Military youth discover parent’s investigator, operator duties

  • Published
  • By Airman Jacob Deatherage
  • 460th Space Wing Public Affairs
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  Children, parents and friends participated in the national “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” April 27, on Buckley Air Force Base, Colo.

“Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” is a nationwide educational program where parents bring their children to their work-centers for a day to explain, or teach what they do.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations on Buckley AFB hosted a particularly unique experience for their families and friends. Children learned firsthand some of their parent’s duties at work, including forensic skills, how to arrest someone and even taking a staged lie detector test. The day finished with pizza, soft drinks and a certificate of completion of AFOSI training for each child.

“Events like this let the children know that law enforcement has families like regular people do; we laugh and joke and eat pizza,” said Supervisory Special Agent James, 12th Field Investigations Squadron. “It puts more of a human look on law enforcement so we’re not so intimidating.”

These events give children a closer look at a “day in the life” of their parents, and sheds a good light on law enforcement across the board.

Parents took a similar approach at the 8th Space Warning Squadron. Their children took a tour of the power plant that supplies power to the facilities in the restricted area, a look inside one of the radomes and each parent was allowed to take their children to their office to explain what they do on a daily basis.

“This was designed to be more in depth than an ordinary ‘Career Day’,” said Lt. Col. Keith Jansa, 8th SWS commander. “It was a good opportunity to expose the children to what their parents do behind the fence, and what lies underneath the large white golf balls.”

At the end of the day, children returned home with a better outlook on the military, law enforcement, and the big picture of their parent’s jobs.

“’Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’ helps the kids see that what their parents do is very important,” said Special Agent Donald Butcher, 12th FIS commander. “You could just tell them that, but they don’t truly understand until they come in and see it for themselves.”