JoAnne Bass

Again, we were driving from Mississippi to D.C., two different cars.

And, you know, you have a lot of highway talk as you're trying to stay awake.

And I'm talking to my husband as we're driving.

And one of the conversations we had is how do we, as we enter into this assignment, that's one of the biggest assignments I've ever had, huge responsibility, how do we fortify our family?

Like we talk about, again, how do we take care of the force?

Well, that's great, you know, but winning for us was going to be that we're able to have a successful tour, do our part, take care of the United States Air Force, but the family can't be broken.

And it is a tough job, especially when you think about we're on the road 200 days out the year or more.

Mm-hmm.

And even when we're not on the road, we're coming home and the team's giving me trip books and planning for the next set of engagements.

And all of the engagements we have matters because we've got 689,000 folks that are counting on us.

You know, engagements with international partners, engagements with Congress, engagements with our stakeholders.

So fortifying the family and the loved ones, I think, is key.

But some of it's real fun now.

Yes.

But you're still on the road.

I'm still on the road.

Yeah.

I will tell you that it took me probably 24 years to really understand that aspect, right?

For the first part of my 24-year career, I think I was decent at it, sometimes not, and also sometimes hypocritical.

Meaning,