21 GUERINCATHOLIC.ORG Alumni News Since graduating from Guerin Catholic, I’ve had many personal, professional, and academic responsibilities. I enrolled at Xavier University in 2007. My wife Robin was the first girl I met at Xavier. Since we first met as freshmen, she has tirelessly helped me become the best student, Catholic, boyfriend, military officer, husband, and father I can become. In 2011, I commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. After initial skills training, my first operational assignment was to Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs where I operated satellites that support the President’s communication with military forces around the world. While working as a satellite vehicle operator, I earned my MBA in the evening. Since then, I have attended many formal Air Force education courses, to include Space Warfighter Preparation Course, Cyber Operations Fundamentals Course, the United States Air Force Weapons School, Squadron Officer School, and Air Command and Staff College. Other than my relationship with Robin, no personal, professional, or academic opportunity has ever been able to replicate the individual attention Guerin Catholic invested in my well-being. The sacrifice, devotion, and effort Guerin Catholic’s teachers provided made me a better person and became the living embodiment of what service means to me. As an Air Force officer, time and again I find myself trying to emulate their support and dedication as I attempt to provide the same support, mentorship, and leadership to the people I work with and that work for me. I will never be able to properly express the true impact these role models and servant leaders had on my development. There is one other significant leadership trait that I learned at Guerin Catholic that is inextricably linked to service. One of the most difficult things for leaders to do is to speak up when others are silent. This includes being a voice for the needy, neglected, and voiceless. I distinctly remember not understanding the purpose of my senior trip to the March for Life rally in Washington D.C. in 2007. It wasn’t until the march started that I truly appreciated what it meant to be the voice for the voiceless unborn. We also visited the Holocaust museum on that trip; another reminder of the necessity of using our voice to speak for the oppressed. Guerin Catholic gave me many unique opportunities to see things from others’ perspectives; something that I still cherish and try to remember as I grow as a leader in the military. In September, I will transition to the newly established United States Space Force. On June 1, 2021 I will promote to the rank of Major. As I reflect on these new and exciting responsibilities, I keep returning to the role-models at Guerin Catholic who shaped my development as a servant leader. There are many definitions of service, but they all express a single truth: service is a personal investment in the well-being of others. And we must never forget, that as Christians and Catholics we are ultimately called to be servants in everything we do—“The greatest among you must be your servant” (Matthew 23:11.) To all those who help make Guerin Catholic such a special place by personally investing in the well-being of the students, I have one simple message—thank you for your service. n Tom is currently stationed at the National Space Defense Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado. His previous assignments include Satellite Vehicle Operator in Colorado Springs, Instructor at the United States Air Force Weapons School in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Wing Weapons Officer in Colorado Springs. Tom also spent one year deployed to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in 2015, planning Air and Space operations in the war against ISIL, as well as 4 months at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, coordinating Space Operations in the Indo-Pacific region. He has been married for 7 years to the first girl he met in college, Robin. Tom and Robin have two beautiful daughters, Emma (6), and Alice (2). They are expecting another daughter in November 2020. Captain Tom Nichols ’07 with his wife Robin and daughters Alice (L) and Emma.
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