Attending Commander's Call

I interviewed the commander of my husband's squadron on Thursday for my volunteer stint at the base newspaper. I'm slightly overwhelmed with article ideas and also feeling a bit overloaded from information. There's so much about the military and about the Air Force that I need to learn. Every other word is an acronym. EPR, OCI, CE, BDU, OSI, PT, DOD. I feel like part of the club when I know the meanings of some, but most of the time I just feel horribly lost. Thank goodness for the Internet.

Yesterday the commander held a Commander's Call and she told me I could attend and possibly use some of the information for my article. When I walked in, I didn't really know what to expect. I was the only civilian as far as I could see and I stuck out like a sore thumb in my pink sweater, carrying my Brighton bag and a notepad.

Before the commander took the stage, I was reminded of a high school assembly, or what I would imagine a high school assembly to be like. Everyone talked and whispered and joked around, read their books and nodded their heads as they violently jerked in and out of sleep. When the first sergeant sounded his, "Ten hut!" I was abruptly reminded where I was. The whole group of uniformed airmen stood at attention with a snap that echoed throughout the room. The commander entered the room and everyone, including the commander, remained at attention. The commander smiled and gave me a small wave when she saw me sitting in the second row beside my husband. A man began reading from behind the podium, quickly and without flowery decorations added to his speech. I barely got the jist of what he said. Acronyms and technical speech made it hard to follow, but I was able to deduce that a few airmen were being awarded and I sort of figured out what the awards were for. As he said, "Airman so-and-so performed his duty..." the commander and the airman being awarded snapped towards each other. The commander pinned on a ribbon, handed him a plaque and they both posed for a picture, then saluted.

The commander spoke for a few minutes, then a staff sergeant gave a holiday safety briefing, which was followed by a drinking and driving briefing given by an airman who's career and personal life had been wrecked by getting a DUI. Then the shirt - the First Sergeant - got up and told everyone about the importance of coming to him if they had any issues or problems. "I fix problems. That's what I do," he said. "Now I've got a video for you." A video popped up on the projector of two old men having a knock-down, drag-out fight. "Now you make sure you call me if you have issues of domestic abuse so something like this doesn't happen." While he was serious, the video was hilarious and the crowd erupted in laughter. "Just last week five squad cars had to show up at a house here on base. You need to come and talk to me before that happens. Isn't that right, Sergeant So-and-so," he said, pointing to the man who had recently needed police intervention for a domestic abuse at his house. I thought it was kind of funny that he had made an example of the man, but I'm pretty sure the offender didn't feel think it was very funny. I'm looking forward to interviewing the First Sergeant. It should be interesting.

Announcements of upcoming events were given, then the commander made a point to thank the two civilians for attending - her husband and myself - and told everyone that I was volunteering for the base newspaper and they would probably see me around the squadron. The airmen rose again for the recitation of The Airman's Creed and the Commander's Call was adjourned.

It was an interesting experience. It was different, yet still very much like a high school assembly, but with more saluting.