The Mean Picture

It's that time of the year when I sadly put away the shorts and t-shirts of summer and drag out the flannel shirts, thermal underwear, and trusty LL Bean winter boots.

While packing away a few things last night I stumbled upon another old photo. No...this is not another 80's picture of me sporting a mullet and Miami Vice wear...quite the opposite actually.


This is a picture of me from 1994 when I was a Basic Military Training Instructor (T.I.) at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX. Many of you know about my time in the USAF as a broadcaster with Armed Forces Radio & Television in Spain and Iceland...but very few know about this particular chapter.

It's something that I'm very proud of...but seldom talk about with anyone because it's usually not relevant to the majority of conversations. However, last night...on Veterans Day...I had a lengthy conversation with my oldest son about what I did as a T.I. and what I got out of my 7 years in the Air Force.

The conversation started when Jack saw this picture and said, "Ooooh I remember that picture from when I was 3 or 4. I never liked it...I always called it your mean picture because you look like you're going to yell at someone!"

After explaining that I did yell...a lot...I also told him stories about some of the funny things that happened, how I won Airman of the Year a couple of times, and about the pride that I got from training the brightest and best that our country has to offer.

It was a great conversation. What started out as a chore to get ready for winter, turned out to be the best hour of my day.