"...do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism..."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Maxwell AFB, April 21, 2008

"You will need to challenge conventional wisdom and call things like you see them to subordinates and superiors alike."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, United States Air Force Academy, March 4, 2011

Friday, July 15, 2016

Ryno's Retirement & the Decomissioning of the PYB Blog


Yesterday was my retirement ceremony.  It was a small gathering.  This was fitting both because of the location, where fewer special operations forces provide superior quality effects, and also because my service has never been conventional or popular.

It was a special occasion attended by special people.  I was honored to have the best commander I have known give the invocation, an outstanding NCO who understands the meaning of public service narrate the proceedings, and the small audience included people I look up to for their defense of this nation.  It was necessarily a small yet elite group of public servants.

It was officiated by my wife who started her career protecting me and my crew in a time of war as our intelligence officer, and who has continued to help keep me survivable against the many threat rings from domestic enemies as well.  We have gone to war together both figuratively and literally and there is no other officer more worthy to stand by my side as my career was concluded.

There is no reason to recite her comments or my own in this final blog post.  The posts here have done that for years.

This blog began years ago at the request of the Air Force inviting airmen to be its voice in the blogosphere.  As my service has now concluded, so also has this blog.

May God bless and restore the United States of America.

https://www.scribd.com/document/318368355/Rynearson-Retirement-Program


4 comments:

  1. What a ride, glad you don't like the Air Force either! You got to do what you wanted to do. Closure + standing up for what you believe in + a pension, what more could anyone ask for!

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  2. The Air Force is a necessary tool. What I don't like is that the tool has become rusty and will break if ever really used. It will break because there is a moral cancer that has decimated its ranks and that disease is not limited to the air service or even to the defense business. It's a massive problem that has made the term "public service" and the phrase "professional" nothing more than words.

    I got to do what I promised Americans I would do. I did not do what I wanted to do (except fly airplanes, which was a small part of my job).

    I did not stand up for what I believe in. I stood up for what the American people paid me to stand up for regardless of what I personally believed in.

    Public service is not a matter of our own morality or what we believe in. Professionalism is more than doing what we might want to do. It isn't Burger King, we are not paid by 300 million Americans to have it our way.

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  3. Does your father know Dennis Bigelow? If so, they enlisted together in 1961. My father, Dennis, would like to connect with him.
    Contact me at Bleuhawk22@aol.com.

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  4. I have passed the info on to my old man.

    ReplyDelete