My Dad, My Mom, My Five Brothers, and Me
   by Charles O

What can I say about the Air Force family that hasn’t yet been said, written, put into a poem, read, and voted on? Well, I guess I could start by telling you we were ALWAYS an Air Force family, from the time I was born to this day. My dad, an Air Force retiree, has passed onto the Wild Blue Yonder. My younger brother Jimmy, when he was only twenty-three years old, joined him. Jim had served in the Air Force at Little Rock, went to work as an Air Reserve Technician in California, got his private pilot’s license, and died way too young.

My mom, who always tells me she loves going to Beale, likes the atmosphere on the base, it makes her feel like being home. Her favorite memories come from the Air Force families who shared their lives, friendship, support, and heartache with us as we went from one base to another. Raising five boys, often by herself, was not easy but she always had the other families on which to lean.

My two older brothers enlisted in the Air Force, but left the military after four years. I enlisted, worked on the flight line, in personnel offices, taught at the USAFE NCO Academy, served as a Commandant of an NCO Leadership School, and finally retired from Loring AFB in Maine (by the way, one of the best bases in my career). After leaving the active duty military I knew what my mom meant by the “atmosphere” of an Air Force base.

And I…I now work in England supporting the best families in the world. What is an Air Force family? What makes them special? It was my dad, my mom, my brothers, and me and all the wonderful people and places....we got to see.