COMMENTARY >> Memories are us

By Lt. Col. Jeff Collins
314th Services Squadron commander


Every Saturday, for two months, my three-year-old son Henry asked, “Are we going to look for eggs today, Daddy?” That followed the Easter Egg Hunt. Now he’s switched to asking, “Are we going to go fishing?” You guessed it; that followed the Trout Fishing Derby.

In between, we had bouts of “Are we going to play baseball?” every night; SmartStart baseball was Wednesday evenings in May. And, “Are we going to go see them play dress up?” after we attended the Youth Center fashion show.

I share this, because I hope you’re also doing stuff with your friends and family to build memories. I don’t exactly know what my son and daughter will remember a year or ten years from now about Little Rock AFB, but I hope it’s of us having fun together.

My squadron, 314th Services Squadron, is charged to provide opportunities for togetherness and memory-building...and not just for kids.

Every week, we fill the center pages of this newspaper with a list of possibilities. Some events are aimed at everyone, like the ice cream social and fireworks on Fourth of July. Others are aimed at specific groups, like the heritage meals for Airmen at the Razorback Cafe and Bingo and Hip Hop Nights at the club.

All of our activities have this vision in common: the facility will be as clean as we can make it, the Airmen and employees will be as friendly as they can be and the program we’re putting on will be valuable--more than worth the price of admission.
Daily, we paint with a broad brush to use our resources to meet the needs of many groups: Your children should be happy to see their caregivers. Your lunch should be fresh and appealing.

Your locker room and fitness equipment should be clean and sanitary. Your kids’ field trip should be safe and fun. Your lodging room should be clean with fresh linen.

Your rented camping gear should be clean and serviceable. The honors we perform at an Airman’s funeral should be perfect for the family.

The fireworks show we provide should make the crowd go “Oooh... Ahh!” and your son’s baseball lesson should lead him to ask to go again and again and again.

What you make of the programs we offer is really up to you. But it’s summertime; if you’re not building memories in our programs, do build them somewhere. You don’t want to confuse having a career with having a life.