Bird's Eye View: Family Day is today, President's Day is Monday

  • Published
  • By Col. H. Brent Baker Sr.
  • 95th Air Base Wing commander
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The nation celebrates Presidents' Day on Monday; a day set aside to honor two of our nation's many legendary presidents -- Abraham Lincoln and our country's first president, George Washington. 

Until 1971, both Feb. 12 and Feb. 22 were observed as federal public holidays to honor the birthdays of President Lincoln and President Washington respectively, but President Richard Nixon proclaimed one single federal public holiday, the Presidents' Day, to be observed on the third Monday of February, honoring all past presidents of the United States. We have been blessed as a nation to have been led by great presidents. 

In conjunction with Monday's holiday, today is a family day. In 2006, Gen. Bruce Carlson, Air Force Materiel Command commander, reinstituted family days in recognition of the significant contributions to the protection of our nation's security by the command's military and civilian workforce and their families. 

What this means locally is a great number of our people get a much-needed and well-deserved four-day weekend. Enjoy the downtime, your family and your friends, but please keep safety in the forefront of your minds. 

Have a great and safe holiday weekend! 

Inspector General's inspection preparation continues

After the long weekend break, we're getting right back on the saddle and doing one last dress rehearsal for the upcoming Operational Readiness Inspection. We're less than two weeks away from the "big dance," and I want to practice our Phase I, Transition Day, and Phase II operations one last time. With that in mind, when we come back to work Tuesday, we're going to hold a mini-deployment exercise and "deploy" two chalks of people and equipment, as well as hold emergency management exercises throughout the workday. 

Then on Feb. 26, we're going to hold a mini-Phase II exercise at Camp Corum and exercise both our day and night shift personnel. 

The main focus of that exercise will be to continue training our Airmen with self-aid and buddy care procedures as well as unexploded ordnance hazards, detection, identification and reporting. As I've mentioned before, we are continually getting better each exercise and I hope you are excited about showcasing our warrior spirit to the IG Team! Remember, "It's our time to shine!"