Lima Charlie, Episode 23 with CMSgt (ret) Sandra Scott

CMSgt Sandra A Scott is the Chief of Education at the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, Maxwell AFB, Gunter Annex, Alabama. Chief Scott is responsible for the development and deployment of curriculum to educate 1,800 students annually on employment of military capabilities from a joint and coalition perspective. She advises the Commandant on the overall operation of a $12M campus and collaborates with three joint/sister service schools and four international exchange instructors on senior enlisted academic programs. Chief Scott enlisted in the Air Force in February 1996. Her background includes duty positions in Traffic Management, Technical Training Instructor, Career Assistance Advisor, MAJCOM Functional Area Manager, Career Field Manager and Group Senior Enlisted Leader. Her assignments include bases in California, Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma, Germany, Delaware, Illinois, and Washington D.C. She has also deployed multiple times in support of Operations SOUTHERN WATCH, IRAQI FREEDOM and NEW DAWN. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
I've got no reason, the cheek of a killing the
seating with a need to blease you. When the light
goes green, Let's believe them in the zone. The me
from a yend of a yankom a.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yange to see good.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Agree, I'm a share when you call the MEAs.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Because I'm wed. I'm a one of a kind, and
I'll bring death to the glacier about a week. Another
river of blood running under my feet boarding the fire
did a long ago stand next to me, You'll never
stand alone. One last to leave, but the first to go.
The Lord, make me dead before you make me old
A feet on the fear of the devil inside of
the enemy faces in my sight, being with a handful

(00:57):
shoe with a mid kill with a heart light guard.
Dame Guys, I.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Am a soldier man, I'm mart it on im my song.
I am a.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Worror, and this is my song masting the goal of
the rise. They waste to the ground of an enemy.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure I read you, Lima Charlie, loud and clear, Welcome
to Steward. The Nine presents, Lima Charlie. I'm here with
a special guest, a longtime friend of mine, retired command
Sergeant Sandra Scott. Hi Rob, all right, so tell us

(01:46):
tell us a real quick, kind of thirty thousand view
of yourself and then we'll get into who you are. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Absolutely, I just want to first say thanks for the
opportunity to be joining you today. I got really excited
when you talked about this opportunity. So, yeah, just recently
retired from the Air Force after twenty nine years, four
months and ten days. Had a really outstanding career originally
from Houston, Texas, but I also grew up in Germany

(02:14):
for quite some time. And yeah, and then served on
eleven different assignments various background from logistics to military professional
education and that's where I ended it at the Air
Force Senior and noncommission Officer Academy in Montgomery, Alabama.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Awesome. Awesome. So you said you joined the Air Force
twenty nine plus years, So what made you join the
Air Force?

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Actually you kind of helped me with that. I remember
just having that camaraderie because we met each other in
Germany in Heidelberg, Germany, and I had came over to
Germany as a young child at the age of twelve.
My mom's Germans, so I obviously followed her to be

(03:01):
able to still live with her, and then I wanted
to go back to the United States and trying to
figure out a way of taking care of myself, not
being independent or dependent off anybody. And so I remember
us having that conversation. You're like this joint the Army,
But so I decided to join the Air Force instead.
So and that's where it took me.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
So you would you did basic training obviously in San Antonio.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
At Lachland Air Force Base.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
So you're from while you're from Texas, from Germany and
then so you go right back to Texas. What part
of the year was that, What time of the year.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
So it was in February of nineteen ninety six. I
went to basic training at Lachlan Air Force Base and
then my tech training was just right across the streets.
So it continued on for another ten weeks in San
Antonio still so and from there.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
So what made you choose logistics?

Speaker 3 (03:54):
It was given to me actually, so based on as
web scores. They said, I can pretty much do anything
that I wanted to except for being an electrician. And so, yeah,
logistics has like always been something that I've appreciated, like
how seeing things move and just coming to russ Actually,
I applied for a couple of German companies DHL and

(04:18):
FedEx before I left Germany, just to make sure I
had a side plan. But coincidentally that's where I ended
up in the traffic management operations career. Field.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Awesome, so you got to you go to Texas in February,
which I mean not as old as Germany obviously, but
still a little chili. Yeah, So what was what was
your experience in at lachlan in.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
I know, when I first like, well, we flew from
Germany all the way back to Texas and had to
wait until we all got gathered together with all the
buses and stuff like that, and it was like hurry
up and wait game. It seemed like pretty much the
same experience from what I talked to with other veterans
and just service members waiting for them to ship you

(05:04):
off to training. And then we finally got in process
and then we roll up on to where our dorms
were at the time, and I kind of thought to myself,
I'm like and hearing people getting yelled at and stuff,
and I'm like, what did I get myself into? You know,
It's like, oh no, this is gonna work out for
me very well. I was like, you don't need to

(05:25):
yell at me.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
So did you think basic was pretty I mean, once
you got past that little bit of jitters, I mean
it was basic training pretty easy for you.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
I was ready to get out of basic training as
quickly as I could, so, I mean it was all
a little bit different compared to what my recruiter had said,
so not necessarily very in detailed about the pet program
and everything else like that, and just basically going to
get yelled at pretty much all day, every day, all
day long. So but yeah, after six weeks it was

(05:58):
pretty I was glad when those six weeks were done
and we were walking down the bomb run in the
graduation paraygrounds.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
So so then you go, you said, you went right
across the base to your you call it text schools
that which it? So your tech school? Do you I
mean do they kind of ease up on the restrictions?
I mean, what what is that like when you go
when you transition over that.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, definitely there's a lot less restriction. Unfortunately at the
time that there are some people there before us that
got in some trouble. So we were on considered Phase one.
It was a phase program. Like so Phase one is
your like you have to wear a uniform all day,
you have to march everywhere and everything else like that.
And as you go along, within the few weeks that

(06:40):
you're there, is they lessen the restrictions. Unfortunately, during my
time there, we were in Phase one pretty much the
whole entire ten or ten weeks I was there.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
So ten weeks. Yeah, wow, okay, that's that's that's pretty
I mean is that about average for tech school for
the Air Force or I mean it depends.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
It depends on their their uh A, f C, the
Air Force Specialty Code SO or MS and the Army.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
So, so you you're getting ready to graduate and and
you I think you normally get orders, you know, before
you graduate, right, so you know where you're going? Yeah,
where did you get? You get your orders? Where were
you going? And what was your thought?

