Commentary Search

  • All about the angles - ANG Photographer of the Year

    Every year military journalists have the chance to enter contests to be recognized for their work of the past year. Writers, photographers, videographers and graphic artists submit their work to the annual media contest awards in hopes to bring credit upon themselves and their respective units.This

  • Find your fitness self

    When you start, it's all about losing weight or finishing a race. Then, it may be about finishing in a certain time. You may want to get leaner, faster, and better. But, before you know it, it might turn into how many hours you put in compared to so and so. Maybe, they rode a hundred miles this

  • Eight years serving, best experience ever

    I am so grateful a humanitarian mission was my first deployment experience. You truly do not understand till you are sharing your time with an orphan, what the mission really reaps. Yes, I completed some upgrade training to hone my skills of welding, grinding, painting; but the joy on the children's

  • Don't focus solely on the test

    The annual physical fitness test doesn't matter. This is a bold statement considering that as a military professional your career depends on it. However, focusing on the test alone does not support a healthy lifestyle. The goal of the test is to gauge your level of fitness, but it is not intended to

  • From Marine to Airman

    I was standing in the parking lot of the barracks I had called home for the past three years aboard Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.  There was a slight desert wind across my bald head, and the sun was brightly shining across cloud free skies, as is common in this Arizona region that is the #1

  • Airman and Bearcat

    It's a balancing act between being an Airman and a bearcat. (The bearcat is my university's mascot.)My Air Force training pushed me harder than I ever expected, and my transformation from citizen to warrior has greatly increased my confidence.Still, I take life a day at a time. I stride to live by

  • Staying fit with crossfit

    I wasn't always in shape. In my earlier days, I weighed much more than I do now. I didn't count calories, I didn't watch what I ate, and I definitely did not exercise. In fact, I hadn't even realized how much weight I had gained. The Air Force Fitness program had just been implemented. This includes

  • The Distance

    With a guard unit within close proximity to my place of employment, people often ask why I travel so far to St. Joseph, Missouri to be a part of the 139th Airlift Wing. A little biographical information on me... I reside in a small community evenly positioned between Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska;

  • They needed my blood

    'Service before self' all started 15 years ago at basic training as it does for most of us.  However in 2008 it took a new meaning for me during a base blood drive.  Sometime down the road I changed from doing the traditional whole blood donation once every eight weeks to sitting on the machine to