To some, Staff Sgt. Aaron Driver is a truth-teller, laying out the hard realities of the toll everything from repeated deployments to Mickey Mouse regulations have taken on rank-and-file airmen and their families.

Others have called him everything from a selfish whiner to a cancer on the Air Force.

Driver’s very public breakup from the Air Force — in a letter published April 21 in Air Force Times — has gone viral, spawning a forcewide debate on issues such as why people enlist, the burdens deployments place on troops and what the military owes people for their service.

Driver, a 24-year-old radar technician, said in his letter that he has decided not to re-enlist in August after six years in the Air Force.

With no money and few options coming out of high school, Driver said, the Air Force at first looked like a great way to gain skills, earn money for college, and receive benefits such as health care and a pension after 20 years.

But repeated deployments to places like South America and Southwest Asia placed a severe strain on his marriage to his wife, Jennifer. Constant threats to cut benefits left him wondering if a key reason he joined the military was about to be yanked away from him. His duties were “mind-numbing and joyless.” And he felt his leadership unnecessarily went out of its way to make life difficult for airmen.

The straw that broke the camel’s back, Driver said, came in March, when his first sergeant read him the riot act at lunchtime over his out-of-regulation mustache. Coming during Mustache March — a forcewide event heavily promoted by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh and celebrating a famed fighter pilot who proudly flaunted grooming regulations — the chastisement particularly rankled Driver and seemed contrary to the point of a morale-building exercise.

“Six years, multiple deployments and several mental breakdowns later, I am ready to put the Air Force in my past forever,” Driver wrote. “The Air Force has given me a lot, but what it took in return was more valuable. I had been held back, limited and sucked dry of all happiness. That first sergeant may have been crazy, but he helped me realize that I was crazy too.”

Driver’s “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” moment touched a nerve — especially at a time when thousands of airmen worry that force reductions will eliminate their jobs.

And in a May 2 interview, Driver said he thinks the vehement reactions from some against his letter underline the cultural problems he was trying to point out.

“It seems the idea that we have to suffer and sacrifice — it doesn’t have to be miserable,” said Driver, a Savannah, Ga., native who is currently deployed from Hunter Army Airfield to Southwest Asia, but would not say exactly where. “But to point that out is apparently taboo.”

Some commenters responding to Driver’s letter pointed out that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had been raging for years by the time Driver signed up, and said the deployments should not have surprised him.

“What did you think was going to happen?” one commenter asked.

Driver disputed the suggestion he didn’t realize that deployments would be a fact of life or that he would have to sacrifice in his career. The problem, he said, is that high ops tempos strain families — and the “suck it up” attitude only encourages airmen to ignore the problems and stresses they’re having. And at a time when high rates of post-traumatic stress, divorce and suicide are plaguing the military, that’s a dangerous message to send, Driver said.

“I’m certainly not a fool,” Driver said. “I knew what I was getting into. And most people do when they join. But when you try to mention that it’s becoming a problem and you’re suffering, you get told to kind of suck it up, make it work. And it’s even worse when they tell you that as the force cuts continue, the deployments are going to increase, and you’re going to have to do more with less. You can’t help but judge that sacrifice and say, is it really worth it?”

And after airmen have returned home from a deployment, the looming threat of another tour often prevents them from truly relaxing and reconnecting with their families, Driver said.

“Even when you’re home and you’re relaxing, in that dwell time in between, it’s always, when is the next one?” Driver said. “Is it going to happen randomly? It’s just that dread. It had a big part on affecting me mentally. It was even hard to enjoy time at home, because you’ve got the next one sitting right there on the horizon.”

At some point, Driver said, he and other airmen have to start thinking more about themselves and their families than what they owe the Air Force.

“I’ve always said, service before self,” Driver said. “But when there’s no self left, there’s obviously going to be no service. You’re going to have to take care of that self.”

Driver said that, in writing the letter, he wanted to spark a broader conversation about the burdens all airmen are bearing, and didn’t want it to be primarily about his own personal experiences — which he acknowledged are less stressful than those of many other airmen.

