USAFA Class Histories

After graduation it was off to Big Spring, TX for UPT. In Sept. €˜64, proudly wearing pilot wings, Alamogordo, NM was my next assignment with stops in Reno for survival training and Tucson for F-4 training. I soon found out that TAC meant TDY€"Sept through Dec €˜65 in Alaska for air defense alert. Mar €˜66 brought a trip to Vietnam . We deployed from Alamogordo to Phan Rang, arriving on Mar 11th, my 26th birthday. In Oct the squadron moved to Danang for missions up North, mostly at night. In Jan €˜67 I was off to Spangdahlm, Germany, unfortunately, still a Weapons System Operator (WSO). Eighteen months later, I transferred to Bitburg AB€"gigantic PCS move of 6 miles, but finally to a front-seat. However, the joys were short lived as I was selected to be a squadron IP about six months later. December €˜69 brought another PCS and change in career fields. It was off to graduate school in mathematics at the University of Arizona at Tucson (a very fortuitous move it turns out). Summer of €˜71 found me in the Math Dept at USAFA for an interesting and enjoyable tour. Besides teaching, I was involved in the airmanship programs instructing in T-41s and flying T-33s. The yearn to get back to the F-4 was realized in the summer of €˜74 with an assignment to Udorn, Thailand with training stops at Phoenix for F-4 recurrency and Clark AB, PI, for jungle survival school. By the time I got there the action in SEA had ceased, so the tour was mostly a quiet one. The only excitement was the Mayaquez incident. Saigon fell also during this time, but I was stateside on medical leave recovering from pneumonia. With the Thailand bases closing down in the summer of €™75, I was reassigned to Tampa, FL, and the F-4 RTU business (forever destined for the back seat!). In the spring of €˜80 I was selected to go to the Dominican Republic as the senior Air Force advisor to the MAAG. First, however, it was off to Monterey, CA for six months of Spanish language training at DLI and DISAM training at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. Arriving in Santa Domingo in Dec 80 started an opportunity of a lifetime to become immersed I another culture. I enjoyed the Latin American experience so much that in the summer of €˜84 I went to Albrook AFS in Panama as the Deputy Commandant of Operations and Training. Three years later in Aug 87, I returned to the states assigned to Sumpter, SC (another fortuitous move). After two years in a TACC, I decided it was time for the big career move and retired at the end of July 1989.

On Aug. 2nd, I began my new career as the head of the Dept of Transitional Studies, Math at Sumpter Area Technical College. Hurricane Hugo and snow in the wintertime, told me I was not far enough south so I secured a position in summer €˜90 as the Math Lab Manager at Manatee Community College in Bradenton, FL. In €˜92 I was promoted from instructor to assistant professor and also selected to be the chair of the math department, a position I still hold. In €˜95 I was promoted to associate professor.

I am presently divorced. Hobbies consist of continuing to study Spanish, computers, jogging, swimming, sailing. My three children and one grandchild live in Tampa. Submitted 1998.