Just over ten years ago a 20 year old girl, with nothing much else going on in her life, took an oath to serve and protect America. But in the back of her head, she is thinking, "Cool, I get to train in Denver, CO and go skiing every weekend", with little thought to what she would be training for, loading bombs on the F-16 fighter jet.
Sure it was right after Desert Storm, but it was the Air Force Reserves in Oklahoma - so far down the chain of deployment that it would never happen and besides, she got a $2000 bonus for signing up for that specialty job. Hoo-rah! And so she trains one weekend a month, two weeks every summer, for a check, to socialize and maybe get to do some traveling, until the unit's obligation changed and she retrained to became a pencil pusher in the safety office until she fulfilled her commitment in 1997.
During that time, things change. She starts her own business, gets married, has a son - basically becomes a contributing member of society, putting her days of searching in the military behind her. But then terrorists strike in New York and Washington D.C. and the real prospect of war looms. Then comes the rumors that if we do go to war, people that had been out of the military less than 7 years could be recalled - most notable the specialty jobs having to do with aircraft munitions, since we now fight wars primarily in the air. And even though this girl was retrained to be a secretary, her primary AFSC is still Aircraft Armament Systems Specialist, and that is what she would be called to do.
And she worries and becomes selfish. She feels the need for revenge and the sadness for the victims and their family, but all she wants to do is hold her family close and try to lead some semblence of normalcy. She thinks, there are so many other people out there that can do what I can, including all of the NATO nations, that what would they want with a soccer mom from Oklahoma?
But if they call, she will go - she has to, it is her moral and military obligation to do, but all she can think of is "I can't go, Natey has a soccer game on Saturday".