Go Where Your Eyes Take You Published June 11, 2007 By Jason Gerson Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., -- My grandmother, Helen Reiber, was a teenager when she sat in the piercing cold in the Polish countryside. News had just arrived about the Holocaust's arrival in her small village. Her tears turned to pebbles of ice when her mother told her to run as quickly as possible from anything she's ever known. When my grandmother asked how she would have the strength and knowledge to flee, her mother put a gold coin in her hand and said, "Go where your eyes take you." For one of her children, his eyes took him to the United States Military. There, he honorably served us in fighting in the Vietnam War. Today he still tells stories about his tenure as cook at an American military cafeteria in Vietnam. I would ask him to repeat stories he had about courageous missions like Operation Baby Lift during which the United States Air Force rescued thousands of refugees. When I finally started high school, my uncle told me a story he had never told before. I learned that his close friend piloting a plane (before the United States Air Force was its own branch) during World War II had been shot down and became a prisoner of war. My uncle described the enthusiasm that his friend felt in knowing that he could serve his country another day. However, as he walked back towards an American base, he saw seas of protruding rib cages and-emaciated children in a stampede that for most ended in death. With the sober story complete, my uncle leaned in and said, "My friend since that day never lost sight of the noble causes of the United States and its Air Force again." The Air Force's actions have hinged upon three morals: integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all the Air Force does. From Hazel Ying Lee, the Air Force's first Chinese-American pilot who sacrificed her life serving her country, to Major General Lorrain Potter, the first woman to serve the Air Force as Chaplain Service Chief, the Air Force is an institution that promotes endless opportunities for those within its ranks but never forgets its priority to be the premier aerial warfare branch. After hearing more of my uncle's captivating stories, I decided that I had to learn everything I could about an honorable institution like the Air Force that has protected Americans for so many years. I dug through documentaries detailing the Air Force's creation as a branch in 1947. I scaled over dozens of first-hand accounts detailing the thirteen conflicts in which the United States Air Force has been involved, and I realized then that the United States Air Force was vested with the same moral with which my grandmother had been vested. Decades after its creation, the Air Force proves to be a display of the greatest militaristic and technological advancements with unprecedented innovation. However, the United States Air Force, holding onto the golden nation it serves, has always had its eyes on one thing: the protection of liberty and the American people. Through unprecedented courage and technological utilization, it soars towards its goals and ensures that freedom and the American way will never be threatened.
