When my wife's nephew graduated Airman Basic we drove down to attend and spend some time with his parents. To show my support and honor his efforts I wore my Class A uniform to the ceremony. I was a SSG/E-6 at the time and the poor Airmen had never seen anything like it I reckon. I had at least two dozen Airmen pop to attention and salute when I would walk by and probably as many being indecisive with arms moving partway up and down as they tried to figure out what I was.

When I was in Iraq I had a chance to call home and called the nephew at work. The Airman that answered the phone heard "this is SFC Speight with the Army calling from Baghdad, I need to speak to Sr Airman Cox, is he in?" I heard him yell across the office that some Army guy was calling from Iraq get on the phone now. He sounded like he was at attention when he got on the phone then got relaxed when he heard my voice. He said they were amazed that he was all relaxed and joking with someone in Iraq so he finally told them I was his uncle.

As for taking care of Soldiers, that is my day to day job. I fussed at a WO for sending out a mass e-mail accusing one of my Soldiers of not being where they were supposed to be. The Soldier was in the proper place and since the Chief had sent the e-mail all over I hit reply all when I fussed. The only response I got was the 1SG commending me for sticking up for my Soldier.

YMOS,
Tony