Base mission vital to national defense

  • Published
  • By G.A. Volb
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Hill Air Force Base, Utah --  In August 2005, I sat in a one-bedroom apartment across from the state prison sweating profusely, courtesy of Pennsylvania's heat and humidity, mulling over several job offers.

I remember thinking at the time that, as bad as things were, it was nice to know I wasn't living, say, in the building opposite mine - though I'm sure accommodations where quite nice.

I did my best to research the job offers I had in hopes the scenery would change soon. There was a big-name contractor on the east coast willing to pay very good money to bring me on board; there was an Army civil service position in Korea and two other Air Force offers stateside.

The east coast gig got the thumb down, due to high-humidity and the instability of joining the contractor ranks. Korea was axed because I already had my Soju experience in the late 80s, and Oklahoma just didn't have access to the "great outdoors" that joining the Hill Air Force Base team did.

Oh, and there was one last thing that enticed me to join the Air Logistics Center. As cheesy as this is going to sound coming from a 21-year public affairs veteran, it was the mission: it's diverse, global in nature, has direct impact on our troops in the air and on the ground, and we're way ahead of the ball game when it comes to Smart Ops 21 (better known as Lean in years past).

In the end, the choice was actually quite simple for me. There was just too much being offered at Hill AFB both personally and professionally, to pass up even though I couldn't remember any time in the past two-plus decades of military service that I, even for a nanosecond, thought about putting in for an assignment here.

In fact, like active-duty tours in Turkey, Honduras and at least one stateside assignment, I took a lot of grief from deciding to move here. But I've come to realize it might be one of those bases getting a bum-rap by those who've never lived or worked here.

I'm going on my second year here now, the honeymoon's well over so-to-speak, and I still don't see why anyone wouldn't want to be a member of this dynamic mission. Hill AFB, as it turns out, is smack dab in the middle of the 21st Century war-fighting business: improving processes, saving taxpayer dollars and turning better quality resources back over to troops in the field quicker.

Quite simply, it's a mission our national defense goals can't be achieved without and troops on the front lines depend on.