We've Got Your Back

I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of people who volunteer to wear a uniform, DOD. And I've learned so much about that culture. Most of us have colleagues and coworkers and they have brothers and sisters. It's a real and different connection. And because the stakes are so much It doesn't mean they necessarily It's always been t I had the chance to go to Afghanistan as a guest of the Air Force. They wanted me to go there and see them perform their mission and then come back. And the deal was to go back to headquarters and to simply report what I had seen, to share my insights if there was anyt Now everyt Ten minutes after we landed in Bagram, the base came on a rocket attack. The plane that I was supposed to fly home on, we ended up not being able to fly home on and we thought were going to get stuck in Afghanistan. And the plane that I did eventually fly home on was not a plane were scheduled to fly home on and we would bring home a flag drape casket. Just me and my two escorts were the only three passengers aboard t We brought T It had a profound impact on me. But it was when I got back home, I still had to fulfill my responsibility and go back and report on what I had seen and what I had learned. I went out to the Air Force base and all the brass from Mobility Command was there, all general officers. And I told what I had learned and I shared what I had seen and I got to the point where I was going to tell the story of that last flight home and I choked up. And I wasn't sure I could make it through the story and I started and there was no way. If I had kept talking, I would have lost it and I just stood there completely choked up. Now, if t Somebody would have said, take your time. But that's not what was said. As I stood there, not being able to speak, one lone voice spoke up and he said, go on. The underlying message was, you're safe. The underlying message was, we got your back. You're okay. In the private sector, we actually encouraged people to hold back and he was telling me move forwards. And it reminded me of my friend, Johnny Quest, who said, t You have to do the underlying message was, I will be there with you and I will be there for you.