Chaplain's Corner: We must all sacrifice Published July 3, 2008 By Chaplain (Capt.) Piotr Gajda Tinker Chapel TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- For a couple of days, I have had a chance to watch a few episodes of the movie "Band of Brothers." This movie is very popular to many people, but maybe for some it is not. It is about a group of U.S. Soldiers from many different places. War World II takes them from regular life to new situations. They left homes, friends, family members and girlfriends to give freedom to people from different countries far away from their home. Watching this movie, we have the chance to see many different people, characters. They came from different places and bring different backgrounds, habits and customs, but the new situation and the time together makes them brothers through good and bad times. In one episode there were several interesting comments. When the war in Europe ended, they remained to help in the stabilization of the countries. One of them said how nice it would be to be in Florida where it is wonderful like summer, where all the motels are full and many people spend time under the sun on the beach. This sequence made me think for a moment. These young Soldiers had normal dreams and feelings. They dreamed about vacations like everybody else. Time has changed, but people are always the same. Right now we also dream about vacations on hot days, making plans about fantastic vacations, but many of us are not sure. Gas prices pass the magic price of $4 per gallon, of course this is not cheap, but we are in war time. Thousands of young men and women will miss their vacation time staying far away from home and friends. I think it is again time for us to start using and understanding the word "sacrifice." According to Webster's dictionary it means "the act of giving up, destroying, permitting injury to, or forgoing something valued for the sake of something having a more pressing claim." In the last year, Team Tinker deployed 5,500 people. These people put some part of their life aside to sacrifice for the whole. And when you are not going for your dream vacation, don't complain, make some sacrifice and try to teach the new generation that everything is not free. We all must pay for freedom - whether in the field or at home.