hard to understand the concept of darkness if there was no light, or to understand heat if we knew no cold. If a person was born and lived his or her entire life in total darkness, could he or she know that darkness exists? So, can a fish know water? Or can an Airman fully know and appreciate the benefits of the Air Force way of life if that is all he or she has ever known?

The Air Force, and the military in general, is a unique and special place to live one’s life. If you have ever thought about leaving our Air Force, I invite you to think carefully about all the good you would be leaving behind. Allow me to highlight just two of the many great aspects of working in our Air Force as a way of encouragement to you.

First, you all have the privilege of working with the highest caliber of professionals in our nation. Our average performers are better than the average performer you would find outside the military, and our worst performers are leaps and bounds above the worst performers our community partners must deal with. Our reputation as a highly trained fighting force deters the lazy and faint of heart. A couch potato simply is not attracted to our way of life and the work required, so they never want show up in our ranks to begin with. If such a person does make it into our ranks and he or she decides that they do not want to adhere to our high standards, then our military justice system or civilian personnel system has mechanisms to remove that individual.

So next time you find yourself slightly perturbed with a co-worker, keep in mind that you are interacting with one of our nation’s best, and the odds are you both want to do the right thing, you just disagree on how best to do it.

Second, the Air Force does an excellent job taking care of us and our families. We have fantastic pay, health care, education and retirement benefits; and commanders at all levels spend a great deal of time and energy ensuring we all are taken care of so that we can focus on the mission instead of worrying about the “other stuff” in life.

That isn’t always so in the private sector.

For instance, lots of small businesses only have enough work lined up to keep them busy for the next few months. Consequently, there is often the question of where the next paycheck will come from. I know of small business owners that have had to skip paychecks and mortgage their houses to keep their businesses alive when the market takes a dip. I would wager none of us had to worry about anything like that.

We may not know where the Air Force will send us next or what it will ask us to do, but we do know we will have a roof over our heads, food to eat and pay and healthcare for our loved ones.

I could say so much more on this subject, but I hope that these few brief paragraphs are enough to get your mind thinking critically about these issues. Seek out those who have lived and worked both inside and outside of our Air Force and listen to their stories. When I separated from active duty and began working in the private sector, I knew I would miss our Air Force, I just didn’t know how much. I am thankful that as a Reservist I have the opportunity to rejoin the Air Force team from time-to-time. So know that our Air Force is a special place. Know that you are privileged to be a part of it. Know it, be thankful for it and enjoy it.