The American dream: Something to be thankful for

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Joe Granducci
  • 325th Training Support Squadron assistant director of operations
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. It's a no nonsense, straightforward holiday set aside for family and considering the things we are most grateful for. This Thanksgiving I was reminded of what I have to be thankful for in a great way. My sister and her husband visited us from Utah, and we spent a wonderful week together. The little cousins got reacquainted and the adults had a superb visit.

It was a welcome break from the day-to-day grind and I found myself thinking about family and what it meant to me.

In the Air Force, we constantly talk about taking care of family and telling each other how important family is. I sometimes worry it borders on becoming a platitude, an empty phrase that means less than it should. Fortunately, the holiday season can help us readjust that picture and remind of us of just how essential family is. Not with words, but with actions and memories.

My brother-in-law, Tim "Fuzzy" Hall, is a professional BMX rider. He has competed in the X-Games, the Dew Tour and numerous other extreme sporting events. He has made a living doing exciting and larger than life things. I have often considered him and his fellow athlete friends as being very similar to the young men and women I have met in the Air Force throughout my nearly twenty-three years o f service. They all have a lust for life, a drive for excellence and eye for perfection. These are the kinds of young men and women we need in the Air Force. They are the kids that get off the couch and DO something. You cannot teach that, it's just who they are, and we need them. This realization gave me an idea.

One thing I wanted to do was show my sister and her family what it was I did in the Air Force and to expose them to some of the people here at Tyndall. So I brought them out to the base for a day and gave them a tour. We visited the squadron, walked out to the ramp and checked out a T-38 Talon. We also went to watch the enlisted promotion ceremony at the Horizons Community Center. I was helping to tack on a new Master Sergeant, and thought it might be interesting for them to witness the ceremony. They have not been exposed to many military ceremonies, so it was a perfect time to do so. We in the Air Force may not think much of it, but my sister and brother in law were impressed by the pride, the discipline, and in my brother-in-law's words, the "respect" shown in the event. With just that simple exposure my sister's family will take their experience and help us get the word out about the Air Force family.

As our visit progressed, I continued to consider what it is I'm thankful for. My sister's stay helped me put some of those thoughts into perspective and focus. I am thankful for a country where a man can make a living riding a BMX bike. Think about that, I am not being trite or flippant with that statement. If you boil down what America means, the land of opportunity, then you can certainly appreciate that my brother-in-law pursued a dream. He worked hard enough at it, and grabbed a piece of that dream for his own. I am also thankful for a country where men and women volunteer to serve in the military. They are some of the guarantors of the American Dream. We are volunteers, every last one of us. We are the kinds of people who get off the couch and DO something. One day when our tour is up, whether it's four or thirty years, we will join our fellow Americans as civilians and chase the dream with them. It takes all of us to make the dream happen. Without those who protect, the dream is in danger. Without those who pursue the dream, the protection is without a real purpose.

You may think a kid who wanted to ride BMX professionally and a kid who wanted to fly fighters are unrelated. But in fact, we are, by marriage, by drive by dreams, and by our country. We are both thankful for being Americans, thankful for living in the land of opportunity and most importantly in this holiday season, for our family. Take a few moments in these holiday months and consider what you are thankful for, it might surprise you.