Veterans Day

Irish-Americans are the #1 nationality in regard to winning Congressional Medals of Honor. My part in the heroic story of Irish American Veterans is a little less exciting than Audie Murphy.

When I entered university, my parents had just bought a pub. To finance my way through school, I joined Air Force ROTC. At the beginning of my sophomore year, my parents were doing really well so I dropped out of ROTC. I had been told that I would not be called into service, but when I graduated from the College of Engineering at Rutgers, there was a government letter that meant my plans were going to change. I was ordered to Lackland AFB in Texas.

A few weeks later, I nervously hopped on a TWA flight to San Antonio. I was in for several weeks of one of the world’s greatest social experiments – forging 100 guys from every background across the US into a single military team. The first thing I learned is that white guys look the same when you shave off all their hair. I did not mind so much the haircut but they also made me pay for it!

The first few days and weeks were times of quite a lot of prayer. Mind games and humiliation were the weapon of our steroid filled Training Instructors or TIs. The slightest rules infringements such as T-shirt not being folded exactly to the military 6X8 in sq rectangle would lead to your entire drawer of folded and starched clothes being thrown apart in front of the entire group. In spite of the fear factor some of the TIs could be downright funny. I can remember one poor guy who during inspection was found to have left his collar up. The TI came up, "Do you think you’re Elvis, Son." The poor guy choke out, "Nnno sir." The TI yelled, "I THINK you do look like ELVIS. I want to hear ya sing. You know, 'you ain't nothing but a hound dog. SING”. We were all dying to laugh aloud but we knew better!

After basic training, you would normally be sent to technical school. Since I was only in for 2 years, the Air Force would not allow me to attend any technical school over 2 months. This meant I could only be trained as a security guard. I am a pretty active person so sitting around posting guard did not appeal to me. In searching my options, I found out that it was possible but very rare to test out of one of the technical fields. Since I know electricity from my undergraduate degree, I passed the test to be an F-16 electrician and was given orders to Homestead AFB just south of Miami, Florida.

Now to the part where the Air Force really made a difference! Homestead was considered on the front lines of the "War on Drugs". This meant that part of our mission was to keep an eye out for small planes used to bring illegal substances to South Florida. In my time at Homestead, we only intercepted one plane. One of the more vigilant F-16 pilots forced down a Cessna loaded with drugs on to our base runway. Unfortunately, the pilot did not radio for base security. The drug pilot and passenger walked away from the plane. By the time Base security arrived the passengers had left. The drug dealers were able to hitchhike a ride on base and were driven to their freedom. On base it was widely rumored that the drug dealers had evaded base security by dropping a box of fresh, glazed doughnuts from their vehicle.

South Florida was a tough duty assignment. The first thing I was told was to forget everything that I had been taught in Basic Training. Forgetting was always one of my stronger skills, so far so good. I worked on my tennis and basketball game with really energy. After a year when I injured my knee, the Air Force provided truly top-notch surgeons to perform ACL knee surgery. I was kept busy for the remainder of my time with knee therapy. Before I left, I was able to enroll in the GI Bill that help fund my MBA at William & Mary in Virginia where I met my great wife.

My veteran’s story might have ended there, but 2 years ago my wife's grandfather a WWII veteran (Army Air Corp B-29 technician) suggested I put in a disability claim with Veteran’s Affairs for my knee. According to the letter that confirmed receipt of my claim, a VA “Tiger Team” validated and I am in fact a disabled Veteran. This further entitles me to an additional $108/month.

In a more somber note, I would like to think all of the people who are putting their lives in harms way to defend America.