Why We Fight
While corresponding with a friend who may be called up, she expressed some concerns about how her family and employer will view her callup. Then she expressed the meta-concern, about how we will regard her now that she expressed those concerns. In trying to put her meta-concerns to rest, I finally summarized something I've been trying to articulate for, umm, 9 months. Here goes:

I signed up to go in case the world is in really bad shape. I'd rather not go, even if the world is in bad shape, because I've got a lot at stake with my regular life. The main reason I signed on with the Guard is to make sure that I, and everybody else, can have such a good, prosperous regular life. I'd rather not go unless that prosperous regular life is threatened by an external enemy. But I'm leaving the determination of that threat up to you, Uncle Sam, and if you say "go," I'll go.

I expect the same hazards, hardships, rights, responsibilities, and privileges as career AF members, and I'll meet and handle them the way career AF are expected to do. And I don't want to be released from this responsibility, or parked somewhere in the rear awaiting further instructions, until that threat is dealt with conclusively. I don't want to have to come back here months or years from now because the job was left undone.

I've earned the right to say this, by virtue of having taken the oath and having offered myself, my talents, and my hardship, and Uncle Sam having accepted them, for the last 21 years.

Thanks, Luci. You teased it out of me.