AFA National Report

摘要

The cause is dear to his heart. Robert E. Wiggins, New Jersey's longtime Thomas B. McGuire Jr. Chapter member, has been regularly donating books on airpower topics to libraries and schools. His aim has always been to promote the professional development of airmen. On one of his recent donation drop-offs to the library at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.-a two-hour drive from his home in Pennsylvania, by the way-he began chatting with a library staff member about the effects of sequestration. He learned that the staff worried about their ability to maintain their inventory of books on the Air Force Chief of Staff's Reading List. According to SMSgt. William J. Horay Jr., chapter president, Wiggins then did something typical for him: He spoke up at a chapter meeting, describing with passion the library's need for more funds. Horay immediately pegged Wiggins' idea as a "low-cost, high-impact" project, quite doable.The chapter pulled together some $250, including donations from individual members. The funds will cover one complete set of books on the 2013 Chief of Staff's Reading List, Horay explained. It will help replace some of the books that have been on the list for several years and suffered wear and tear, and library officials said they can now invest in e-book versions that the airmen have been requesting.