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yeah? So I was going to Travis Air Force Base, California.
I think my situation was a little bit different. I'm
not sure why, but I didn't get orders around the
same time as the rest of my class did. So
I had to work with the Military Training Leaders the
MTLs to work with I guess that a one to

(07:37):
figure out the like the personnelists and stuff like that,
to figure out where I was going. And so I
originally wanted to go to Montana. I wanted to go
to New Mexico for obvious reasons. And then afterwards, and
so we finally figured it out about a week or
so before I graduated, I found out I was going

(07:57):
to Travis Air Force Base, California, And so I was like,
I did put California anywhere on my list? So I
guess it's, uh, we'll see what happens, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
So so we call it the dream sheet. And in
the Army at how many air Force how many places
do you get to choose on your dream sheet? Eight? Eight? Wow?
I think we get like three, three or four. I
think you get two konas and one okonas. Okay, this
is your choices. And I mean it's just it's just
so they know we're not to send you, because they're
not going to send you in any of those. So

(08:28):
now do you do you did you have any kind
of identifier because you're your dual language, because you're you're
a multi language.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
No. I actually, when I got the Travis Air Force Space.
I heard about a program called the Foreign Language Paid FLT.
So basically what that consisted of that I had to
take a test every year in order to recertify and
basically get paid a little bit more money. But unfortunately,
after a few years they had changed the program up

(08:56):
and saying that if you're not using the language then
for your for your job, then you're not going to
get paid for it.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
So okay, okay, so you get the Travis sunny California.
What what what part of California's Travis in I'm not so.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Travis is in the northern part of California, right between
San Francisco and UH, Sacramento, so right smack dab in
the middle.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, it was get earthquakes and stuff like that up there.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
No, not too bad. Actually, I don't think that we
experienced any earthquakes while I was there. I did in Alaska,
which was my next studio assignment.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
So so how long were your Travis.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
I was the Travis for roughly three and a half years.
I deployed UH while I was at Travis to Escon
Village in Saudi Arabia the first time, UH for four months,
and so that was where. Yeah, I went there for
four months, worked logistics the whole entire time while I
was there, and got to meet some really nice people

(09:54):
army folks. Again.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
So so at this point, what what is your rank?

Speaker 3 (09:59):
I was when I when I left Travis or when I.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
So on this deployment which.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
I was, I was about to become an E four.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Okay, so as a senior senior. Okay, So you made
rank fairly quick? I mean is that? Is that normal
in the Air Force to make it that?

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, I got promoted every single like I would say,
the first three ranks, the four ranks that it was
on time target three within three years.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
So so any anything exciting at Travis and in this deployment,
I mean anything notework.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
So Travis was we didn't technically work like the TMO
career field normally doesn't work with the Aerial Port Squadron,
which is the where all of the cargo from the
Pacific came through in and out of and so that's
not normally where we would work with normally on a
day to day basis. But we did were signed there
and so I got to experience all kinds of different

(10:55):
things from learning how to drive a tractor trailer to
moving people's hustle goods. And this is the coordination of
all like cargo movement wise at least and then hustle goods.
And then in my deployment, that was that was really
interesting because that was like having bomb threats and having

(11:16):
to evacuate where we worked up from work because we
were so close to the gate. Just long hours, uh,
and just the not having the what we have now,
what we take for granted the internet and having mobile
phones and when you only got like one fifteen minute
phone call per per week going back home, you have

(11:38):
to really figure out who you wanted to talk to
and how what you wanted to say in that duration.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
So, right, so you're so you joined ninety six, So
now this is you know, roughly two years in, right,
So we're ninety eight, right, so we're still a little
bit aways from from nine to eleven. Yeah, anything else
happened at Travis? I mean what was what was the
base like their Travis? Is that a pretty nice installation?

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah, it's not too bad. It's a big port, so
basically on the close to the west coast of things,
and so, like I said, it was mostly like mobility
stuff so a lot of things going out to the
Pacific and coming into the Pacific. So seeing things like that,
I mean, it was a nice installation. It wasn't bad
at all. So I lived primarily in the dorms for

(12:25):
a little while in the first year, and then I
moved off base. So they allowed us to move off
base pretty quickly in the Air Force versus the Army,
so very nice.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, okay, so you finished there, and then where did
you go?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
I went to I got orders during my time at Travis.
I was just coming back from my deployment and I
had received orders to Alaska. When you fill out your
dream sheet, I realized that you need to be very
specific on where you want to go to. So that
was a lesson learned. I put just put the whole
state of Alaska down versus h and like an itemized area,

(13:05):
like I should have put Anchorage down or Elmendorf at
the time, which is now Joint Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson.
And then but I went to Ailson and said, which
is the northern tier base in Alaska? So I was like, eh,
we'll see what happens, right, So Man nine eleven.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
How many Air Force installations are in Alaska, two.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Main ones, and so they do have some they have
some sights out there, but they're not.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Very big, Okay, So what the one you were at
was that very big or.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
It was a fighter base, and so it was in
the northern uh northern tier of Alaska. So I would
say more like in the tundra area of Alaska. It's
not the picture post guard area that you normally see.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
So you get you get the six months of sun
and six months of ye dark oh wow.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Well no, actually it's probably more darkness. Send it is
light there and it's cold. So we I was married
at the time, and then we've left out of Los
Angeles because we were visiting his family, and it was
probably like about seventy degrees in the morning, around six
o'clock in the morning when we left La in January,

(14:17):
and so we fly another we fly all the way
up to Anchorage and we're able to get off the
plane because that was before nine to eleven days and
so the restrictions weren't there, so we were able to
actually go outside with no issues. And so we go
outside of Anchorage from the airport and it was like
zero zero degrees I'm like, this is doable. You know,

(14:38):
we can handle this. We had just bought brand new
winter coats and stuff like that, and then I alsen's
just another forty five minute flight from Anchorage or into Fairbanks, Alaska,
and we get off the plane. It was negative fifty
degrees and that wasn't including the wind chill. And so
with the wind chill it was a negative eighty. That

(15:00):
was like a complete it and opener. It was like,
I don't know if I'm gonna be able to handle this.
And so like you walk outside and everything is so
cold that it's actually you're not allowed to stay outside
for a very long period of time, so you need
to be moving in and out.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
So in the logistics field, I mean obviously in every field,
as you move up, your outside time becomes less, right,
you spend more time doing paperwork. But in the logistics field,
as the lower enlisted, how much how much of that
is actually outside, you know, dealing with cargo and stuff.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, so I would say quite a bit. Because right
before we got there, we had the base just went
through an operational readiness inspection and they failed, and so
they made us exercise every month until we were ready
for that exercise. So that meant that what I did
is I was one of the low planners for all

(15:54):
the cargo that went onto the planes, and so I
had to go out and inspect all of the cargo
first to make sure was ready for shipment and like
the pieces like fit perfectly on the plane like how
I had planned it, and so and then we also
had other exercises where we had to go out and
like where our kim gear and and phase two exercises

(16:16):
back then in the day is what they used to
call them, and so where we pretended that we were
under attack and we had to go out in different
buildings and get on buses and be moved around and
just wearing our our kim gear all the time too.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
So yeah, does the Air Force do y'all have the
the white snow uniforms at all? Or do you? Is
it just I mean, you're just wearing cameo at this time.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
It was Yeah, it was this bus at that time, yep.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
But you got the gore tex boots and the all
the all the cold weather gear. Yeah, and I'm assuming
you get that issue to you when you got up there, yep.
So so it's freezing cold how how how long? How
many months does it stay that cold?

