A nice day - and a story for you.

Nothing too exciting to report today (no mail) - other than I'm fine! Which is why I know many of you are following this blog - and for that I thank you dearly.

There is an interesting story I will tell you that happened over that past several days. I established the DobbinsTop3.com website several years ago. When I did, I had a little extra time and I made and EPR (Enlisted Performance Report) page to help all supervisors write better reports on their Airmen. I covered the page with many EPR bullets that either I had written or used on various EPR reports over the years. I did little QC (quality control) even though that is now my civilian specialty! (that's ironic).

Anyway - I recently received an email from a TSgt (I didn't know who he/she was at the time) stating that he/she looked at my page and didn't like my bullets. So - I was a little ticked - and I wrote back and basically told him/her not to complain unless you offer a solution (better bullets or how to fix the ones that are there). I did a quick review of the bullets and did find a few minor errors, but for the most part - I still think they are pretty good! :-)

So - this started an email/IM conversation and he/she told me he/she just graduated NCOA (Non-Commissioned Officer Academy) - I've been to many of these NCOA graduations and I am intimately familiar with the "attitudes and feelings" of the graduates - it's like they (the AF) make it easy for you to get the same feeling you had when you signed up for basic training - (which so many of us military types have forgotten). He/She mentioned he/she was motivated and felt challenged - which I immediately turned into an opportunity to mentor this TSgt whom I didn't even know. I then challenged him/her to "keep" that mindset with them for the rest of their career and I told him/her he and the Airmen he/she meets will be better off for it. To which he/she accepted! :-)

There were a few other exchanges of information - but this was the heart of the story. So from this far away land, here I sit telling you how much I miss my family & friends - I sure missed them on this passed holiday because there are a couple traditions that have been broken, but I'm still thinking what a great country this is and what a great Air Force we have - and I just HAD to take the opportunity to make it just a little bit better - one Airmen at a time. If TSgt Weston just happens to read this (and it wouldn't surprise me), then he/she should understand and learn this is what it takes - our job is never done. It will slow down when I retire - which after this deployment, I will have some REAL thinking to do about how much longer I will partake in this endeavour. I'm sure my civilian BOSS would welcome the retirement idea - then I could focus more on helping SITA (more). Maybe not - he's very supportive of what I'm doing - and so are all of you.

Thanks again for reading...

Mark.