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NOTEBOOK www.AIRMANonline.af.mil 48 When I was a child, I wanted to be either a cowboy or an astro- naut – or better yet, a space cowboy. I suppose that blasting off into an uncharted, unforgiving and unknown adv en-a landscape of my childhood was very exci t- ing. I was a normal kid with big ideas and bigger dreams. Like most children, those big ideas and dreams somehow get smaller as we grow i nto adulthood. Every so often, as adults, something mag i- cal happens, and we find ourselves stand ing in the light of our childhood dreams. This happened to me recently while I was on a n nd Space Administration in Houston. I have been sent on a few assignments there over the past few years – actually, e very chance I could manage. It’s really an ama z- ing place to see, and by the nature of my job , as a military journalist, I have been allow ed an once. I’ve joked and laughed with astrona uts, fellow Airmen. I’ve felt the saturated air o f the Neutral Buoyancy Lab on my skin, w here astronauts do all of their “water” training. I’ve smelled the overly clean, slightly met allic air inside the astronaut training modules, and I’ve stood in the original mission con trol room where America’s earliest space pion eers braved the unknown. On my most recent assignment, I found myself somehow sitting in the pilot seat of NASA’s Small Pressurized Rover, or SPR, – a space vehicle, which astronauts will drive on the moon when they return there in a few years. The brightly lit touch- screen displays glowed warmly on the panel in front of me. Mini cameras lacing the outside of the SPR gave me an instant 360 degree view. As my callused fingers wrapped around the smooth grips of the pilot controls, things just seemed to fade away … and I was, once again, a mop-haired 7-year-old sitting on the front porch steps with a cardboard ray gun in m y cowboy holster. I could almost hear, “Psst, Moon Truck 1 to base. Ready for moon mission. Psst.” Then the SPR lurched forward like a bronco out of the chute. A grin split my fa ce n. f ls slightly and the rover slid sideways and drove in a crab-like crawl. I twisted back and she righted herself. I drove up to the parking lot curb, beside me sat the NASA technician whom I somehow forgot existed a few moments earlier, and engaged the six independent wheel bases, and the SPR “walked” up over the curb. We were off again. If you ever get a chance to “drive on the moon,” do it. I have, and I highly recom- mend it. I guess I have been very fortunate. I call it fortunate, not lucky — fortunate, because my Air Force career has enabled me to do these things that most people will never get a chance to do. I’m not saying the Air Force will make all your dreams come true. But, an Air Force career does give us something very specia l — opportunity. As Airmen, we have so many opportunities. We have opportunities for education and training. We have opportunities for travel and expansion. We have opportunities to meet people from distant lands and lives far removed from our own. My opportunities include having earned a bachelor’s degree and my CCAF degree. I a m the first-ever staff sergeant assigned as an editor at my dream job – Airman magazin e. y and Uzbekistan. I’ve had Iraqi citizens th ank me for serving in their country, and I’ve s een with my own eyes why freedom is worth fighting for. I’ve also managed to relive a childhood dream or two. If we look around, even on a bad day, as Airmen, we have a lot of great opportunit ies that we will never have anywhere else. A few short days away from my depar- ture for a Permanent Change of Station, I realized that by the time this issue of Airman hits dayrooms and MPFs, I will h ave already blasted off into a new uncharted and unknown adventure far from the dus ty southern San Antonio landscape my wife and I are raising our children in today. I’m a bit nervous and excited, because it mea ns more opportunities are waiting out there. M y family and I intend to accept and embrac e these opportunities. Life is what you make of it, friend. Take advantage of the opportunities we have a s ld s, maybe you might go above and beyond … planet Earth. StoRy by StAff Sgt. MAtthew Ro SINe ✪ PhotoS by StAff Sgt. deS IRee PAlAcIoS Above And beyond… plAnet eArth Staff Sgt. Matth ew Rosine test drives a lunar ro ver at NASA’s J ohnson Space C enter in Houston. The rover will be us ed on a future m anned mission t o the moon. Ser geant Rosine is assoc iate editor of A irman Magazine assigned to the Defense Media Activity - San A ntonio. Inside the Orion crew vehicle, Staff Sgt. Matthew Rosine takes in his surroundings while on assignment at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. America will send a new generation of explorers to the moon aboard NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle.
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48 Notebook