Are we too busy to listen to our local heritage?

  • Published
  • By Maj. Curt Wichers
  • 36th Rescue Flight commander
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  One of the things I love the most about the Air Force is the people I get to work with on a daily basis. It's always inspiring to me to see the motivation and capabilities of the people around me and to hear their stories about how they are contributing to the various missions on this base. When I read the commentary from last week from one of my co-workers over here at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school, it made me think about a side-effect of all the automation our Air Force has moved to for so many processes.

It's very clear to me that there is a necessity and that there are successful results despite the flurry of changes we have made in transitioning to web/computer-based information processing. My lamentation is that there was at least one good aspect of having to run around offices in my unit or run around base to get things done instead of keystrokes at the computer screen. I miss getting to actually talk to our great folks and occasionally hearing their stories.

We all go through professional military education and get to hear about the terrifically rich heritage of our Air Force. Personally, I think that if you have any doubts about the folks on this base creating incredible stories on a regular basis, you really aren't paying attention.

Just one example is the article about a Fairchild team responding instantly to a request for presidential support in Eastern Europe. The expeditionary and can-do mindset of this team to pull off what they did in such a short period of time is impressive and my hat goes off to them. Demand for SERE training has been a growth business in recent years, unfortunately, and yet folks here continue to work miracles to vastly expand the number of people receiving the training. Also, they are tremendously improving the depth and breadth of training to make all Airmen confident that they will "Return with Honor" to their families and units.

I encourage folks to not be too busy for the opportunities that do still exist to tell a story and occasionally try to listen. Anyone is welcome to stop by the 36th Rescue Flight anytime and see what the helicopters here do. After all, we have a few stories of our own to share.