Holiday Greetings

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RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Happy Holidays Team Mildenhall ... my family and I want to wish you a great holiday season. I also want to take a moment of your time to once again say thanks. 

This past year Team Mildenhall, active duty, Defense Department and Ministry of Defence civilians, have yet again done great things. From supporting real world operations across three combatant commands to supporting NATO exercises to executing Joint Chiefs of Staff priority missions to deploying throughout the year, we have done phenomenally well at our "everyday job." 

When you are completing this "everyday job," you may not realize that all your individual and unit actions enable global operations and ensure we continue to be the best Air Force in the world. Just recently, in the space of seven days, Team Mildenhall enabled a rescue at sea and then supported another Presidential mission and stop at our base. Your dedication and expertise made sure we were ready to do both flawlessly. 

And your mission contributions do not go unnoticed. Our deployed warriors constantly receive praise from their downrange commanders, and our Airmen and civilians holding down the fort here at RAF Mildenhall continue to garner high praise from our major command leaders. 

Add to these mission successes your constant commitment to our base and local community. Because of Team Mildenhall dedication, we supported numerous high visibility events this past year. These included our Honorary Commanders Induction Ceremony, American Air Day at Duxford, the Joint Civilian Orientation Course, and an Air Force Ball with the U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander as our guest speaker, Joan Mann Special Sports Day, and the Ely Thanksgiving Service just to name a few. 

However, many of your contributions - while smaller in scope - are just as successful. They include building church playgrounds, helping needy families, participating in neighborhood cleanups, orchestrating special needs lunches and functions, and just generally providing your valuable time to our community. 

As always, our families are the bedrock that allows us to achieve these successes. They volunteer their time to our base and community while simultaneously managing "everyday life" through numerous deployments, temporary duty assignments and long hours. They are critical mission enablers! 

As you celebrate and reflect this holiday season, please know that it has been a real honor to serve with you this past year. I can't wait to see all that Team Mildenhall will accomplish in 2009!