Make tomorrow even better than today

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Yancy Mailes
  • 366th Fighter Wing historian
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho (AFPN) --  Bam! The shots startled me, and I jumped. I heard the firing party leader call for the next volley, but the explosion still came as a surprise. I told myself I wouldn’t cry. I didn’t even know Tech. Sgt. Walter Moss. 

The final volley sounded. I had prepared myself. At that instance, a lone bugler sounded Taps, and I began to weep. I could not control the tears. I looked around as others in the crowd bowed their heads and sobbed. It was unspoken; it was okay. 

We had lost a fellow Airman. 

I am not really sure why I immediately came back to the office and penned this. Was it my sadness or was it the fact the war had finally come home to my base? 

Many of us have served our time in the desert.   Many of us had seen this before. 

I was assigned to the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., when we lost 12 Airmen to the Khobar Towers bombing, but I did not cry. Those days were terrible, but this one was worse. 

I felt ashamed I had never known Walter. He sounded like such a fine man, a good father and a good husband. I felt terrible for his wife and his children. The kids would now grow up without their daddy, a daddy who had helped them learn to smile and learn to skateboard on the half-pipe he built in the backyard. 

As his fellow NCOs told us, Walter was an outstanding example of an Airman’s Airman. He was a man I would have liked to have known and maybe even emulate. But, that would not be possible now. 

So as I look over this, I realize there is no message to this piece of writing, just thoughts –thoughts that maybe today is okay but tomorrow will be even better. Maybe I should get to know my neighbor, and spend just a bit more time getting to know the people I work with. I should hug my wife more than just a couple of times a day. I should tell my dad I love him. I should call even more. Today I learned a lesson … there may not be a tomorrow so I better make good on today.