Operation BossLift

This “Operation BossLift” day came about as a result of efforts by the military support organization Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) to acknowledge, inform and honor all employers who hire and retain workers who also have part-time commitments to military service as reservists and guardsmen and women, and who from time to time are called away for brief or sometimes extended military training or deployment. These employers are then expected to hold the positions of these citizen soldiers for them upon their return from military assignment. Some do . . . some don’t. The company employers who have been shown to consistently protect their employees with a military commitment by allowing them to leave their jobs for military duty, and then retain their positions for them  when they return as a matter of policy and practice were honored on Friday January 19 at the Joint Forces training base with of all things. . . .a helicopter ride, and not just any whirlybird, but a UH-60 Blackhawk, and not just any ride, but a jaunt up the coast along Palos Verdes Peninsula and back. Such valued employers include Disney, Amazon, SpaceX, as well as many small businesses with as few as one or two citizen soldier employees. 150 employers in all participated. All caught a ride courtesy of the 140^th Aviation Air Assault Battalion based at JFTB, including yours truly. And it indeed was a wild ride!