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Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians

Commentaries

  • Air Force pioneer gone, but not forgotten

    The Air Force suffered a monumental loss March 11 when Paul W. Airey, the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force, passed away. I think it appropriate to share with you my thoughts on this great American and Airman. I will greatly miss my mentor, Chief Airey. From the day I first met him in

  • Rules really do matter

    "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all." Although many years have passed since George Washington spoke these words, they apply as much today as they did then. Discipline is a state of order based on submission to rules

  • PT is kind of like dirty socks

    The phone rings in your office. It is the orderly room and they want to speak to you. Daily Air Force life lends itself to a couple possibilities. Performance report overdue? No. Late for a meeting? No. Orders? Can't be. When you ask them what they want, their response is simply, "You need to come

  • Creating candor

    If you ever have the chance to observe a flight debrief after a training sortie, you should jump at the chance. You will witness something special. In the debrief, everyone makes constructive comments -- positive and negative -- regardless of their position or rank. If the flight lead did something

  • An instrument of peace

    As I opened the door, a small bell jingled, signaling the clerk that a customer had entered the store. It was an ordinary pawn shop situated on the fringes of the Florida State University campus back in 1984. I had been to this pawn shop once or twice before with a close friend who was an

  • Teamwork builds mission success

    I am not much into fist-pumping speeches or flowery phrases to get a point across, so here is the important fact: teamwork. Teamwork is vital for our success every day in and around the base. When I was a squadron commander, I used to show a video clip from a commercial. It showed several hundred

  • Leadership: Learn to laugh through good, bad

    I was born in New York. I was raised by an Irish cop, and went to Catholic School. I have four sisters and one brother. Sounds like a stereotypical Irish Catholic family, and it is. We yelled, prayed and laughed a lot in my family. The yelling was because there were eight of us. The praying because

  • A fighter pilot approach to motorcycle riding

    "A man's got to know his limitations," said Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" character in the 1973 movie, "Magnum Force." Those words I'm sure were in the back of Maverick's mind in "Top Gun" as he paused on his Kawasaki GPZ 900 Ninja by the runway at Miramar to watch the Tomcats takeoff. He should

  • Leadership: Is it in you?

    Good leadership is an attribute we should all aspire to attain, but unfortunately not everyone makes the effort to achieve it. Good leadership is a skill that is very attractive to employers and employees alike. Who wants to work for or hire for a bad leader? I think the answer is no one. So, how do

  • Airman reflects on events that led to adopting sibling group

    Adopting children was something I wanted to do since I started thinking about having a family. It was also one of those things that always seemed inconvenient, daunting and too expensive. So, after the birth of our third child, my wife started to bring up the subject with increasing regularity. At