Like the Colonel, I served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force, though at twenty-one years I didn’t devote anywhere near his longevity of active duty service. The Colonel has been both a mentor and friend since 1997 when he helped me survive my four years at that crucible of Department of Defense bureaucracy known as the Pentagon. His sage advice prepared me for my most coveted and challenging Air Force job experience, to serve as a Munitions Squadron Commander at a B-1 Bomber Wing with our Nation at war following the infamous attacks of September 11, 2001. After this rewarding Command tour and by a blessing of fate, the Colonel and I reunited when I was assigned to the Defense Agency he works at as a contractor mentioned in his intro post. I served an extended tour at that Agency and decided early on for “life” stability reasons to transition to “civilian status”. Having “charted similar waters” a few years prior himself, the Colonel’s advice helped me set off on a new course.
Ok, that explains your fellowship with the Colonel, but why this blog you may ask? My military service was an extremely challenging and rewarding experience that I was blessed and honored to have accomplished… I went places around the county and world and did incredibly cool things I would never have encountered otherwise. But military service by its nature involves sacrifice… blessed to be a citizen of the United States of America, a Constitutional Republic that from its founding Declaration affirmed the inalienable individual liberty bestowed by God, my commitment to serve the Nation’s defense as an “Active Duty” member necessarily required a voluntary acquiesce of some of my “God given” personal freedom. The American tradition of the military’s subordination to the civilian government institutions empowered by the people is very deep-rooted. Consequently, there are defined restrictions on personal public speech and activity regarding such things as "partisan political activity". During my years of service, I just refrained from political activity other than voting. For a short overview on the subject of political activity and the military see: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/militarylaw1/a/milpolitics.htm
But now I’m retired from military service and while I’ll always be obligated by law and my oath to not divulge national security information, the gag is off on publically expressing my political views. I gleefully feel like the hermit on the mountain top in Monty Python’s Life of Brian who is suddenly free from a personnel vow of silence when Brian inadvertently jumps on his foot (And yes, Python is expressive of my sense of humor).
The Colonel and I share similar conservative views and talk often about the issues swirling about in the Nation’s public and political debate. We are both deeply concerned for the future of our country. We’ve collaborated for some time on a blog that evolved from a newsletter regarding our views on issues facing the Air Force munitions community… so, the blog phenomena appears to be a natural outlet to express our other opinions as well.
This blog could be viewed by millions, or by nobody. I guess it doesn’t really matter… we have a “soap box” to shout from and we’ll use it!
Brian Withrow, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) USAF