Our world

In the last few days, our military community and even smaller, within our aviation family has suffered a great loss.  When the news broke of a downed helicopter in Afghanistan… it was a quick blip and the it jumped to the next news story.  In that quick blip, our aviation world stopped.  Families anxiously sat at home waiting to see if they would hear that dreaded knock and they watched their phones to see if that weird unfamiliar number would pop up.

The rest of the world continued turning.  Those that were around these families have told them to go do something or to try to keep busy.  Even sometimes those closest to us don't understand.  They haven't been in our shoes, they haven't waited.

In the military, those service members aren't just co-workers, they become a part of each other's lives.  They are there with each other in the worst conditions and help each other get through the hardest times.  When they are home for the holidays, they open up their home to those other service members who may not be going home.  They support each other and have each other's backs.

On the other side of the world, their spouses do the same thing.  They become close friends in a much shorter time than you would see in the civilian world.  They share their most intimate moments of weakness and reach out just when it is needed.  They help make sense of the often less than understandable military and open their arms when their world is shattered.

Most are oblivious to the world that takes place within a military community.  It's a world that is often misunderstood, a sacrifice that is often forgotten, a weight that sometimes seems unmanageable to carry, but in the military this is the daily life.  What makes the difference is our soldiers and those they serve beside, on the home front it is the families and those that wait with them.

As our world has faced a horrible tragedy, we will mourn the loss of these precious lives, we will support those whose world were shattered and we will always remember that although this world can be difficult, we are not in it alone.