Airmen still making the choice to serve

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Steve Matson
  • 96th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron commander
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  From the onset of the Eisenhower presidency in 1953 -- through 1992 --  the United States military intervened in world events some 51 times. From 1992 through 2000, they had an additional 51 interventions.

Notably, throughout the 1990s, U.S. forces were involved in peacekeeping, peace enforcement, humanitarian relief and extended low-intensity operations -- in addition to war-fighting duties.

As many Airmen know from personal sacrifice -- since 2001 -- the mighty B-52 Stratofortress and its aviators and maintainers have been deployed fighting and supporting the global war on terrorism.

The expansion in responsibilities around the world has resulted in an approximate 400 percent increase in U.S. security commitments -- while our armed services have concurrently downsized by approximately 40 percent.

Quite simply, we really are doing more with less.

With this change in responsibilities and increased operations, it would be easy to explain how numbers of new Airmen are declining. But this is just the opposite. People are still choosing to serve -- and choosing to serve in record numbers.

Our military is made up of people from many different parts of the globe with widely varying backgrounds. However, we all have one thing in common: We all made the choice to serve our great nation.

There are as many reasons to serve as the varied backgrounds of those who chose to serve. But the one commonality is that we all made the choice. We made the choice to join the profession of arms.

The reason is not important. What’s important is that you made the choice and you are serving with pride and honor.

Our nation has called on the military for involvement in more than 100 operations in the last 50 years. And it is Airmen like you that make that mission succeed.

Our Airmen place themselves in harm’s way every day, faithfully defending our nation and our way of life.

Regardless of your reasoning -- whether it is a calling for patriotic duty, a family tradition, desire to learn a trade, or simply that it is the right thing to do -- you are the ones that answered the call of our nation.

Thank you for your choice to serve.