“I obviously have not had it as bad as a lot of other people have,” Driver said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to your family. And when your family spends so much time without you, that has a big impact on your life. Some people are OK with that sacrifice, and some people aren’t. But I know a lot of people that, there’s a certain breaking point when it’s just too much.”

Several commenters criticized Driver for focusing so heavily on the benefits when he signed up, and for ignoring that a military career is a life of service.

“Did this guy really think that he was just going to get great pay, benefits, retirement and a career skill without sacrifice?” commenter Dan Gerke said. “Duty, patriotism and an exchange of sweat and equity were apparently not part of his dream.”

Driver said that attitude ignores the reality that many people join the all-volunteer force because of its benefits, which are regularly being threatened with cuts.

“A lot of the people that reacted in a negative way had these absolute ideas in their mind, like, you have to join because of patriotism to be right, and if you didn’t, you’re wrong,” Driver said. “You don’t have to disregard your own needs to be in the military, and you certainly don’t have to deny reality to be a good [noncommissioned officer], as a lot of people accused me of not being. It says a lot when the initial reaction to someone that speaks up is, tell him to suck it up, shut up or get out.”

But for roughly every commenter who criticized Driver, there was another who understood where he was coming from, and said he had made good points that were worth debating.

“The Air Force DOES NOT NEED unthinking, blue-bleeding, pain-enduring, regulation-following cheerleaders,” commenter Mathew Lowrey said. “Listen to this airman’s critique, and ask yourself if he could be right. Face some facts, critics: The Air Force RECRUITS [and] did not only pitch selfless service in its recruitment efforts. And you, dear critics, are proving this airman’s point.”

And while airmen are struggling to maintain their home lives, Driver said, it doesn’t help when leadership unnecessarily picks fights over minor infractions — such as his mustache.

Much of the debate online centered around Driver’s mustache anecdote. In the interview, Driver said it was his attempt to start a discussion about misplaced priorities on the part of some Air Force leaders.

“It was an example — a poor one, I admit — of the style-over-substance attitude that’s become so prevalent,” Driver said. “You’ve got a lot of these [Air Force Instructions] that don’t make a lot of sense at the end of the day. And anytime you try to bring up, what’s the reason behind it? It’s always defended with the argument of the slippery slope, the idea that if you have one thing go, it’s all going to go. But at the end of the day, the slippery slope argument doesn’t make a lot of sense, because I guarantee you, if you let me grow a mustache, I’m not going to just stop doing my job.”

Driver said that he’s worn his mustache for several years, and received an award for serving as his unit’s official monitor for this year’s Mustache March contest.

“So you go from being rewarded for it, and it’s a big morale booster, and I got everyone in the shop to grow one, and it’s something that built camaraderie and we all enjoyed it, and then to have it treated at the end kind of as this big problem, just misses the whole point,” Driver said.

Driver said he was glad his letter set off the conversation he had hoped for, and said he does not regret writing it. He said that much of the reaction he personally received was positive. His fellow airmen were supportive, he said. He showed the letter to his supervisor before it was published, he said, and after it came out, his commander came by and asked him if he was OK.

After Driver leaves the Air Force, he hopes to start his own landscaping business.

“I’ve always been into horticulture and landscaping,” Driver said. “I do a lot of food growing, and fruit trees. Hopefully, we’ll see where it goes.”■

City planners for years have been struggling with how to spur redevelopment in retail areas across Nashville that are long past their prime.

A group of University of Tennessee architecture and design students have been hard at work in recent months studying some of those areas, from Antioch to Bellevue, to come up with ideas for projects that could add momentum to those efforts.

The Metro Planning Department identified about a dozen areas across Nashville for the students in Knoxville and at the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop concepts for bringing economic growth, connections to public transit, and more urban-style affordable housing to the areas.

The students’ projects were showcased recently by the Nashville Civic Design Center, a nonprofit group that promotes public involvement in urban planning and development projects.

