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  • A call to serve – mission verses job

    When I joined the Air Force as an airman basic in May of 1982, it never occurred to me that I would still be serving on active duty nearly 33 years later!  I separated from the Air Force at the end of my four year enlistment in May of 1986 and by December of that year my income had nearly tripled with the promise of upward mobility. It seemed to

  • Comprehensive Airman Fitness

    After 26 years as a civil servant working for the Air Force, I became the Malmstrom Air Force Base Community Support Coordinator in January 2013.  This was a new position within the Air Force, so it left a lot of people wondering and asking "what is it that you do?"I suddenly found myself in a position where I took on responsibilities that others

  • Impacting the people around us

    When a stone is tossed in a pond, one can see the ripples it produces extend hundreds of times the diameter of the stone.  Our day to day interactions with our peers and subordinates can have the same sort of effect, without our even realizing it. A decade ago, one of my Airman experienced a tragic personal loss, which dramatically affected her. 
  • Airmen load hay onto a C-119 Flying Boxcar in December of 1964 on the runway at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. Frigid temperatures and heavy snowfall during the month of December led to the declaration of a major disaster for southwest Montana. Ranchers suffered major livestock losses resulting from extreme negative temperatures and snowfall, and landowners were unable to reach their cattle and sheep. Cargo aircraft from five reserve units were mobilized to help drop hay to the stranded animals. The Air Reserve units managed to drop 65 tons of hay to about 100,000 head of livestock during Operation Hay Lift, using low-level drops of hay bales to the stranded animals. (Courtesy photo)

    Operation Hay Lift

    Airmen at Malmstrom Air Force Base share many different visions of the holiday season as they prepare to return home or settle down to enjoy the holidays.  Fifty years ago, the members of the base witnessed a little different vision of the season.  At the beginning of December, temperatures began to plummet with the thermometer reaching 32 degrees

  • An expression of gratitude: SARC office thankful for volunteers and support

    "An expression of gratitude for something" is the Encarta Dictionary's definition for "giving thanks." I am the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) and Debra Glenn is the Lead Sexual Assault Victim Advocate (SAVA). As a small, two-person office, our jobs would be much more difficult if we didn't have such a fantastic volunteer force helping

  • Passion - believing in what you do

    I enrolled in the University of Colorado (CU) in Boulder, Colorado, in the fall of 1995.  My grades in high school had qualified me for a three-year Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, but I still had to figure out how to pay for my first year of school and for my room and board.  The university sent a flyer to all perspective dorm

  • Core values part of everyday life

    Whether we realize it or not, the Air Force core values are at the center of our decision-making process in everything we do, or at least they should be.  We all make conscious, and many times, unconscious daily decisions that guide us through life ranging from menial tasks at home with our friends and families, to actions at work that affect the

  • Veterans Day: Service, professionalism, sense of duty

    As Strikers we have a proud heritage, one that each of you are a part of through your service. You carry on the great responsibility that Strategic Air Command dutifully accepted more than half a century ago: stand as a force to deter America's enemies and assure America's allies, exhibiting our strength through peace.SAC stood watch over the

  • Is failure optional?

    Should fitness be considered in the United States Air Force?  A recent survey revealed an increase in the number of overweight and out of shape service personnel who were unable to run long distances or perform physical tasks such as pushups.  This poses a direct threat to the ability of the U.S. to defend itself.  Twelve percent of active duty

  • A different perspective

    What are your chances of surviving the next four months as you go about your daily routine and accomplish our wing's most important mission - nuclear deterrence?  Is it one in a hundred, one in a thousand or even one in a million? How would you like to be faced with a 50 percent chance of not surviving the next four months?  More often than not,
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