JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
Resiliency and support were key themes as six Airmen with
unique tales of hardship and resiliency took part in the base’s first-ever
“Storytellers” event at Arnold Hall at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Jan.19.
The “Storytellers” event, originally started in 2012, was
organized here by Senior Master Sgt. Jason Funkhauser, 93rd
Intelligence Squadron linguist.
The basic idea behind the program is getting Airmen up on
stage to tell stories of adversity they’ve dealt with in their lives, said
Funkhauser.
“This (event) gives our peers a glimpse of the fact that
we are Airmen, but we are people when we go home – people who deal with
difficulty … and use resiliency to get through those, and still come to work
and do amazing things,” Funkhauser explained.
The six storytellers included Funkhauser; Chief Master
Sgt. Stefan Blazier, 67th Cyber Operations Group superintendent; Chief Master
Sgt. Kathleen McCool, 502nd Security Forces and Logistics Support Group
superintendent; Tech. Sgt. Margie Gonzalez, 93rd IS intelligence analyst; Staff
Sgt. Jared Smith, 93rd IS cryptologic language analyst; and Senior Airman
Natalie Norlock, 772nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron contracting
specialist.
Funkhauser emphasized that Storytellers “doesn’t involve
a PowerPoint slide show, isn't annual mandatory training, and (has) real Airmen
with real stories.”
The program,
Funkhauser added, gives participants a unique look into the personal lives of
fellow Airmen.
“We all come to work with our stripes on our sleeves, but
we sometimes forget to realize that we are people behind this uniform,” he
noted. “Someone you work with every single day, you really don’t know what goes
on when they go home all the time.”
“We don’t usually get to share those things,” he
continued, “even though for many of us the (Air Force) is a second family.”