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  • Sharing personal pain, learning lessons

    Drinking is not bad, if done responsibly. It is drinking to get drunk that is dangerous and stupid. Years ago, when I was a kid, my next door neighbor was killed by a drunk driver in the middle of the day while riding his bicycle down the street. This tore apart families and left them forever changed. In the past two years, my own brother has been

  • 101 Critical Days of Summer - Airmen saving Airmen

    “Airmen Saving Airmen” is a great way to think about this year's 101 Critical Days of Summer safety campaign. It fits nicely with leadership's desire to foster and continue building a safety-conscious Wingman culture across the Air Force. Memorial Day weekend has come and gone,  … and it marked the kickoff of the 101 Critical Days of Summer safety

  • Where our boots have taken us

    Many nights I shuffle home from work, kick off my high heeled shoes, and stumble over my husband’s combat boots. At those times, I often ask myself, “Where have his combat boots taken him?” I know exactly where my combat boots have taken me. In 1992, I was a bright-eyed 20-year-old woman with exciting goals for my future, yet I didn’t realize that

  • Leadership equals responsibility

    Leadership takes many forms. But one critical element in any form of leadership is taking care of people. As supervisors, we help our Airmen seek out and take advantage of educational and training opportunities, put them in for awards and help make them competitive for promotion. However, taking care of people doesn’t stop when the work day

  • Warriors prove mettle at exercise

    For eight days and nights, mobility warriors from the 319th Air refueling Wing joined our mission partners from the 62nd and 446th Air Wing, McChord Air force Base, for Exercise Operation Thunderbolt at the Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Michigan. In this final ability to survive and operate “fly-away” exercise before our upcoming

  • Saying farewell, leaving the best behind

    As my time winds down here at Grand Forks and I get ready to head over to Manas Air Base in Kyrgystan, I get the feeling I’m leaving the best behind. Of course, there is my family, Anna, Skyler and Alex, whom I consider the best part of me. This is a tough way of life no matter who you are, and as many of our families here know, a year of

  • Honoring ‘angels of mercy’

    National Nurses’ Week, celebrated each year beginning May 6th and ending on Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12th, has as this year’s motto “nurses: strength, commitment and compassion.” This is a fitting motto and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with the nurses serving in the armed forces of our nation. Far from being consigned to

  • Survive and operate … a serious matter

    Some folks shrug off ability to survive and operate training, calling it a “hassle” and a “waste of time.” Others might think it’s something to learn only for anupcoming Operational Readiness Inspection and then quickly forget. The reality is that whether in exercises or in the real world, the ATSO skills you learn ensure you are able to carry out

  • Service, heritage, duty -- why I serve

    I have the great fortune to be the daughter of a veteran whose influence still resonates in my life today. My dad, Russ Daniels, joined the Navy at the age of 20 in 1950 and left his home town in Le Grande, Ore., as the Korean War kicked off. Several of his buddies were joining the effort, and he didn't want to be left out of the action. The Navy

  • We hear you loud and clear

    In early February, I asked wing members to participate in a wing climate assessment (WCA) by filling out a 50-question survey concerning many important issues that affect our wing, our Airmen and their families. Over a one-week period, 530 Warriors of the North (approximately 20 percent of the wing) took advantage of this opportunity to offer their
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