COMMENTARY>>Are we giving back to the community?

By Col. Kirk Lear
314th Airlift Wing vice commander

My wife and I were reflecting this week on the Abilene Trophy, and the greater Little Rock Air Force Base community winning this prestigious award back in April. We’re on our second tour here in central Arkansas, having called Jacksonville home from 1993 to 1998, and we completely understand why the selection group chose to recognize our community as providing the best support to an Air Mobility Command base.

We see it everywhere - mayors and other civilian dignitaries at every base event (as well as frequently funding some of these events), Jacksonville’s voter-approved $5 million contribution to building the new Joint Education Center and, quite simply, surrounding towns and people who are very appreciative of their military and those of us who serve. We’re welcomed in local churches, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods and intertwined in the fabric of daily life in Jacksonville, Cabot, Sherwood, Lonoke and every other town around us. They have made a point of practicing hospitality and opening their arms to us. At every level, the Little Rock AFB communities have invested in us and our success.

My wife’s talk with me hinged on this point: how well do we Airmen, in turn, invest back into our community? Are we “giving back” to the community? Are we volunteering and serving--not just attending--in our neighborhoods and churches and schools? Are we leaving these communities “better than we found them,” as we so often aspire to do in our individual jobs in our squadrons?

A recent local editorial, for example, suggested if all those who were concerned about our public schools made a point volunteering just a few hours a month, our service would change the schools . . . and change us, as well.

It’s true to say that any community is only as good as its citizens. For those of us in the military, our legal citizenship may be in the state where we grew up, or perhaps where we last served, but our current citizenship is here in central Arkansas, whether we live on the base or in the communities that envelope it.

There are numerous opportunities where we Airmen can “plug in” and “give back” and “leave it better than we found it” - schools, service organizations, neighborhood or church leadership, and more. Our community here - the best one of a baker’s dozen in Air Mobility Command - needs us just as much as we need them.

Perhaps Herman Melville said it best, “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.”