In response to my article on Veterans Day last week, I received a note from a retired general, Brig. Gen Joe Schafer.  Joe is a professor at American Military University and an alumnus as well and he shared his thoughts about Veterans Day.  I thought that his piece not only embraced many of my thoughts about those who serve our country, but also provided a great perspective on the attitude of the professional soldier toward the change in administrations and our Commanders in Chief.  Given the orderly transition that we are currently going through after the recent election, you have to respect the way our democracy works regardless of who you voted for in the election.  With Joe’s permission, I have provided the text of his note below.

11 Nov 2008
           
It is a private matter who you or I voted for to be the President of the United States one week ago.  It is a public responsibility, however, no matter how we voted, to now offer our support and best wishes for the new President’s success in keeping this nation strong, ensuring the liberties we have fought and died for, and making the country better every single generation for the generation that follows.
 
I take great pride in having served under 7 Presidents while in uniformed service.  (I missed Lyndon Johnson by 2 months, but served under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, James Earl Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush.)  Though those 7 men were the Commander in Chief, as a member of the United States Army and the United States Air Force, I worked not for them as men, but for the American people.  My duty, my allegiance, and my sworn oath were to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.  I will do so until I draw my final breath, in uniform or not.    

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In 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps was created to assume responsibility over all matters pertaining to military aviation, and in its earliest days was a fledgling force of only eight aviation balloons, a dozen officers, and only slightly more enlisted men.  From that small yet effective force came the modern United States Air Force, established as a separate branch of the military services on September 18, 1947.

In the decade before its separation from the United States Army, the U.S. Army Air Corps as it was known proved its strength during the protracted battles of World War II.  By September 1939, the German army and air force had managed to defeat and occupy Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France.  It was in the wake of such worldwide conflict that the Air Force began to develop into one of the world’s most effective military forces.  Equipment and funding poured into the U.S. Army Air Corps as President Franklin Roosevelt began to realize that in order to defeat the determined Germans, the United States would need a superior military aviation force. 

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