Family of Warriors

  • Published
  • By Col. Edward W. Thomas
  • 673d Mission Support Group commander
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  As I watched on during a recent POW-MIA ceremony here I was struck by the uniqueness of our joint base community. The blustery Friday afternoon was punctuated by the roar of Harleys as Vietnam vets arrived at the ceremony carrying the U.S flag. Wreath bearers were crisp and disciplined, clad in dress uniforms representing every service and our family members stood in proud and quiet support. It was colorful and it was emblematic of who we are at JBER. It was a gathering of warriors. Even more, it was a family of warriors.

Each one of us plays a critical part in this warrior family and we all work towards the same end: projecting the awe-inspiring combat power which underpins our freedom as Americans. Our common and unambiguous purpose here is to support those combat forces you see on the range and on the flightline.

It takes the whole family to ensure 100 percent readiness of those forces--F-22s providing air supremacy at a moment's notice and the 4/25 rolling in to win the day on battlefields in faraway lands. Installation security, lodging, computer networks, child care, contracting--you name the function. All these things exist to support Arctic Warriors and their families.

As the joint base mission support group commander, I can tell you our group of 2,300 is here because of you. We protect, serve, deploy, and we'll jump through hoops or rings of fire to ensure our Airborne, airlift or other combat forces are postured for success. Some of us will deploy as combat forces. In fact almost 300 people in the joint base wing are deployed to today. Many others, including our civilian teammates, are steadfastly holding down the fort.

So what can you--soldiers, sailors, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardsman, civilian employees, retirees, and family members--expect from our part of the Arctic Warrior family?

The first thing you can expect is a mission focus. Above all we must ensure that the whole JBER team is ready to fight. We will doggedly maintain that warfighting focus as our priority, but you can expect what my wife calls a "people count" attitude at every step. From a deployer's short-notice weapons training to guaranteeing love and attention for his or her children in the child development center, we'll give you our best. And you can count on the fact that you won't just be a number. You're family.

You can also expect positive attitudes, creative solutions, and striving to make things just a bit better every day. Joint base leaders here quickly discovered that the Army on JBER-Richardson has set the standard in many areas. We'll continue to find the "best practices" and use them to raise the bar across JBER.

Unfortunately, we'll occasionally fall short of your expectations, but we'll do our best to ensure it doesn't happen often. We do need your feedback though to ensure we hit the mark for our JBER community. Please use our Interactive Customer Evaluation, or I.C.E., system, to give us your thoughts. You can find forms at any support activity or go on line at http://ice.disa.mil/.

It's good to be part of this family of warriors. We're multiple services, teamed up for success; living, working and deploying from our 80,000-plus-acre patch of majestic Alaska. We're topcover for our nation and the envy of the world's militaries, in the place Billy Mitchell called the most strategically important in the world. Play your part to the best of your ability and remember that you can always expect us to give it all we've got!