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So I would say probably like from January and starting
in September, and I would say and probably till March
April we had snow on the ground, okay, and it's
pretty cold. And then well it's funny is that. And
during times like when when I said, and when we
first got there it was like ned to fifty degrees.

(17:22):
When it reached zero, it actually felt warm. So we
were able to wear shorts and t shirts and no
jackets and stuff like that, just because our our blood
got acclimated. Oh wow, with the times and stuff like that.
So it was definitely interesting. And then in the summer
months where it's light out all day, like in July,

(17:44):
I believe it is the longest day of summer in Alaska,
or the longest day, and so the sun's out all
day long.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
So how does how does your body adjust to that
the long darkness and the long light I mean, I think.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
It's easier for the military person because they, I mean,
that's this normal business, you know what I mean. You
have to go, you had to be somewhere at a
certain time, and and getting off at a certain time.
It was this normal day to day business, so your
body acclimated with that pretty well. But I do know
like a lot of dependence that stayed at home and
didn't work. They had a hard time. Saw some people

(18:22):
put like aluminum foil over their windows so they were
able to sleep at night when it was so bright
out and yeah are they all had to have happy
lights to to have vitamin D right, so they were
prescribing that as well too, to make sure that the
person was not depressed, you know, so.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Sure, sure, I mean I can only imagine what that
does to you physically. I mean even even the sold
you know, the airmen or the soldier, you know, you
get t tests, you've got you know, a rigorous schedule normally,
and here you are deficient and vitamin D because you're
not getting sugned. So I mean, so you've got to
be on top of your your meals. You got to

(19:01):
be on top of everything to make sure that you're
able to do that. So how how long were you
up there?

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Three years?

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Three years? Man, that's that's a lot of yeah, rough
on the body. Yeah, in the dark and the Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
I feel like people that came during the winter months
didn't enjoy it. As much compared to the people that
came during the spring and summer months because of all
the things that you can do, Because I mean, if
you're outdoorsman and you like the fish and you like
the hunt, that was like heaven for them.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Right.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
For the person that likes to go shopping all the time,
that wasn't so much because we really didn't have much
to offer at Alfon or in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
So what did you do when on your off time
up there?

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah, that's I mean, we the first year was pretty
busy just with work and stuff like that, and so
I mean, yeah, we tried to go out as in
vacation as much as we could. We used to go
down to Anchorage once a year to go shopping, just
to stock up on things because at the time we
didn't have a Walmart and Fairbanks and so or any
big stores for that matter, and it was expensive too,

(20:08):
and so we would go down to Anchorage, rent a
bigger vehicle and so go stock up on things and
then come back. How long was that drive About seven hours.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
That's a long drive. Yeah. So so I mean if
you forgot something, if you you just didn't have it
during the winter months, you just did without.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
It, yeah, or you could order you know, like it
seemed like a lot of times and things that what
we normally did at the time was go to a
lot of like those house parties and so like the
pamber Chef and like the Lagenburger baskets and all that
other stuff. You know, that's that's where you got to
spend your money at.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
So right, right, So what are you driving in this?
I mean you gotta have full drive, right.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
I had a Geo Metro actually that's drive. No, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
So anything exciting happened while you're up there, I mean
other than just I mean work, and yeah, of course
sure you're here when nine to eleven happens, right right.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
And so I actually also deployed right before nine to
eleven happened. I deployed back to Saudi Arabia, but this
time at Prince Salton Air Base, which we all also
call it is Peace Ab. That was only three months
at the time, and that my hopes were that I
was going to get out of the cold weather for
that winter, because that was the first winter that I
was there. So I was like, yeah, let's see if

(21:29):
I can go warm up a little bit, but yeah,
and then so that was the year of the hit
two K and seeing if everything was all the like,
like all the electronics were going to go down, you know,
if the world was going to come to an end
to you know, So that was also interesting. And yeah,
I got to meet a lot of different people there,
and I actually was promoted. I was selected for promotion

(21:53):
as well during that time. So, uh, to staff sergeant
to five for the Air Force.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
How does that promotion work? You have like a promotion
board or in the Air Force, or to go.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
From E one to E four it's typically just automatic.
You can get Seniorman below the zone which is E
four ahead of time, so uh, it's not always a guarantee.
And then E five through At the time when I
got promoted E five, all the way through E nine
you were going on taking a test, two tests, one

(22:28):
for Air Force knowledge and one for your a f C.
After E seven you only tested for Air Force knowledge though.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Okay, okay, So you come off the deployment, you get
back to Alaska, and then is this when nine to
eleven happens?

Speaker 3 (22:43):
Yeah, and so shortly thereafter I finally I'm able to
put my stripe on I had made it fairly quickly,
so I had to wait about a year to actually
get the chance to put my staff Sergeant Stripe on
to become an n c O. And then yeah, shortly
thereafter then nine to eleven happened and all chaos broke off.

(23:04):
I remember one of my young airman that I was
supervising calling me he was a troublemaker actually at the
time too, saying that he wasn't coming back because of
planes crashing into the World Trade Center. I'm like, what
are you talking about. You better get your butt back
on that plane. You better get up here, you know.
I was like, you're already enough heat, and so like, no,

(23:25):
turn on the turn on the news, you know. And
so sure enough you saw everything just coming, you know,
the planes going through the tower, just the recaps of
everything and stuff like that. And then all of a
sudden the phone started ringing. Mix husband was a cop
at the time, and so he got called into duty.
I got called in shortly thereafter, and just like, yeah,

(23:47):
there was this chaos, you know, because all the faces
were shut down and everything else.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
So being that that kind of remote, I mean, was
news pretty slow. I mean, we're we're just early into
the Internet phase, right, and so things didn't travel as fast,
you know, back then. But I mean, what what about
things like the news?

Speaker 3 (24:04):
I mean, yeah, I think it's I think it was
still appropriate with the timing. It didn't like last very
long because it was early early in the morning for
us when when that all happened, and so so the
television cable, we sat cable and everything else like that,
but not necessarily like you said, Internet, but it did
travel pretty quickly, okay.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
So I mean as soon as this happens, I'm sure
the base immediately goes a lockdown.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yep, we're going to delta.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, and you get called in. I'm sure everybody gets
called in, right, you know, they'll decide who gets to
go home later. I mean, was that just pure chaos there?
I mean, how many how many people are stationed up
there at that base? I guess, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Oh, I'd have to do some research about that. I'm
not one hundred percent sure.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Because I know places foll thousand like Fort Bragg, right,
so Fort Bragg were good to the largest army installations.
I mean when those things go on lockdown, right, because
they were open installations before and when those places is
went on lockdown previously. I mean it would take you
hours to get on base. Yeah, so what was it
like up there?

