I am a Veteran
““I am a veteran. I joined with friends after the 9/11 attacks. I served 8 years. I was part of the Air Force, the Air National Guard. ”
“I am a veteran. I joined with friends after the 9/11 attacks. I served for 8 years. I was part of the Air Force, the Air National Guard. I was an Aerospace Control and Warning Systems operator (Air traffic operator).
I worked in a department filled with the older, close to retirement Airmen and they provided counsel into a lot of life lessons in metaphors and real-world experience stories. Team morale is very important to us: Cracking jokes is very important, making coffee for the team is highly valuable, collecting and processing clean water for the whole unit is a merit. And one of my favorite tasks to have done was to drive trucks and train the newer Airmen in the two and half-ton trucks because the 2 1/2 ton trucks are stick shift with no A/C compared to the 5-ton comfy trucks.
A usual military work schedule is 24 hrs a day. I usually woke up at 4:30am and it is very common for veterans to get used to waking up early. A usual training day could include a diet of over 3,500 calories and I would still drop weight. Nutritious food is something that military people appreciate a lot, we are foodies by practice, so I always kept a lot of snacks in my many uniform pockets. Sleeping our 8 hours so that our brain focuses and learns is also key. We also never walked alone, we use an Airman buddy system, so having a close friend is very important to us; our lives depended on it.
Lastly and not least, we always need to remember to walk down the hallway with a mug of coffee to impress everyone with such a hardworking attitude that you have to bring the coffee mug everywhere and be proud of receiving the “good work Airman” compliment while on the way, a very U.S. Air Force staple.”
Thank you, Michelle, for your service to our country and to Yellow Wood Academy as our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator.
Now, Yellow Wood Academy community, are any of you also veterans, and do you have a story to tell about your service? We’d love to hear from you. Thanks in advance for sharing your stories with our students, staff, parents, and the Yellow Wood community.
Send your stories to adriennep@yellowwoodacademy.org and let us know if you would like us to share them here.
We asked you to share your stories. Thanks to Paula and Carol for your responses.
From Paula Bilstein: Although neither my husband nor I served, a member of my family has fought in every major conflict since the Revolutionary War, and on my husband's side also since they arrived in this country in the early 1900s.
From Carol Schuster: My father was a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Navy when I was very young. While I don't remember his service since I was so young, I do remember all of the things that he learned in the navy that he then passed on to my brother and me. First, we learned that posture is very important. My dad had us learn how to stand up straight at attention. While this was a game in my family, I learned good posture from it. My dad, now age 82, still has his excellent posture from the navy. Second, my dad learned how to make a bed that was so tightly made that you could bounce a quarter on it. He taught this to us and I still have good memories of "inspection" when my dad would bounce a quarter on our beds and if the quarter bounced, we got to keep it. Finally, my dad, to this day, still polishes his shoes to a shine that I have never learned to emulate.