Diversity embraced during African-American heritage event Published Feb. 25, 2014 By Staff Sgt. Benjamin W. Stratton 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Team Fairchild Airmen participated in Diversity Day events here Feb. 21 honoring the sacrifices made by American icons from previous, current and those yet to be made by future generations. "Diversity means an all-inclusive community of people striving toward one common goal," said Master Sgt. Albert Dunn, the Fairchild African-American Heritage Council leader. "Martin Luther King Jr. was a man that visualized a country full of diversity and people not looking at the color of their skin, but the content of their character." The day began with a Diversity March starting at the installation headquarters, better known as the White House, finishing at the base chapel. Airmen then had an opportunity to experience foods from around the world as they watched a heritage praise dance to the sounds of poetry and guest speakers, Col. Brian Hill, the 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander, and Senior Airman Jahrod Cyrus, a 92nd Comptroller Squadron finance travel technician. "Ignorance is defined as the lack of knowledge or information," said Cyrus. "Being ignorant is not an excuse to ridicule or sell yourself short of the values of others and their contributions to society. What does diversity mean to the Air Force? From comptroller to the survival school to the flight line, we all have a job to do, to be the best you can be." Cyrus challenged his audience and the rest of his U.S. military brothers and sisters to step up being leaders of change for the betterment of the country and the world. "There are so many ways we can improve the Air Force," he said. "When we all joined the Air Force, we did so with our own way of doing things. In basic military training we learned how to work as a collective unit and so I challenge you to challenge each other to be as diverse as you can be. America challenges us to continue on a legacy of being the best Air Force this planet has ever seen. Anything less would be selling us short of greatness." It's diversity that makes a nation great, but it's dignity and respect, the Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, says that will lead the Air Force to new heights. "Everybody in our Air Force should feel respected, they should feel critically important to what we do, because they are," Welsh said. "And we should all recognize that diversity is very clearly a strength of this Air Force and will take us to places we could not have gotten without it." Fairchild Airmen marched from the White House to the base chapel in honor of diversity, they went places as the chief of staff encouraged, but what were they marching for? "You marched for a whole lot more than commemorating what happened more than 70 years ago," Hill said. "Whether preventing sexual assault, discrimination or bullying -- march to those guns. Marching should be pretty easy for you since it's the first thing we learned at basic training. As soon as we signed on the dotted lines, they shaved our heads and put us in the blue uniform, they had us marching -- we know how to do it. So I encourage you to pick up the pace to the sound of the guns wherever that battle is, engage and be a force for good."