Speaker 3 (25:07):
And that was the same case because we did go
onto Delta too, and so they weren't allowing anybody. They
were trying to figure things out and what they needed
to have happened, you know, with this law enforcement with
the security forces folks. And I remember like definitely no
civilians coming on base. Militaria was like very iffy at

(25:27):
that too, so like they were, I mean, it was
it was clear chaos. If you were on base, you're
you were good if you needed to come on base,
and yeah, you might as well stay at home for
the next few days. And that's pretty much what happened
when I was there that I was responsible for house
of goods, like contracting the contractors out to come on

(25:50):
base to have the people's property get picked up and
everything else like that. So of course moves were supposed
to happen that day too, and the carriers were not
allowed to come on base. And then like then stop
loss was happening, where like people were that were scheduled
to separate and retire, and so they were trying to

(26:10):
figure out their entitlement still and how that was all
going to work out and whatnot. So yeah, there was
a lot going on.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, So how how long did that chaos last?

Speaker 3 (26:20):
I would say several months? Actually, okay, yeah it was good.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, any anything else?
I mean, what did they you know, you go to Delta,
that's that's I'm assuming that's the highest of the Air Force. Yeah,
I mean you're on lockdown. I mean what what was
the kind of posture and and going through your mind
at that point? What were you thinking?

Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, I mean a lot of people, like they had
augmentees where they pulled people back for security forces and
stuff like that. So a lot of the normal mission
was slowed down quite significantly in regards to like this
limited operations just because we were supporting them at the
forces because it was twenty four to seven, you know,

(27:02):
And so the first couple of months it was chaotic,
but then things started to normalize a little bit more.
They were still trying to figure out how they were
going to let uh civilians on base and like the
local movers and everything else like that, just finding the
new norm.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
So did your mission your mission change? I mean you're
doing household goods and stuff like that. Obviously nobody's moving,
nobody's going anywhere. I mean, they can't have you just
sitting there tooling your thumbs. Did they change your mission
and have you focus on something else?

Speaker 3 (27:33):
So several of us had to actually go out and
be part of the augmentee program, and so the folks
that were left back stayed in the office just in
case if they needed things, you know, as things got
to normalize, and still answer questions and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
So yeah, so any any part of that installation. You know,
of course shortly after nine to eleven, you know, next thing,
you know, we're we're sending half the military to the
Middle East. Yeah, did anything come out of your area
that went to the Middle East for support?

Speaker 3 (28:05):
So the difference between the Army and the Air Force
is that we go in like as individuals versus as
large teams as far as posts go, you know what
I mean. So we did increase our mobility numbers by
sending folks over to those deployed locations.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Okay, do you get to augment anybody in to help
replace them or when somebody volunteers and goes undeployment I mean,
what do you do for that slot?

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (28:31):
You suck it up.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, you suck it up. You stuck it up, and
you keep on doing the same mission the best that
you can.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Okay, okay, So what year did you leave there?

Speaker 3 (28:44):
I left in two thousand and three, going back down
to San Antonio as a tech training instructor to actually
teach the traffic management.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
So you were there for a good portion after nine
to eleven. I mean you were there for a while, right, yeah,
I mean by the time you left, I mean, what
was you know, I know my thought when we went in,
you know, nine to eleven happens, and then we started
deploying people. You know, because I and you were of
that same generation, I was thinking, all right, this is

(29:14):
desert Storm all over again. We're gonna go kick the
shit out of somebody and then come home. Right, you know,
there's gonna be six months and we're done, and then
next thing we know, and we'll get to that a
little bit. We're twenty years into it, right, But here
you are, you know, you're several years after it already happened,
and you already knew about desert storm and how short
it was. What were you thinking at that point, we're thinking,

(29:34):
I mean, is this going to be a forever war? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (29:38):
I mean it was like it's still a disbelief because really,
you know, just thinking about what happened and everything else
like that. You know, I think it was definitely an
eye opener. You know, listening to a lot of Air
Force folks that's going over there for six months, seven
months and stuff like that, but then seeing the Army
go for like twelve months to eighteen months. So I

(29:58):
was like, I don't want to be part that, you know,
so it's like, no, thank you. It was definitely an
eye opener. It's like, yeah, I really don't know what
I thought as far as it like continuing on. You know,
you watch the news that the best you could and
hope for the best, you know.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
So okay, so you get you get back down to
San Antonio. Yeah, in your training, does does any part
of you know, what you had just gone, you know,
nine to eleven, does any of that Did it change
any of the training that was being done and kind
of you know, maybe a little bit more emphasis on
you know, uh, going to hire alert and things like that,

(30:36):
and you know some of the some of the other
things that go with that, I.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Would say in basic training it did. They increase the
basic training time there, I would for the tech training side,
not necessarily, just because we have wartime tasks that we
have to sow. What from what I remember is that
tech training was expedited during that time to just teach
those wartime time tasks in order to make sure the

(31:02):
mission happened if you had to got deployed right away.
That I was, You're able to take care of what
you needed to the basics, you know, and so but
at the time when I was there as a tech
trainer that it wasn't like that we were going back
to normal. It was normal. The normalcy was there, so.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Okay, but they did they did kind of speed it
up to get bodies to the body in front. So
how long were you a trainer? How long were you there?

Speaker 3 (31:26):
That was a tech training instructor for for just my
career field for three years, and then I was a
has meat instructor for a year. The last year I
was in Texas. It's still at the same building and
same schoolhouse still. But yeah, so I was there from
two thousand and three until two thousand and seven. That's
when I got orders to Altis Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
So you're you're back in San Antonio and you're thinking, okay,
great here here I signed to maybe see a little
bit more of the world, and I'm back in Texas.
I'm back just where I was before.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
But it was a good thing. So it was a
good thing.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, So what was it like? What was like teaching
for the Air Force?

Speaker 3 (32:01):
To me, that was one of my favorite jobs, actually
one of my many favorite jobs actually just giving back
to the career field that I really enjoyed being part of,
and just showing new recruits how to take care of business,
you know what I mean, what their job was at
the same time, you know, so like understanding, like seeing
those light bulbs go off, like they truly understood what

(32:24):
they were going to be in charge of or what's
responsible for.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Right, And what was the what was the hazmat training?

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Like?

