Basic High grad keeps them flying

Dick Benoit

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003 | 8:58 a.m.

Navy Airman Jasmine Miller, daughter of Melissa Towbin of Las Vegas, is one of those sailors who makes sure the Navy can carry out its mission.

Miller is an aviation electrician's mate who works on the anti-submarine fixed wing S-3B Viking for the Sea Control Squadron (VS-29) "Dragonfires." Just like any other sailor, she has a very important job. In her own words, her mission is "keeping them flying. We can't do our job if the planes don't fly."

Since the war began, the tempo of Miller's job has increased. "We launched a lot more frequently," she said. "There are birds constantly being launched and recovered on the flight deck."

Part of Miller's Navy experience has been visiting ports of call in foreign countries. Almost everybody who pulls into a foreign port learns a little something about different cultures.

"I never knew anything about the Middle Eastern culture. I see now that everyone is just out trying to get by and survive, just like Americans," said the 2000 graduate of Basic High School in Henderson.

Miller is enjoying the adventure of Navy life, but also misses home.

"I like meeting new people on the ship and knowing that when I go home I'll have done something that most people back home can't even imagine. I mostly miss the freedom of being at home. Days off are a distant memory here," Miller said.

Parents receive pins

An Air Force's grass-roots outreach recognition program has touched the lives of more than 200,000 parents of airmen, a Pentagon official has announced.

The program began in 2002 as a way for Air Force leaders to personally recognize the employers of reservists and guardsmen who were called to active duty to support operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom.

Employers who were nominated by their airmen employees received lapel pins emblazoned with the Air Force logo and the letter "E," and a personal letter signed by the Air Force's senior leaders.

The recognition program expanded in May to include parents. Nominated parents received a letter and lapel pin with the letter "P." All active-duty, Air National Guard and Reserve airmen may participate in the program, officials said.

Since then about 110,000 of the nearly 590,000 uniformed airmen have nominated their parents for recognition, according to Brig. Gen. Ed Tonini, program director.

"That's a huge number," he said. "We've gotten an exceptional reaction to the program from the individual airmen and incredibly emotional responses from their parents when they've received their letters and pins."

A team of six people works the program, managing the technology and "customer service" liaison between the airmen who request pins and the parents who receive them -- as well as the thousands of letters and pins sent to employers.

The program will soon inform family members and employers during times of military deployment, Tonini said. "The program will be tied to deployment schedules," he said. "When people are scheduled to deploy, we will press very hard to make sure they have the communications and outreach support they need in order to be successful."

Airmen may request up to two parent pins and letters to be send to either their parents or people they view as parental figures, Tonini said.

In brief