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Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians

Commentaries

  • Planning your career: Don't get ahead of yourself

    Have you ever heard that common expression, "No one is going to look out for your career better than you are?"Anyone with more than a couple of years of service in the military or as a federal employee has certainly heard this. The more senior members have a better feel for what it means than the

  • Make the call

    I'm sure he was nervous. After all, he was umpiring his first major league baseball game and millions of fans in TV land would watch his every move.No doubt he felt those fluttering "butterflies" long before the first batter even stepped up to the plate. Surely he questioned his readiness on the

  • Respect: Have it, pay it, never shy away from it

    Why are people huddled in buildings all across base just inside their doorways, waiting for the "all clear?" Has there just been an attack? Are we in an exercise, you ask? No. The "all clear" everyone is waiting for is the completion of "Retreat," followed by our country's national anthem, "The Star

  • Absence of siren doesn't mean we shouldn't pause and reflect

    For one week each spring, we as Americans formally pause to remember all those who perished more than sixty years ago in the Holocaust. This annual commemoration was established by the United States Congress in 1979 and is known as the Days of Remembrance. The observance falls each year around Yom

  • Sacrifice: A proper perspective

    Like so many other military members, my 2009 deployment started with a tearful goodbye to my family and a long walk down the Jetway of a local airport. I was off to the desert, or more generically, the Middle East. I was not particularly looking forward to this deployment, but I would do my duty as

  • For women, by women

    I have served in the military just shy of a decade. The military has taught me how to find my footing in a traditionally male environment. To that extent, I have rarely felt like an outsider simply because I am a woman. I never would have considered this to be a luxury -- that is, not until I began

  • Chief shares ingredients of success

    As this will be my last article as an active-duty member, I thought I would share a few bits of advice on what I believe is needed for one to be successful in this great way of life we all have chosen. While there are as many opinions on what it takes to be a success as there are people, I would

  • Engage in lives of others, break out of your shell

    I was walking down the hall of the Travis hotel and I heard a laugh. It made me smile. It was loud, it was constant and it was a little girl, about three years old, laughing with her mother. Each time she stopped laughing, her mom would do something funny and she would laugh again. It was

  • The day autism was made into a fool

    It was April 1, also known as "April Fool's Day," and I saw a 14-year-old boy make autism into a fool.The 14-year-old is my son Jackson. On April 1 he was competing in the Chicago area as an Illinois state finalist for the National Geography Bee, representing his school district. But before I tell

  • Everyday decisions impact planet

    I love the feeling of the cool breeze brushing against my face as I drive to work with the windows rolled down on a nice crisp summer morning. At the pool or beach, the warm sunlight reflects nicely on the blue water and makes me feel good to be alive. I guess I've just always enjoyed being able to