Bellevue Mall area

The rundown mall has long been a focus of Metro planners. Student Laura Flores incorporated ideas to redevelop the mall into a mixed-use community and expanded on that idea, focusing on a retail strip south of the mall. The proposal calls for rethinking the retail corridor to the south of the mall, implementing green space into mixed-use parcels that allow easier transition between the retail environment and nearby neighborhoods.

Bellevue Civic

A student called for rethinking the connection between the civic center at Bellevue Middle School and creating a more uniform landscape between it, the new library, and Red Caboose Park. Student Melissa Dooley suggested adding landscaping that tied in all of these components so that they worked together to create a sense of place.

Bordeaux

Student Kyle Nichols proposed redeveloping an underused supermarket retail center on Clarksville Pike at West Hamilton Avenue into more residential housing, revamping the corridor with improved streetscaping and building more roads for better connectivity and to handle traffic from new residents more effectively. The proposal also calls for transit-oriented affordable housing.

Talbot’s Corner

Near the intersection of West Trinity Lane and Interstate 65, student Kyle Jenkins proposed redeveloping an old hotel to establish a mixed-use walkable community, with green space and plenty of square feet for new uses. The proposal also called for adding better transitions and better roads to adjacent neighborhoods.

Wedgewood at Interstate 65

The area that is wedged between the interstate and a CSX rail line is an industrial hub that is quite isolated. Student Dylan Buc proposed forming a creative corridor for this part of Nashville just south of downtown that offers a better transition into the Wedgewood Houston residential neighborhood to the east with better roadway connections into and out of the district.

Reach Josh Brown at 615-726-5964 and on Twitter @joshbrownnews.

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More than 1,000 people showed up despite stormy skies Sunday at Locust Grove for the annual Gardeners’ Fair and Silent Auction.

They browsed flowers, herbs and vegetables, gardening tools, lawn ornaments, handmade crafts and many other locally produced goods on the last day of the three-day event, celebrating its 19th year in Louisville.

“It’s a real community event,” said Locust Grove executive director Carol Ely.

She estimated around 3,000 people visited 80 vendor booths on the historic property since the event started Friday. More than just a place for people and families to peruse the booths, the event also showcased Locust Grove, a national historic landmark where three presidents visited over the years and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stopped upon the completion of their cross-continent expedition in 1806.

Julie Michael of Louisville and three generations of her family have made a trip to the fair for the past eight years, this year shopping nine people strong.

“We love to support Locust Grove,” she said. “And the local vendors.”

More than 1,000 people showed up despite stormy skies Sunday at Locust Grove for the annual Gardeners’ Fair and Silent Auction. (Arza Barnett/The Courier-Journal)

She was at the fair to browse through the countless flowers set in pots and baskets across the lawn — which was strewn with hay to cover the muddy muck caused by storms the previous two days.

One booth specialized in a kind of gardening supply that isn’t generally available at your everyday nursery: insects used for “biocontrol” of garden pests. The first two that stood out at the Entomology Solutions booth — also called Bugs Behaving Badly — were ladybugs and preying mantises, the “poster children” for beneficial insects, said owner and entomologist Blair Leano-Helvey.

The idea is to use natural predators — or “beneficials” — to kill plant-damaging pests, instead of insecticide, she said. “It’s not a new science,” she said, but as organic produce and plants are becoming more and more popular, people are looking for ways to keep crops healthy in a more earth-friendly way. “You can’t get much more organic than beneficials,” she said.

Nadine Stevens, 85, of Louisville, who has been gardening for more than 60 years and has made a trip to the Locust Grove gardeners’ fair for the past five years, looked at the Bugs Behaving Badly booth with interest, but didn’t seem totally sold on the idea. Any way to use fewer pesticides, though, “is a good thing,” she said.

It’s that kind of interaction, introducing people to new ideas and educating the public about the natural world, that makes the event what it is, Ely said. And even if bugs and plants aren’t your thing, there are so many other booths and products, and even tours of the property itself, that no one should go away from the fair empty handed, she said.

“There is something everyone can relate to.”

Reporter Mark Boxley can be reached at (502) 582-4241 or on Twitter at @Boxleyland.