Speaker 3 (32:31):
I mean, so hasmat training was basically teaching folks how
to certify hazardous cargo on via air land vessel or
even planes. So and then also then as a certifier
because you have to be an inspector, So you have
a certifier position and then you have at an inspector

(32:51):
position just double checking making sure that it was done
accurately and actually when you loaded on aircraft that it
was properly certified.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's a pretty important job.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
You don't want, you know, in something leaking, causing it,
I mean, causing a plane to crash, right. Uh yeah,
and so you only did that for a year, right, Yeah.
Is that is that people that go right from uh
tech school to that or is that returning people that
need to get hazmat certified.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
It's mostly people that are returning to get certified. And
we also taught all of the different branches of service too,
So we taught the Army, we taught the Marines, We
taught the Navy as well too.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Those typically like A six and above or they or
is it just all over the it all?

Speaker 3 (33:34):
It varies. So a lot of times within the Air
Force we a lot of not necessarily brand new airman
just because so they understand the basics first before they
learned how to pack a box first versus how to
certify it. Uh yeah, So probably from E four and
above four to seven.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Right. And you enjoyed being back in San Antonio.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
I mean yeah I did.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, you came up to see me while you were there, Yeah, exactly,
we were living in Austin time. So, uh, so you
leave San Antonio and then where did you go?

Speaker 3 (34:11):
I went to Alta's Air Force Base.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Oklahoma, Oklahoma. Okay, there's there's way better places to go
to Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
That's what I thought too. I was like, how do
I get this so lucky?

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah? I mean, especially being a Texan. Nobody wants to
go to Oklahoma. Yeah nobody. So, uh what was your
what was your assignment in at Oklahoma? And what was
your rank? At this point?

Speaker 3 (34:32):
I was a six and shortly thereafter I tested for
seven and made it within that first year that I
was there. I had to wait a year to put
it on again. Yeah, you could definitely tell. Like when
we talk about deployments and stuff like that, so a
Altis fell under the Air Education and Training Command, which

(34:57):
what happens. Unfortunately, if the Air Force cannot fill all
of their their deployments, they reached back to non command
are command specific sponsored installations and they send them as
excess to go and deploy, you know what I mean.
So it wasn't so ATC wasn't part of a combatant command.

(35:18):
So that's why they went back to those those bases,
and so that's where we really felt the vacancies, you
know of for all those folks that got deployed. I
was in charge of the whole TMO office, and then
later I was responsible for the whole deployment distribution flight,

(35:39):
which consisted of like the vehicle operations folks, TMO a
portion of supply, and also the log planner's logistics planners.
What tmo's the traffic management operations. That's what my primary
office is.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
And what is that? What does that consist of?

Speaker 3 (35:55):
So that consists of cargo movement, that consists of household goods,
and also arranging passenger travel. So basically in a nutshell
where anything that comes on or off the installation comes
through our office.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Okay, now, are those offices also staffed by government service
as well? I mean you do you.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Work for your GS employees as well your civilians, So
very small numbers.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Small numbers, okay, very the army. The Army takes most
of those staff positions and just fills them with government
service and they just throw us out in the field
and make us take the stuff. So it sounds like
the Air Force does completely opposite. Yeah, all right, So
what what was I mean? Obviously nobody likes Oklahoma except
for people maybe from there. What was your thoughts in Oklahoma?

(36:38):
You get there and you're thinking, oh shit, I don't
want to be here.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
That's exactly what I thought. My father and I went.
We actually drove to Oklahoma before we got orders, before
my daughter Kayla and I drove up there from San Antonio.
We drove up from Houston with my dad that Thanksgiving
prior and just to kind of see what it was
going to be like and whatnot. And yeah, I need
less to say, that was quite depressing. I was like,

(37:02):
I don't know what I did for this, but it
is what it is, you know. So I can't talk
really bad about Eltis Altis. I was afforded at many
many opportunities there, So yeah, I didn't care for the
state very much or the location, but the mission was
very friendly to me.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
So what is it? What is there to do in
in Alta's Oklahoma and Alta Zabrace Base when you're not working.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Well, they had a lake, I mean they had stuff,
a couple of little things not too far away. They
had a lake out there and you can go like
they had a pool on base and stuff like that.
You know, there's not much shopping around, so you had
to drive at least an hour hour and a half
either to Lawton, where Fort Sill was, or Oklahoma City,

(37:51):
which was two and a half hours away. Dallas was
three and a half hours away.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
I'm not I'm noticing trend with a shopping Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, I mean during that time, it was a little
bit different, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
So yeah, like just would like just to order an
Amazon exactly.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah, you actually had to go to a physical store
back then. And they had this Rattle Snak round up
once a year in Oklahoma, very close to Altis and
so like very redneck in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
So that say a lot for somebody coming from Texas.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah. No, it was definitely like the farm Houston if
you think about it, Houston's not.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Night yeah yeah, yeah, Houston. I avoid Houston on purpose. Yeah. Hello,
were you at Altis?

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I was there for five years?

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Five years, that's your longest Yeah, that was.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
My longest assignment. Yeah, but like I said, it was
fortunate I got there as an esix and I promoted
all the way to E eight during that five year
time frame.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
So yeah, that's impressive, Yeah, impressive. So any deployments out
of ALTUS.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah too. Actually, both of them were to Iraq at
same location. One the first time was in two thousand
and eight and the second one was in twenty ten,
both to Kirkook, Iraq, and they were about seven months each.
First one was over the summer going into the winter timeframe,

(39:17):
and then the second one was in like right smack
dab in the middle of summer.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
So what was the tempo like in Iraq?

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Both different. In two thousand and eight was the normal operations.
It seemed like, you know, like a steady ops, like
we weren't leaving anytime soon. Day to day operations like normal,
normal works, twelve hour days, six days a week. You know,
they had some nice things for us to do, just
like when we were in Saudi not as bad, you

(39:48):
know what I mean. So the second time in twenty
ten is when we were starting to close up shop
in kirk Cook. So that was extremely busy there, like
packing up things, scoring around to the different units and
stuff like that. And just I think that we had
a lot more attacks than twenty ten compared to two
thousand and eight. We were also my office was responsible

(40:11):
for coordinating all of the human remain shipments back to
the States too. So that was an eye opener, you know,
that was like if you and so all of their
personal belongings too. We would not only ship their human
remains back, you know, coordinate the aircraft to come in
and working with the Army Mortuary Office and doing all

(40:35):
the transport, but we used to also take all of
their personal belongings and ship them back to And just
like reading the death reports, it's like some of these
kids were only like nineteen years old. They weren't even
illegal to drink, you know, And I was like, man,
this sucks. You know.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
So did y'all handle the same mission for Afghanistan? Did
they fly them into do you guys? Or did the
Afghanistan have their own unit.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Actually stand had their own their own area. And so
the only the human remains were from uh from that area,
from the Kirkook area, because we had army on kirk
Cook as well too, and they went outside the wire
quite a bit as well too. And so that's unfortunately,
like when we hear the helicopters and we heard emeds
all recall that was something going on. So they were

(41:22):
coming back with somebody that was unfortunately heard or that
parish during that time.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, it's a lot of a lot of dust off
going on during that time.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah. So so this first deployment, I mean, any anything
you said you had some rocket attacks more than the
second one, but on the first one, anything stand out
that happened that first deployment.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yeah, that's still probably the same, you know, with the
rocket attacks and stuff like that. You know, that's like
those experiences all together, that was like eye opening, you
know what I mean, just the living conditions that we
had too. You know, the Air Force has a little
bit more bougier than sometimes what the army does. But uh,
just speaking the truth. But yeah, there's the living conditions

(42:05):
in Iraq were not the greatest either, you know, for
anybody over there.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
So I mean you didn't have your shopping, you didn't
have your you know, we didn't have any room service,
and yeah, anything else stand out for unemployment?

