Air Force Talk

Stating a simple fact; you may have no interest in my personal experiences, nor do you wish to hear about them. But I'm going to anyway, just for the simple fact that many of us have been in the same places and the same situations.  Add the fact that I'm hard-headed, and then you'll understand. When, you read through this, remember that our paths may have crossed, and maybe we met, or we walked right past each other without knowing.  As stated before, I am a Satellite Comm technician. both large heavy ground terminals, and fast, deployable units.  I was also trained in Morse Systems Operations (Morse Code), and ended up being a Technical School Instructor for three years at Keesler AFB, MS for this. I was the first airman instructor in school history, as I was a pipeline instructor, straight out of graduating tech school. Then I switched career fields (not by choice but very glad it happened!). My first overseas assignment was Clark AB, P.I. I was there for almost six years. I was manning the front gate in 1986 as an MP trained backup.  I was armed with a .45 and an M-16.  This was when "People Power" happened and Cory Aquino took over from President Marcos.  Our job was to keep the base safe as we had about 30,000 protesters at the gate. A lot of people got hurt because of fighting between Aquino supporters and Marcos supporters, but no one was stupid enough to try to rush the main gate, as we had steel barricades with concertina wire everywhere. And we had fully armed U.S. Air Force and Philippine Air Force there, as well as armed Humvees.  It was interesting!
I also enjoyed beautiful diving and snorkeling areas all over the place, as well as playing alot of golf (which I did mostly for beer and friends).  The best part was the umbrella/beer girl that goes with you on the course.  Yep, it's true! She carries a huge umbrella, holding it over your head as you walk, pulls your club cart, and gets you beer whenever you want one.  Who can beat that! And she is a better golfer than me!  She was giving me helpful advise the whole time.  Awesome!

Then I went to Ft. Huachuca, AZ, special duty assignment, as a Test Director. They put me, an Air Force guy, on an Army post.  Sucks! No offense grunts, but your bases, especially that one, which we called "Flintstone Village", don't come close to ours!  You already know that! It was very, very boring there, so all I did was fish and fish. Took some trips to Cali to see stuff like Universal Studios and Disneyland.  Hung out with some Navy buddies outside of Miramar, and stayed around San Diego a lot. Yes, I had a few Navy buddies.  Mostly guys that I knew from Subic Bay Naval Station in the P.I. There I wrote test plans and field tested, with picked teams, new or needed equipment that the branches wanted to develop or buy from contractors. I had a direct input on a lot of systems, and whether they would be accepted or turned down. But I had to make sure they met all the requirements that were put forth by the branch requesting it. So I had to write all the specific objectives needed to fulfill those requirements; hence; Test Director!

Next assignment was Falcon AFB, CO; now called Schreiver AFB. It's located a few miles outside of Colorado Springs. I spent three years there as a Satcom technician and Supervisor. The Springs is a very nice place, with lots of stuff to do, and is a huge gateway to skiing. I fished alot, of course, and gambled at the casinos up in the mountains at Cripple Creek. Very nice scenery. I did not ski very much, as I am certainly not a skier. Also Denver is a just a bit over and hour away. So I went to a few Broncos and Nuggets games. I was a BIG Air Force Academy Falcons fan! I went to alot of their games. It was only about five miles from my house. Overall, a very good assignment.

Mixed in all this was a huge amount of deployments all over the world. As I was mostly tactical for many of my years, I got called upon to go quite a few places. Some good, some not so good. I was in exercises and real situations all over the world.

Next was Kadena, Okinawa. I spent six years there as a tactical team chief and supervisor. It was probably the most rewarding time that I spent in the military. It was a really good assignment. Again, numerous deployments. Altogether I had a pretty good twenty year career. Easy at times, and the most difficult thing in the world, at others. Depends on what you were tasked to do.

Please read the section entitled "My Personal Project". Thank You.