My good friend Jim (thanks Jim!) sent me this essay, by an Air Force Cadet.

The premise: Why do we come back?

Now keep in mind this is a first year cadet.

Subject: Essay written by Air Force Cadet

Where would you stand?

First year cadets at the Air Force Academy are allowed

to leave the Academy without penalty up through the end of

first-year Christmas break. Those who come back are assigned

to write a paper on why they chose to return.

Here is one young cadet’s masterpiece, which has begun

to be widely publicized…

Why return to the Air Force Academy after Winter

Break?

So after our sunburns have faded and the memories of

our winter break have been reduced to pictures we’ve pinned on our desk

boards, and once again we’ve exchanged TO-shirts and swim suits for

flight suits and camouflage, there still remains the question that

every cadet at U.S.Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has asked

themselves at some point:

Why did we come back?

Why, after spending two weeks with our family would we

return to one of the most demanding lifestyles in the country?

After listening to our ‘friends’ who are home from

State or Ivy League schools chock full of wisdom about how our war in

Iraq is unjust and unworldly, why would we return?

And after watching the news and reading the papers

which only seem to condemn the military’s every mistake and shadow

every victory, why would we continue to think it is worth the sacrifice

of a normal college life?

Is it because the institution to which we belong is

tuition- free?

Anyone who claims this has forgotten that we will, by

the time we graduate, repay the US taxpayer many times

over in blood, sweat, and tears.

Is it because the schooling we are receiving is one of

the best undergraduate educations in the country?

While the quality of the education is second to none,

anyone who provides this as a main reason has lost sight of the awesome

responsibility that awaits those who are tough enough to graduate and

become commissioned officers in the U.S. Air Force.

I came back to the Academy because I want to have the

training necessary so that one day I’ll have the incredible

responsibility of leading the sons and daughters of America in combat.

These men and women will never ask about my Academy grade point average,

their only concern will be that I have the ability to lead them expertly; I will be humbled to earn their respect.

I come back to the Academy because I want to be the

commander who saves lives by negotiating with Arab leaders… in their own

language.

I come back to the Academy because, if called upon, I want to be the pilot

who flies half way around the world with three mid-air refuelings to send a bomb

from 30,000 feet into a basement housing the enemy… through a ventilation shaft

two feet wide. Becoming an officer in today’s modern Air Force is so much more

than just command; it is being a diplomat, a strategist, a communicator, a moral compass, but always a warrior first.

I come back to the Air Force Academy because, right

now, the United States is fighting a global war that is an ‘away game’ in

Iraq - taking the fight to the terrorists.

Whether or not we think the terrorists were in Iraq

before our invasion, they are unquestionably there now. And if

there is any doubt as to whether this is a global war, just ask the people in

Amman, in London, in Madrid, in Casablanca, in Riyadh, and in Bali.

This war must remain an away game because we have seen

what happens when it becomes a home game… I come back to the

Academy because I want to be a part of that fight.

I come back to the Academy because I don’t want my

vacationing family to board a bus in Paris that gets blown away by

someone who thinks that it would be a good idea to convert the Western

world to Islam.

I come back to the Academy because I don’t want the

woman I love to be the one who dials her last frantic cell phone call

while huddled in the back of an airliner with a hundred other people

seconds away from slamming into the Capitol building.

I come back to the Academy because during my freshman

year of high school I sat in a geometry class and watched nineteen

terrorists change the course of history live on TV. For the first time,

every class currently at a U.S. Service Academy made the decision to

join after the 2001 terror attacks.

Some have said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq and

Afghanistan only created more terrorists… I say that the attacks of

September 11th, 2001 created an untold more number of American soldiers;

I go to school with 4,000 of them. And that’s worth more than missing a few frat parties.

Joseph R. Tomczak, Cadet, Fourth Class, United States

Air Force Academy

Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) had Cadet Tomczak’s essay

read into the Congressional Record, and at a meeting of the Air

Force Academy Board of Visitors he presented Cadet. Tomczak with a framed

copy of the essay.

You know what? Whenever you feel like our country is goin’ to hell read this essay.

Whenever you feel like there’s no hope for our America…read this.

Whenever you suffer from political fatigue (like I do) read this.

Whenever tou bemoan (like I do) the rotten choice we have in Presidential candidates, read this essay!

‘Cause I tell you what: As long as we have men and women like this in our United States of America, there WILL ALWAYS BE HOPE!

As long as we got the highest quality of Men n’ women in the world, YOU DON’T HAFTA FRET!

Come hell or highwater, and I’ve seen a bit of both, I can rest easy at night, ’cause I know…I gno! Rough men n’ women of valor are fightin’ to keep the flame of Liberty lit!

Oh sure, we are gonna run into some rough patches. Won’t be the first time, and it damn well won’t be the last.

However, as long as this country keeps producin’ men n’ women of Honor….such as Joseph R. Tomczak…then Hope will never die.

Our God is our Hope, but men n’ women like Joseph embody that Hope in the flesh!

Think of them as God’s boots on the ground, sea n’ air. They make it happen!

Without them, Hope is only spiritual.

Personally, I’m more thankfull than I can ever express for havin’ Hope in the Spirit AND in the flesh!!!

Are we in for some tryin’ times? Hell yeah! But men n’ women Like Joseph are up to the task! And so are we if we’re willin’ to fight!

In a few years I look foreward to salutin’ Joseph as an Air Force Officer!

Okay, I can’t wait…I’m salutin’ him now!!!