April issue of Citizen Airman available online

  • Published
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) --  For the past 33-plus years, Lt. Gen. James E. Sherrard III has been contributing to the Air Force mission as a reservist, with the last five-plus years as the commander of Air Force Reserve Command and chief of Air Force Reserve. During that time, he has fought for better benefits and entitlements for reservists, and been a key player in the nation's largest activation of reservists. Read about him in the April issue of Citizen Airman, official magazine of the Air Force Reserve.

Also, Air Force medical specialists involved in humanitarian missions worldwide treat thousands of needy patients every year. Occasionally, they encounter a patient who really touches their heart. For Col. (Dr.) David Snell, Sorn Sokhon was one of those patients.

Breakfast is barely over when a C-141 Starlifter, loaded with patients, touches down on the tarmac at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. A launch and recovery team speeds out to the aircraft and immediately goes to work helping the air-evacuation crew unload the patients after a long flight. Thus begins a typical day for people with the 791st Expeditionary Air Evacuation Squadron.

When Capt. Brent Davis agreed to help drum up support for a bone marrow donor drive, he had no idea that 18 months and 1.5 liters of bone marrow later his actions may have saved a young man's life. The journey began when a fellow officer contacted Captain Davis, 910th Airlift Wing chief of public affairs at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, to ask for his help in drumming up support for a local visit by representatives from the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program.

Also, a new law replacing the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 provides servicemembers greater protections to handle personal financial and legal obligations. President Bush signed the Service Members' Civil Relief Act into law Dec. 19.

For Air Force reservist Lt. Col. Alan Norman, flying the F/A-22 Raptor, the Air Force's newest fighter, on a daily basis is not the most difficult thing about his job. With many years of experience as a test pilot, he feels at home in the cockpit, so the aircraft's sophisticated systems and capabilities do not bother him. On the contrary, the toughest thing about his job each day, he said, does not have anything to do with flying. Instead, it involves figuring out what color flight suit to wear.

Read about how people from two 10th Air Force units met in the Arizona desert in late January to take care of some required training they could not accomplish by themselves.

An MC-130P aircrew from the 5th Special Operations Squadron at Duke Field, Fla., traveled to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., to join with Airmen with the 305th Rescue Squadron for a weekend of training. The 10th AF staff from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, and two instructors from the Advanced Airlift Tactical Training Center, St. Joseph, Mo., also participated.

In other stories, imagine intentionally plunging into an open-water shark feeding area. The only thing between you and about 50 hungry sharks, weighing up to 400 pounds each, is water. Wearing a pair of chain mail gloves and basic diver's gear, you pull out some frozen fish and begin feeding the hungry giants. Sound crazy? Not to a nurse assigned to the 944th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Luke AFB, Ariz. For Capt. Terry Greene, feeding these giant predators, up close and personal, is a true passion.

Finally, in the late 1980s, senior leaders within the Air Force Reserve recognized that a serious gap existed in the professional development of its enlisted force. To address the needs of young noncommissioned officers, there was Airman Leadership School, and the NCO Academy was available for more experienced NCOs. But there was nothing for mid-level NCOs to sort of bridge the gap between the two. To address this shortcoming, Reserve officials came up with the NCO Leadership Development Program. Fifteen years later, the program is flourishing as a vital tool for educating the command's mid-level NCOs on how to apply the principles of leadership.

For these stories and more, visit Citizen Airman's Web site at www.afrc.af.mil/hq/citamn/default.html. (Courtesy of Air Force Reserve Command News Service)