You have to love a job where, in the space of a week, you get to do everything from attend uber-formal changes of command and touching farewells to talking with up-and-coming performers and organizers of non-profit agencies who train service dogs.

If variety is the spice of life, then I got the rainbow sprinkles when I was hired to work here.

Each of the stories I worked on this week, while all very different, has a common thread. It’s something I’ve mentioned before — the broad-reaching impact of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in particular and the military in general — on our community.

It is an unavoidable, unequivocal, inescapable fact that changes in the structure of NAS Whidbey would impact our community in one way or another. The bigger the changes, the bigger the impact.

Cuts in our nation’s defense spending also seem unavoidable, given the tenor of the Budget Control Act of 2011. Just how or what that will impact when it comes to NAS Whidbey is unclear, but it is certain to have an effect one way or another.

And people are thinking about it — just look at the answers we got to our question of the week. We wonder if the cutbacks will impact health care, pay, benefits, personnel or even the base itself.

It’s too early to tell what, if anything, will change. The coming months are sure to bring proposals from the farcical to the fathomable. We’ve already begun asking questions of our representatives in Washington, D.C. We haven’t gotten any answers yet, but we are asking.

The upcoming debate is worth paying attention to, because it could impact all our lives. We’ll keep you posted.

 -Kathy Reed, editor