Make an impact; little things mean a lot Published Dec. 7, 2006 By Col. Ken Stefanek 39th Air Base Wing vice commander INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- I took my son to lunch last weekend to the restaurant of his choosing - we ended up at the bowling center (which has pretty good burgers by the way). After lunch he asked if we could play X-Box at the After Six Lounge for a while. Although I had other things to do, I agreed and promptly got trounced in one of the Star Wars games they have there. Apparently the skills I built up over years of flying high-performance fighter aircraft didn't help when battling droids on a remote planet in the Mustafar system. We only played X-Box for 30 minutes or so but my son has mentioned playing that game three or four times since. It appears the 30 minutes of X-Box with his dad was a big deal to him. The lesson I relearned is that something insignificant to one person may make a world of difference to another. As we focus on our geographically separated units in this issue of the Tip of the Sword, we need to remind ourselves that our mission partners in Ankara, Izmir, and other locations throughout Turkey have a different perspective with regard to living in Turkey than we do. The many things we take for granted like almost immediate access to an Air Force doctor, the many services we have here, and a neighborhood where kids run free with little to worry about are not always available at the GSUs. Folks there rely on us for support and while the things they ask for may seem trivial to us, we need to remember that they may be very important to the person asking. Treating every request for assistance as if it were critical to the person making the request will ensure we are taking care of our GSU partners in the best possible way. As a hit song from years ago says, often times, little things mean a lot.