Patriot Day: a call to core values

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. John M. Bell
  • U.S. Air Force Retired
SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  Today, America is observing Patriot Day, designated by Congress and proclaimed by President George Bush, to commemorate the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Five long and hard years ago, terrorists unleashed unprecedented terror on the U.S., killing more than 3000 people. Some were trapped in doomed aircraft, more innocently at work in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and still others simply responding to help the earlier victims.

The attacks were as much symbolic blows to our democratic institutions and principles as they were to inflict human casualties. Appropriately, America and the world responded in both real and symbolic ways borne out of the values that under gird those institutions and principles.

Not only in New York City and Washington D.C. were lives turned upside down. Americans everywhere responded literally with blood, sweat, and tears.

A tent city of relief workers sprang up in Pentagon parking lots as churches committed to meet the rescuers daily needs. Citizens donated blood and money in unprecedented amounts. Young people volunteered to enlist in the military, while others sought service through the USA Freedom Corps. School children created posters and wrote letters which brought comfort to those returning to work at the Pentagon. Partisanship, economic differences and social barriers disappeared. "God bless America" became more than a cliché. It was the unified prayer of the Nation.

Throughout the Air Force and its sister services, core values were put to the test as ordinary life became anything but ordinary. Retirements and discharges were put on hold. Veterans begged to return to uniform. Reserve and Guard personnel readied for activation and deployment. Military men and women boarded aircraft for locations they had never previously heard of, clearly acting out their personal and service values as they left behind families, jobs, and security. Government civilian warriors took on new roles as military and civilian communities rallied in efforts to improve homeland security.

Responses sprang from our values. Often these values represented those we in the Air Force identify as core. Definitions which separate one value from another often blur in such moments: searchers groping through darkened corridors of the Pentagon, firemen climbing higher in the World Trade Center even as the upper floors were caving toward them, passengers rushing toward the cockpit of a domed airliner. Were those actions driven singularly by integrity, service or excellence, or perhaps all three in a patriotic blend?

Throughout that day, thousands more demonstrated values that they never believed they would be called upon to do. Yet, in none of these displays did anyone stop to ask, "How might I demonstrate core values here?" Their expressions came naturally, spontaneously built upon conditioned response from earlier exercise of values in the very small matters of life. For it's in those smaller experiences that we prepare for the greater.

Everyday we have opportunity to demonstrate these values in our lives, albeit in ways not so dramatic. Each value demonstrated strengthens and prepares us for the next challenge. While the significance of each may vary, the importance of each does not, for in every instance a value acted upon contributes to the moral and ethical fabric of our personal, military, and national life.

As we remember those patriots who perished, let us also remember the untold patriots -- military and civilians, Guard and Reserve -- who served not only that day, but who continue to defend those principles wherever threatened.

May we recall that the same values that brought us through those darks days were not unique to the American experience; they were the same rich values present at the founding of the Nation, that led us to weather crises throughout our history, that enabled us to act in defense of freedom at home and around the world, and that empower us to face the unseen challenges of tomorrow.

It is a time to recall our collective commitment to maintaining the ideals of freedom, justice and compassion at all levels of life: national, institutional, and personal. It is a time to rededicate ourselves to those unique service values which guide or thoughts and actions. For the Air Force, integrity, service excellence: not hollow words, not a cliché, but a commitment, behaviors, a lifestyle which allows us all to contribute as patriots.


(Editor's note: Colonel Bell recently retired from the Air Force after 24 years of service. He was assigned to the Pentagon's Air Staff on September 11, 2001.)