No matter what uniform, we all must pull together

  • Published
  • By Perry Jenifer
  • 81st Training Wing Public Affairs
After more than 17 years as an Air Force civilian employee here, I have great admiration, respect and appreciation for the people who serve in all branches of our military.

I also have a deep sense of pride in the way most Americans have responded to the sacrifices men and women in uniform have made on their behalf since the events of Sept. 11.

I take absolutely nothing away from either of those groups here. However, I was reminded recently there's more than one way to serve your country.

My dad, who died May 28, was never in the military, although he did wear a "uniform" -- bib overalls, denim or flannel shirts, hard hats and steel-toed boots for more than 40 years. He was an ironworker.

Dad served his country through one of the great tests in its history. During World War II, and even before America was drawn into that intercontinental conflict, he worked iron that became a military base in Nebraska, an ammunition plant in Iowa and dozens of landing craft in Illinois. That base, that plant and those landing craft helped train, equip and put ashore the troops who freed Europe, Africa and Asia from the fascists and imperialists who had enslaved their people.

Dad didn't put down his tools when the shooting stopped. He continued to serve his country nearly 35 more years, building dams, bridges, factories, schools, office buildings -- wherever iron needed working, he was there.

Dad sacrificed, too. There were times when the iron took him too far from home to return the same day or weekends. The hours were usually long and the work brutally hard.

He endured searing heat and sub-zero cold, blistering burns, bone-deep puncture wounds and microscopic shads of metal sprayed into his eyes. Many nights, he fell asleep reading the newspaper within 30 minutes after finishing dinner with no energy left to enjoy his family or the fruits of his labor.

Whatever "uniform" we wear, it takes all of us pulling together, in war and in peace, to make this great experiment we know as America work...and to defend it. (Courtesy of Air Education and Training Command)