A wish for the holidays

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. -- As a kid, the holidays were special to me. The combination of school-free days, presents, sports on TV and visiting family made for memorable times. As a young Airman, fresh from tech school, I remember coming home at the age of 19 and buying presents for my three younger brothers and younger sister for the first time with my own money.

The excitement in the morning when they opened the presents made the money I'd spent seem insignificant and made that half night I'd stayed up putting together bicycles and big wheels worth every minute of lost sleep.

Those times are both precious and becoming harder to find. I urge Team March members to take the time this season to share in fellowship with family and neighbors; to rekindle that holiday spirit and reset your soul.

Here are a few suggestions:

- Watch Rudolph and the Grinch with the youngest member of your extended family.

- If you have a teen or pre-teen in your life, let them teach you to play at least one video game (Wii golf rocks).

- Set some time aside for that other adult in your life and really communicate (yes, I know how hard that can be -- do it anyway).

- Get out there and throw the football around with your co-workers (and try not to create a line of duty mishap while you're at it).

My holiday wish is for us to "be excellent to each other" this holiday season and in the coming year.

March Air Reserve Base hosts an amazing number of quality individuals and wonderful functional teams. Don't let personal rifts sour your work place. Take some time to evaluate your own approach to relationships with your co-workers and supervisor. We should all be truly working for the common good of the team. The bottom line is that I want each and every person at March to look forward to coming to work each day.

As reservists, you are the sharp sword of freedom. You work with little complaint, in dangerous skies and on hostile lands. You voluntarily put your lives at risk and sacrifice your comfort and the comfort of your families so that our fellow citizens can enjoy the blessings and the benefits of liberty. It's a sacrifice made even more precious by the fact that you render it so willingly.

In describing the citizen soldiers of an earlier era, historian Stephen Ambrose wrote, "At the core, they knew the difference between right and wrong and were unwilling to live in a world in which evil triumphed. So they fought and they won, and we and those yet to be born are eternally grateful."

Like those heroes of that earlier era, you, too, have decided to make a stand. I salute your courage. I appreciate your sacrifice and I am confident in our success.