From the Commander Published Feb. 24, 2010 By Lieutenant Colonel Alan C. Sierichs The USAF Band BOLLING AFB, D.C. - ... to journeys -- Last month The USAF Band held a ceremony for a Chief Master Sergeant who was retiring from the Air Force after completing 30 years of service. Over the years, I've presided over many ceremonies just like that one and my thoughts on those days are never far from three things: what an impact this person has made, how quickly the time has passed and the journey a life in service takes us on. When this Chief joined the Air Force, Jimmy Carter was President and the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York happened while he was at Basic Training. Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? It's absolutely impossible to comprehend at the time, but for all of us who've been to Basic Training, the countdown clock on our military careers started that first day when we got off the bus at the training center--but our time in the service has a finite end to it, just like the sand in an hourglass running out. Think of a few of the things that happened during the time this Chief was on active duty: our Presidents were Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; we've been in the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan; we lived through the horrible day of Sept 11th; the world watched the fall of the Berlin Wall; our lives were forever changed by the PC, Microsoft, Apple and social media; we saw further into the grandeur of space through the lens of the Hubble telescope and we grieved for Challenger and Columbia. And what was the Chief doing through all of that? Plugging away--everyday--serving. Event by event, reaching out person by person, city by city and even country by country--telling the story of the Air Force, embodying the core values, fostering patriotism and making people feel good about themselves and the country. What a journey it was. So we gathered that day to celebrate the Chief's service to our country. And it made me remember my own journey paralleled the Chief's because I joined the Air Force not too long after he did. In the past few issues of Cadenza you've read that members of The Air Force Band are deployed to Southwest Asia. They too are on a journey unlike anything they've ever experienced before and in future issues of Cadenza I expect we'll get a firsthand account from them. But the reports coming back to me have been truly inspiring--they've been touching people, making friends, changing perceptions and making a difference. I couldn't be prouder of all of them. I hear from the band's Career Field Advisor in the Pentagon that right now there are three new enlistees who will join an Air Force band when they graduate from Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base. Those three are just now starting on their own journey. And we have a number of new officers who've joined Air Force bands during this past year--I already see great leadership from them and the future looks bright for Air Force bands when they take the helm. So when you look back at how the world changed during the 30 years of our retiring Chief, it's almost beyond comprehension what these new Airmen might see if any of them serve for the next 30 years. Well, the journey continues for The Air Force Band, so ... I'd better be "off to the note factory!"