Life on the Line

There are many people in this world that will never know what it is truly like to be in the military. Sure, there are those that have family or friends that are in the military, but they really just don't know. When I first joined the United States Air Force, many years ago, the one thing that I would hear from my higher supervision was the statement: "I could write a book about my time in the Air Force." I heard that same statement for years from some Master Sergeants over and over. I have yet to see any book about their time in the Air Force, which is not a slight against them, shit happens and priorities change. I had mentioned this to a friend of mine and he told me that I should write one. I had an issue with writing my story. I thought it would be too self-serving, but to hear multiple stories from the lower ranks to the higher enlisted ranks would be something different entirely. I have to admit I was skeptical when I conducted the first interview, but as each interview was being done, I knew deep down that this was something special. Each and every one of these people has a different story to tell, my two regrets about these interviews being written is that you as the reader will not fully grasp the emotion and inflection of their words as they were being spoken. I hope that you are able to feel these words the way I felt it when I heard their words for the first time. The second regret is that while some of these interviews are longer than others, each is only a portion of that person's life and experiences. In keeping with the way each individual person spoke about certain topics the way they verbalized their thoughts has not been changed. You will see that Maintainers speak differently than most civilians do.It is my hope that this book will somehow find its way to a person that will one day be a future leader or is currently a person in a leadership position. I hope that they read these words, learn from them, and then find the way to apply them in their leadership style.