11 Aug 2024
My father was a Navy pilot in WW2. At some point after I matriculated, with the draft looming, he advised me, “You’re going to have to serve so figure out how to serve as an officer.” I chose Air Force ROTC largely because it would only be for my junior and senior years and only took up one summer. After graduating and receiving my commission in ‘69 I got a year’s delay of active duty to attend Thayer School to get my BE. Much as I felt opposed to what was going on in Vietnam, they made me a computer programming officer in the Air Defense Command and sent me to Phoenix, AZ to help defend our west coast from Russian bombers. I was then transferred to the Air Force Data Services Center in the Pentagon where I finished my commitment.