Air Force Academy Cadet Says It So Well!

I received this as I am sure many of you did. In case you did not, I invite you to copy this, print it out and keep it handy. Whenever your sense of pride in our country or support for our troops seems to be running a little low, read this:

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 came back were 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 T-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 come 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 television. 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 "

(U.S. Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) 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.)