Guam - "Being a pilot, I'm the aircraft commander - so I command a five-person crew on a bomber," explained Captain Jamie Denton.  She's no stranger to service. She grew up with a father and two grandfathers in the military and she says it was her lifelong dream to become a pilot.

At the National Guard Boss Lift event she helped employers understand what a day in the life of a B-52 pilot is really like.  "As a squadron, we are very tight-knit and you have to rely on each other because when you are away from your family, we are away from our family this Christmas that's tougher, but rely on squadron mate to get you through everything and our training is what we found upon," she said.

Former U.S. Marine Rick Appleton, now Services and Parts Director at CarsPlus, is faced with losing a number of employees to upcoming deployments.  "It's a burden as an employer - its tough sometimes, but the get back, the good part we get back from having the people in the reserve makes it well worth while. They are motivated, energetic disciplined, they have great work habits," he said.

Employers are required by the uniform services employment and re-employment rights act to hold the position of service members on deployment .the employer support of the guard and reserve Guam-CNMI office organized the Boss Lift event. ESGR Administrator Captain Jo Blas says employers had many questions.

"What about the B-52 bomber did employers really want to know about? A lot of them were really intrigued about what the B-52 is and what it does and the fact that it's a bomber, they thought it was really exciting," said Blas.

And Captain Blas says especially now that the U.S. is getting ready to beef up the troop presence in Afghanistan - it's important to continue to honor the sacrifice of the more than 2700 service members on Guam who could be called upon to serve the nation.