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Yeah, I mean like just gratefulness, you know what I mean,
gratefulness and how much you're appreciated being an American and
not living in a war torn country and just like
feeling a lot safer.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Right, did you handle did you handle on the army
troop movements at that time in and out of country
or no, okay.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
So we coordinateed uh, we coordinated a lot of our
logistical movements with the army though. So if we had
any ground uh transportation going on and whatnot, we always
coordinated with them to have the civilianized companies come on base. Actually,
and it was I don't know if it was Iraqi's
or if it was Third World country nationals you know

(43:08):
that came on base to actually transport our cargo.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Okay, So your second deployment, what was the gap between
your first and your second?

Speaker 3 (43:16):
Two years?

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Two years? Okay, so you get you get your second deployment.
What was the temple? Like you said you were you
were tearing down right, you're getting ready to leave. So
you're you're busy. Uh, you're on the same base army
still there was the army. Army still doing you know
a lot of outside the wire stuff going on. O yep. Sure,

(43:38):
any anything stand out during that deployment.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
That yeah, just like I said, I mean, uh, like
it was a lot scarier over there. We had a
mortar attack actually in one of the dorms, like the
like the trailers, the next trailer over to us. Actually
were a mortar landed into the bathrooms area during that time.
So it's like, oh, you know, yeah, those times, I

(44:03):
don't know if I try to push those aside a
little bit more, you know, just because of the fact,
like it seemed like it went on forever, not knowing
when you're coming home, if you're going to come home.
I mean, we did see a lot more casualties during
that time too, And so yeah, you're just like grateful
and you were ready to go home.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Okay, So you leave there and you go back to Oklahoma. Yep, right,
So now how much longer were you in Oklahoma before
you left there?

Speaker 3 (44:31):
One more year? And so no, two thousand and I'm
trying to think, well fast, actually no, so ten two
more years. Yeah, in twenty twelve, that's when I got
my orders to spang dollar airvation in Germany.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Okay. Yeah, and you're like, I'm home, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
I was very excited about that.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
My mom was actually living with me in Oklahoma. She
moved from Germany to help take care of my daughter
during that time in twenty ten when I was deployed,
so she stayed there and so she was coming back
home with me and then she was gonna live there.
And then I got promoted when I was at spang
Dalam in Germany to E nine, to Chief mass Stern.

(45:12):
So that meant another move, and that's when a lot
of the moves started happening for me as far as relocation.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
So you got to Germany and we talked about that
identifier SPA in German. I mean, were you dealing with
Germans and did you get that identifier and that special.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
No, I was still within the same career field, so
I wasn't necessarily we had local nationals that I was
able to converse with and so that was really easy
and made like life a lot better for all people.
You know, like when you have someone you're in the
local area and you can speak their language, they they
they are a lot happier, right, Yeah, you can converse

(45:51):
with them, and so that was the same thing that
what happened for us during that time. So yeah, unfortunately
I was my assignment got cut short about a year, uh,
just because of my promotion, and so Germany was busy.
Went up to Sweden for a year. I was the

(46:11):
my the project officer for one of our weapons training
deployment UH because they can't they're not allowed to exercise
in Germany, and so we have to go to outside
countries like, for example, Spain. We've been to Sweden, We've
been to Norway, several other countries that allows us UH
to practice those exercises. And so we went to Sweden

(46:33):
during that timeframe.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Ow whole year, but no for one month, one month only. Yeah,
so spangalum and then you went. You went up somewhere northeast,
didn't you. Where'd you go from there? Yeah? I went?

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Then I was selected since I moved, I went to
Delaware actually Dover Air Force Base, yep, Delaware. That was
a really awesome excitement. I went. My I was mentioning
before when we first started this conversation, we were in
an air report squadron, which is not typical for TMO,
and so Dover is also a strategic port and so

(47:10):
that was also at an aerial port. So it was
kind of neat to see, like me going from an
E one airman basic all the way to getting promoted
to E nine at a port too. So yeah, Dover
was a great assignment, also short lived though I was
only there for a year, So.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Is there just not that many slots for E nine's.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Or are they just they needed within my career field? Okay, yeah,
there's a certain amount per career field. And so we
had sixteen authorizations in my career field and people were
retiring and so you had to go fill those higher
level positions, right, And so yeah, from Dover, I went
to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois and then where

(47:50):
we stood up their Air Force Mission, air Force Installation,
Mission and Support Center, which basically a centralization for all
training and policy for cargo movement and passenger travel. And so, uh,
Scott Air Force Base in Illinois was the Detachment nine

(48:11):
and so that was taking care of all of the
bases within the commands of Air Mobility Command and Global
Strike Command and also Air Force District of Washington. So
all of those bases that were in that area. I
believe there's twelve of those bases that I was responsible
for the training and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Okay, wow, that's that's a lot of Yeah, that's so.
And how long were you at Scott?

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Only a year?

Speaker 2 (48:40):
So, I mean I got to point out your last
name is Scott, and you're like you tell everybody that
the base or.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
No unfortunately my grandpa.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, so you go from there is this when you
where do you go after that? Is this? When you
go to Ramstein?

Speaker 3 (48:54):
No, then I went to I went to back to
San Antonio, uh to Randolf this time though, that's where
the headquarters Air Force Mission, air Force Installation Mission Supports
Center was, and so they had centralized everything. So they
took all of the debts and drew those down and
so that was the whole setup of that was pretty
much in the infancy stage of the Air Force Installation

(49:17):
Mission Supports Center, and so they had made some changes
and so they centralized all the functions in San Antonio
on Kelly Airfield.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
They closed down. Yep. So you mentioned that there was
there was a lot of retirements. Was that what do
you why do you think there were so many retirements
in such a kind of a short period of time.
Do you think the dragging on war in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Do you think that had to do with these guys
just going you know what, I've done it, I'm ready

(49:46):
to go.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
I think just career choices and family deployments. They probably
had enough of this moving on. A lot of them
were reaching their thirty year mark two. So the Air Force,
you can't stay in after thirty years as a a
chief master's learn, so unless you're in certain key level positions.
And that was pretty much what was happening. And so

(50:09):
I was selected to for the centralization and that's why
I went back to San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
Okay, so they want to get you a nine's and
they're well under that thirty, so they can keep you
for a while, right exactly. Yeah, so you go to
San Antonio. What was anything anything stand out this next
second trip?

