Friendship is important part of service, life Published July 15, 2008 By Airman 1st Class Wesley Carter 30th Space Wing Public Affairs VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Serving in the Air Force has a plethora of benefits that people can use to increase their quality of life; however, things can still be rough. The hardest part would have to be being away from the friends and family you grew up around. As a single Airmen living in the dorms, holidays can get kind of lonely. That's why it is important to develop friendships on base to keep your spirits up when those home-sick moments occur. One of my toughest moments came during technical school in Fort Meade, Md. I arrived there Nov. 6 and during my in-processing the dentist told me I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out in a hurry. The receptionist kindly scheduled the appointment the day before Thanksgiving. This was going to be the first major holiday that I had spent away from my family in my life, and I was going to spend it without being able to eat anything but turkey broth. I remembered very little directly after the surgery, but I do remember an Airman from the detachment picking me up in her car from the clinic and taking me back to the barracks, making fun of the way I talked the whole time(Something that my friends back home would have done). For the next three days I couldn't eat, and one Airman that lived across from me, took it upon himself to go to the store and buy me soup and other things that would help me out in my time of need. He and I become good friends throughout technical school. He would often tell me about his wife that was back home, and how much he missed her. We would often engage in political debates that could last for hours. Being new to the Air Force, and separated from my family for the first time, his friendship was helping me adjust. In the Air Force a good friend is difficult to find, but even more difficult to keep. As Airmen PCS, deploy, separate, friendships become more distant. Airman Carroll didn't PCS, deploy or separate, he was killed in a car accident on his way to his first duty station. It was the first time a friend of mine had been killed, and I felt helpless. I was later asked to speak at his memorial service. It was there I was able to tell others about the friendship I had, and what it meant to me. Even though friendship can be difficult at times, it doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Friendship is important. They are the only people that we tell our secrets to. They are the people we seek out to complain about our "significant other." They are also the people who make fun of us. In a weird way we depend on them to keep us going when times get hard, and to keep us humble when times are good. It is important that we surround ourselves with people who can be objective and caring with they need to be, and subjective and brutal when we need that, too.