Can you see the big picture?

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Vann Miller
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  At one point in the few years that I’d been in the Air Force, I decided to reenlist. But I'd had plans for myself before I came into the military and I hadn’t finished school like I had set out to do. I was even frustrated with some of the folks I worked for. So why was I doing it?

My family, though proud of my military service, told me they would support my decision to leave the Air Force. And with a wife and two kids to feed, it was good to know that the support was there.

I decided to stay in the military, however, because I believed it needed me. The Air Force and its sister services need people who believe they make a difference. They need people who want to help shape their service into a better force. And they need people who take pride in their work… people who have an eye for the big picture.

The big picture isn’t necessarily the number of bombs on target or the amount of flying hours one squadron racked up in a month. Though those things are important, they aren’t tangible to every member in every work center. The big picture is doing the best job you can because you know people depend on you.

When it was time for me to decide if I would stay in the service, I took a look around my work center and into my own family life.

I realized that if I left the Air Force at that time, then the message I would leave my coworkers was one that says this “family” I had been a part of for eight years wasn’t worth any more of my time, and that is no message for a leader to give. Looking at my wife and kids, I thought that all they would learn from me leaving the service was that it is not important to finish what you start, and that is no way to raise a family.

So with noble ideas running through my mind like integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do, the choice was an easy one for me to make.

The next time you wonder if this military life is what you want, just ask yourself, “Can I see the big picture?”