Speaker 3 (50:28):
So then I was responsible for basically the whole entire
like KNUS, all of the installations in the continental US
and a lot bigger side picture, right, And so I
was responsible for all the manning and training uh for
them for the first year, and then I moved over
to the policy side for passenger No, yeah, for passenger

(50:48):
travel and cargo movement. And that's the number two position
within my career field for e nines. And so from there,
the career field manager who sits at the Pentagon was
also retiring and reached out to me and said, hey, Sandy,
we're thinking about bringing you up here. Are you interested?
And I was before my twenty year Mark, and so

(51:10):
I pretty much had to say yes, And so that's
what happened. Yeah, and then I got slet.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Did she say Sandy or did she say sorry?

Speaker 3 (51:21):
No, Nope, no Sandy, she.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Said Sandy Air Force.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
Yeah. But we have been friends. The person that reached
out to me, the crew field manager, we've been friends
for several years. We we actually deployed back in Saudie
together back in in two thousand. Okay, so the second time.
So I've known the individual quite a long time.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
So okay, so you you take a spot in DC.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Yeah, uh, yep. After two years in San Antonio, I
go up to the Pentagon and I was the career
field manager for about a year and a half, almost
a year and three quarters, and then assignment came out
and I saw it was back to Germany. I was like, well,
I'm gonna try. So I begged and pleted with one
of our general officers and asked for them to allow

(52:13):
me to be released out of the career field and
out of that position because it was the top position
for our career field right and and sure enough. Yeah.
Then I became a group senior listed leaders that I
was responsible for four squadrons of the manning training about uh.
I think it was about eleven hundred pokes that were under.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Sound pretty good size. Yeah, good size. So you're back
to this time. You're Ramstein right Romstein in Germany. Uh,
And during this time frame, this is when withdrawal from
Afghanistan happened, right this trip. So how long were you
back back in Germany before the withdrawal.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
I was there for a year because I was just
coming back actually from leaves taking my daughter to college
in Kentucky her during for her freshman year year. And
I was coming back and I was looking at my
work phone and I saw something going on. It just
seemed weird. And the person that was uh holding or
sitting in my seat during that time basically like as

(53:12):
a fill in for while I was on leave, and
I called and I said, Hey, what's going on. It's
like I can't talk to you over the phone about
this and everything else like that. And sure enough, like
that same day I landed. That very next morning, we
were there at six o'clock in the morning and we
were starting to get folks come down.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
So yeah, yeh people coming in at six am.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Even before that, Yeah, we were trying. We were trying
to start set up and like blocking off in the
buildings and stuff like that, like staging areas for the
for them to come through to process them in, because
we needed to process them in. You know, they had
to go through the State Department and everything else, and
they had to get cleared first and before we housed

(53:56):
them and uh, stuff like that before we found out.
But there what was going to be next for them
before they came to the United States.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
You know, you got all hands on deck at this point,
right You've got probably SP's patrolling keeping people corralled. You're
setting up tents everywhere. How how often were planes coming
in with people?

Speaker 3 (54:17):
I mean there were planes waiting on the ground before
we could process them. So there was a couple for
the Yeah, it was it was crazy. So we were
told initially, I think it was going to just be
twelve hundred folks, and then all of a sudden, the
planes started rolling in with hundreds on the planes. I
mean they were just completely like jam packed to the max.
I mean sitting on the floors. There weren't in a chairs.

(54:38):
And before we were able to figure it out, we
kept them on the planes just because we needed to
find a good path for them to go through, you know.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
So, and you guys had no warning this was coming.
Nobody told you this very shortant term, short term. Yeah,
so these planes start rolling in. How long? How long
did that? How many days were.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
You It was seemed like it was oh gosh. So
it started in August and it didn't end. I mean
the whole operation ended over Halloween on October thirty first,
was the last plane that took off for the States.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
And so there was a probably like August September, probably
a good thirty days plus, and then we ran into
that was also during the time with COVID going on
and everything else like that, and then the immunizations, and
they needed to have be immunized, you know, not only
just for COVID, in which they had to wait there

(55:38):
two weeks to get their booster shot, and then they
had to also have their normal like chicken pox vaccinations
and stuff like that that they don't normally get in
their country, you know. So in order for them to
go to the US, we needed them to stay there
in order for them to make get all their immunizations

(56:01):
and stuff like that. So in total, we had over
at one given time between rams sign and also Kaiser's
Latern where the army post was. There is thirty four
thousand people.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Wow, over that whole period of time. Thirty four thousand people. Yep.
That's a lot of people. Yep. And and wow, going through.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
The different weather changes and stuff like that, where it
was hot during the summer and then cool during the
when I was starting to get cooler, I mean, having
tents and just like it took up our whole flight
line operation, Like we had tents all over the place.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
And I would venture to say the majority of these
people came with nothing but the clothes on their back. Yes,
so and so now you're you're not only you know, immunizations, well, housing, food, immunizations.
Now you're clothing. Now you're you know everything else, all
of that. That's for twenty four thousand people. Yeah, over

(57:01):
a couple of months. That's a lot of people. That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
It was hectic, like long hours eighteen I mean I
remember the first three to four weeks, we were working
at least eighteen hours a day, nineteen hours a day,
and it was just exhausting.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
So oh yeah, and so what I mean, what was
your actual job title at this point?

Speaker 3 (57:21):
So I was I was a group senior en listed leader,
my boss, the colonel, and I we were responsible for
the log yard, the logistics yard where they processed all
of the folks in that came off the aircraft and
then they got looked at from security forces and then
they went through the medical area. Then they got screened

(57:42):
by whether it be the State Department, and if they
were questioned for any anything that they could have possibly
been involved with back in Afghanistan, that wasn't so good.
They were processed out again, you know what I mean.
I mean, they were families upon family is It seemed
like initially that was just going to be folks that

(58:03):
were affiliated with the military that were helping us out,
you know. But no, I mean we had we had
incidences where where there were babies that being had on
the aircraft as well while they were waiting in line.
I mean, it was this like and just trying to
find space for all of everybody, you know, trying to

(58:25):
find the food that they needed in order to survive, really,
you know what I mean. So we had to work
with all I mean, there was a whole wing operations
center from all different entities that were responsible for certain things,
but ours was just the logistics piece with the buses
and transporting them, you know, getting supplies in and out

