<p>Think about how many people, including many of those self anointed political savants we normally refer to as actors/entertainers threatened to move to Canada after Bush won…it’s all just background noise. </p>
<p>You need to take a longer view; in any given year with changes in administration the pendulum may swing to the right and then back to the left. (if we are lucky it actually spends a little time in the middle)</p>
<p>I pinned my bars on in ’79. When I started the process in ’75 the Air Force was looking for engineers which worked for me, could care less about bringing any new pilots in, the post Vietnam RIF was in full swing. Unfortunately the pendulum didn’t swing to the middle, so between ’75 and ’79 they lost so many pilots with voluntary and “involuntary” separations the situation flipped around to the point they were begging us to switch….stuck us in a T-38 and said “sign here”. </p>
<p>Some of these comments reminded about a brief I sat in on about the B-1 front a very disgusted program officer; a full Colonel that couldn’t restrain himself. President Carter had just canceled the program so this guy wasn’t a happy camper and he did nothing to contain his disgust, some might have characterized it as contempt for his new Commander and Chief. While we understood and appreciated his position; the years he spent on a program that he obviously felt very strongly about, many of us in the audience felt his conduct crossed the line. He had a right, maybe even an obligation to express his concerns and to say some of the things he did. The problem was he made it about the Commander and Chief and did it in public while in uniform as a representative of the United States Air Force. You can’t and shouldn’t go there. You cannot expect to gain respect if you do not act to earn it. </p>
<p>Our place in the world and the importance of what we do hasn’t changed overnight, nor do I expect it to. As an officer as in life there will always be challenges and even adversity to over come, the one constant in your life as a citizen and as an officer is that document already referenced; our Constitution</p>