Reflections of a chief's devotion

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Today I witnessed what I believe is the best chief in the Air Force. He is a most selfless chief; one who truly cares for his Airmen.

It is fresh in my mind so I am writing this down so that I may never forget.

On Feb. 28, my traffic management office team was processing weapons for deployers who were fighting in Afghanistan.

These warriors saw their fair share of combat. Our task was to ship their weapons home, so they could get to their decompression training quickly and get home to their families, whom they had not seen for more than a year.

While going through some advance paperwork, I noticed that some of the weapons were for killed in action Airmen. Nevertheless, we met their chief at the processing point to transfer weapons from his unit to our team TMO.

Any Airman or NCO could have validated serial numbers to transfer weapons, but it was the chief who took on this task.

It was evident that he was tired. His team had arrived about six hours earlier, and I'm sure his team was already settled in and bedded down.

Not the chief. This was one more task this chief performed for his team -- selfless.

As we were validating weapons and serial numbers, the chief eventually came across the weapon of one of his KIA Airmen. He paused. Then he told us how the Airman had fallen.

We went through a couple more weapons and he came across the weapon of one of his wounded Airmen, and he told us how that warrior sustained injuries.

He then opened up a case and stopped what he was doing.

The chief was visibly shaken. In his hand, he held the KIA Airman's orders, which appeared to have blood on them.

He didn't say a word; I could see his hand trembling.

He read off the serial number, and we proceeded.

After we had processed about 60 weapons, my team proceeded to load them in our truck.

The chief stepped away from me and began to help us load the weapons -- selfless. I could not believe this chief was trying to help the TMO team load weapons.

As respectfully as I could, I told the chief we would take care of everything. I was not going to take no for an answer.

He could easily have pulled rank, but I believe he knew how important it was for us to serve him, and for that, I appreciate the chief.

I thought all night about what happened, and realized how lucky our country is to have this chief serving.