(58:47):
to them of what they needed.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
How many babies would you say, We're born during this
period of time.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Probably over twenty, I would say, I say, yeah, wow.
And the small children too, you know, I mean you
had children and like uh, you had children from all
age groups, you know, and so just trying to provide
to them, to make them and then keep them secure
in a in a certain area too, you know.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
And entertained. I mean you got kids that are sitting
that they want to play, they want to run around,
they're seeing aircraft or seeing military stuff and they want
to go do something.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
So I mean there was a life changing experience for
a lot of them because they had never like never
seen like maybe green grass before too, you know, so
or like I know, one thing that we had a
hard time with is just using like learning how to
use a bathroom, the simple things you know that you
cook for granted, you know. So I mean just getting

(59:45):
them ready to ship out to back on a plane
and not knowing what's next. Oh yeah, you know, the
uncertainty is like you don't know what's going to happen
next to where they were going to go to, I
mean their whole family, or if they had family left behind.
To you, I mean, we had, luckily had a lot
of different chaplains that were working there and a lot

(01:00:07):
of we had a lot of different aids, like the
Red Cross was there in full force and trying to
help out as much as they could, and people from
off base, and we're trying to give them supplies and
that they needed, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
So so your your whole career up to this point
kind of prepared you for this, but in a lot
of sense, it didn't prepare you for what you were
just No, this is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
Probably something that I remember exactly what I was doing,
uh for nine to eleven, what I was like taken
care of and like that incident and this is another
like nine to eleven experience for me.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
What would you say was the biggest lesson you learned
from that? Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
I would say, care you know, you don't know what
these people are going through, and that they're all humans,
you know, and just trying to be humble of what
you have, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Okay, so how long so this goes on thirty four
thousand people? How much longer. Were you in Germany after this?

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
So that was October thirty one, and then I left
in that following I want to say that I'm trying
to think that following January after that, in twenty twenty
three is when.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
I left, Okay, And is that when you went to Alabama? Yes? Okay.
So then so now you're going to go back into
kind of teaching. I mean, you're not really an instructor, right,
I mean at this point, but you're back in the
teaching environment. So what was that like going from you know,
going from hell back to state side. I mean, you

(01:01:58):
just experienced all all of this for these people, and
you're kind of and you know, I saw it in
some of my limited deployments. I mean, you appreciate what
you have after that, right, right? And so now you
get to Alabama and you know, what are you thinking
this may be my last stop? Or I mean, what
was your thought kind of going into that book?

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
So I knew that Alabama was going to be my
last stop because I was coming up on my time,
and so I knew that I wouldn't been able to
get a different assignment. And that's actually I left Germany
a little bit before I finished my three year assignment
just because I was selected for that job to be
the Chief of Education at the Air Force Senior n
C Academy. I thought I had always wanted to go

(01:02:39):
back ever since I was a student back in twenty eleven,
and so finishing my career out there, that's exactly what
I wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
So it's a nice installation. So yeah, yeah, it's a
nice place to be. It's a little weird you walk
around with your hands in your pockets and calling everybody
by their first names, but that's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Yeah, so I guess I'm old school as well when
with the hands in the pocket and stuff like that.
So that's not necessarily how I grew up either, but
that's that's I guess what's okay now, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
So, so what was it like being at the n
C Academy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
So it was like, uh, it was really an eye
opener as well too, just because of the fact, like
understanding how the education and how it has to shift
to stay relevant for our senior and CEO's attend attend
the school. And it was definitely like just working with

(01:03:37):
some of the best people from around the Air Force,
and it just it was like, I was saying, that
was probably the best way to end my career.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
But the tempo was probably I mean, after going through
you know, Romstein, after going through the tempo at the
school is probably pretty lax.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
Yeah, it's a lot slower.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Yeah, you got a lot of work to do, but
it's not as as you know. So so then you
finally you get to retirement. Yeah right, and you decide
you're going to retire. Now you said twenty nine years.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
In a colly?

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Why the specific? I mean, why couldn't why couldn't they
extend you to the thirty or I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
That was choice. That was a personal choice. So I
only had my daughter as a dependent and she was
about to graduate college, and I was like, this is
probably the perfect time for both of us to see
something new and before I get a pay cut before
because I don't have any more dependence. And yeah, it
was that's a personal choice, and I'm glad we did

(01:04:41):
it because I was able to spill spend time with
Kayla and go on vacation with her before she started
her big girl job, you know, South Carolina, So awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
Yeah, all right, so we we just went through twenty
nine years a year career in about an hour. It's
a little little more than an hour's it doesn't it
doesn't do your twenty nine years justice, I can tell
you that. So is there anything that you would like,
anything you remember from from this entire time that you know,

(01:05:11):
you know, maybe maybe twenty years from now, you want
Kayla to be able to watch this video and go,
I remember Mom telling me that, or I remember being there,
or your grandkids or your great grandkids to go that's
that was Grandma, that was you know, that was pretty awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
So, you know, overall, I think just the appreciation that
we have for people, you know, the friendships that you
form across the military, and just being understanding like if
you don't stay in contact every single day, that you
can still pick up from where you left off. I mean,
that's the relationship that we have. And we've known each
other over thirty plus years, you know. So it was

(01:05:47):
great seeing you during my retirement ceremony too. Oh, it
meant a lot to me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Yeah there in person, I'm glad I was able to come.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
Yeah, and being grateful for what you have too, you know,
so your freedoms are not free, and like this, the
friendships overall that that I formed and like and just
being able to go and do different kinds of things,
you know, stretching my comfort zone quite a bit, being

(01:06:18):
open to new environments. And it's not always the end either,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
So getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Yeah, exactly, That's that's that sums it up right there.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Yeah. So now that you're retired, what's what's your plans?
What are you to do?

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
Enjoy life?

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Drinking margaritas.

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
Yeah, that's pretty much what it is, planning vacations and
stuff like that. So I don't really plan on going
back to work full time anymore. I've started volunteering quite
a bit with the Food Bank and Montgomery and also
the Meals and Wheels program here. I think I'm going
to dabble into the travel planner uh industry a little bit,

(01:07:00):
just to make a little bit of side money to
fund my my fun time, you know, so and spend
time with family and friends you know, over the years.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
That's awesome. Well, any any parting words any I.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
Just want to say things again, Rob for this opportunity,
and I am excited to listen to the other stories
that you have as well. If I can help you
out in any which way, if you need anyone else.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yeah, any anybody you know that wants to tell their story,
I mean, send them our way. Well, okay, you know
we we want to capture these that the kind of
goal for this was to you know, we know of
the medal, Medal of Honor winners, right, we know that.
You know that the Bronze Stars and those guys. What
we don't have captured is everybody else, right, And there's
some good stories to be told out there, and I

(01:07:50):
want to make sure that we capture those. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Absolutely, And I definitely tap into my resources and get
some folks send them your way. So but the things again,
you know, have fun while you're in the service because
it goes by and a quick blink of eye. So
and if it's not just four years, six years, or
ten years, you know, does serve your time honorably too.

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
So yeah, all right, we'll hang out, hang out real
quick and catch on the other side.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Yeah, absolutely, have a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Yep.