HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- We are kicking off 2012 with many great base events. I hope you were able to join us for Heroes Homecoming to celebrate those Hanscom members, along with their families, who have returned home from deployment in the last six months. We are thankful for the tremendous community support that we received to put on such a great celebration.

The new year is also bringing a degree of chaos for some people as the Air Force grapples with how to meet the needs of the warfighter with reduced resources. For some people, change brings angst. And angst can keep us from taking action. Don't fall prey to inaction! Your ideas matter. You are an expert in your mission area.

As the Air Force makes changes to be consistent with reduced resources, it is up to each one of us to figure out the new way forward for our own mission area.

Each of us is faced with tough choices every day and sometimes we grind to a halt while looking for the perfect solution. That perfection is usually obvious: we just need more money, more people, new policy, more training and clearer requirements, just to name a few.

The hard work comes when we must find an executable solution with what we have on hand. That means establishing priorities and making tradeoffs. No one likes making tradeoffs, but the Air Force needs each of us to stay focused on delivering the most important capabilities with the resources available. Our oath of office does not say "support and defend the Constitution, but only if we have infinite resources."

For more information about some of these changes, refer to the civilian restructuring article.

I am confident in the commitment and dedication of everyone at Hanscom. We will work together to tackle the challenges of 2012.

Stop lights
I always enjoy receiving comments in the Straight Talk mailbox. Your inputs make Hanscom a better place to live, work and play. The hot topic this week was malfunctioning stop lights. My thanks to our readers who wrote in to tell us about the light at Barksdale and Grenier streets, which was cycling through a pedestrian walk cycle even when no pedestrian was in sight. Your comments to the mailbox helped us find the problem and implement a fix. Thank you!