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  • Giving thanks for veterans

    Two significant holidays occur during the month of November every year - Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. In the United Kingdom, Veterans Day is called Remembrance Day, but the sentiment is the same. Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day, is a day to think about veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice in

  • Thank our veterans - those serving and those who served

    This Veterans Day, what's important is the recognition and remembrance of the sacrifices made by military members who have served our nation and worn its uniform. But there are 1,728 unreturned veterans from the Vietnam War -- what about them? In 1970, family members -- mostly wives -- of the

  • Donate marrow, save a life

    Six years ago while donating blood, I was asked if I would like to be on the bone marrow registry. "Sure," I said, "why not?" I have been a blood donor for many years. Fast-forward six years, when a piece of mail arrived from the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program, the DOD

  • The picnic table

    It was hot, I was sweaty, and I was in no mood for another pep talk or quiz on Air Force customs and courtesies, or worse yet, history. We'd been launching jets for several hours -- pulling pins, checking fuses and making sure the airplane was ready when the pilots took off. In the months before, as

  • On the way home ...

    It's four o'clock, quitting time for a lot of people heading west on U.S. Highway 98. The speed limit is 55, mph and everyone's in a hurry. Long day at work -- traffic flows at about 60. One young mother heads east, on her way presumably to pick up her son from school, and another heads west with

  • Tim

    I once knew a guy named Tim. I saw him in the halls at school, had class with him and occasionally chatted with him about homework assignments. But I never knew how much he loved to play basketball or go swimming. I never really knew him at all. All I remember when I think of Tim is how they found

  • Why risk it?

    Labor Day marked the end of the Air Force's 101 Critical Days of Summer for 2009, and I spent that weekend making the streets in Nebraska safer by manning DUI checkpoints with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. According to the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety in 2008, 67 Nebraskans died as a result of

  • 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron pilots honor fallen Airman

    Editor's note: Captains "Carp," "SIS," and "Salami" also contributed to this article. The crew wishes to only use their rank and call signs. The 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron arrived in Southwest Asia in July. As one of the youngest members of the squadron, I found myself walking out the door on

  • Gun fighting -- Island style

    All Gunfighters don't work at Mountain Home Air Force Base, or even live near an Air Force base for that matter. On the far side of Washington State at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, there is a group of Gunfighters living and working with the Navy flying the EA-6B Prowler.For the 24 members of

  • Thoughts on Sept. 11

    Eight years ago, the world was a different place. Families would gather around the airport gate to welcome their loved ones home. Celebrities, crime and the usual politics dominated the media coverage. The words "terrorism," "jihad," "fatwa" and "al-Qaida" were not in anyone's daily vocabulary.