What's Important

This past week, I gave a short tour to several college ROTC cadets of various facilities here at Andrews AFB. During the tour they asked the following question: what is the most important part of your mission here at Andrews. I reflected on all the imporant aspects of what is done here at Andrews from providing first class always ready transport for the President and other important dignitaries, to proving first class trained warriors for deployments to Iraq and other places, and so on. But I have to say in my humble opinion, one of the most important missions we do here now is the reception of the wounded from Iraq. Many travel from our flight line onward to Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed, but many also spend the night here at our hospital before being flown from our airfield to hospitals nearer to home. Our medical staff are committed to providing the best possible care to these US servicemembers. What role do our chaplains play? We visit the hospital facility reaching out to those who need someone to listen to. And we have flown many of the evacuation flights from Andrews onward as these patients are dropped off. Below is a picture of one of the flights that came into Andrews posted to a public Air Force site.