I made lots of friends in the Air Force. How could you not? Especially in the flying game, where everytime you go up on a sortie, you put your life in your buddies’ hands. It may be subconscious. but you know it. That bond you build with these guys is strong, especially after being on a hard crew during a deployment. If you don’t particularly like them very much, you typically respect their skills and abilities to get the team home day after day…. mostly. (Some guys truly ARE just self-centered zipper-suited jagoffs).
During Nav school, I still keep in touch with a couple friends, if only through Facebook now and then. Barry Butler was in my Nav class and then my partner through Nav/Bombardier Training (NBT). He went to Fairchild AFB for a couple years, then got out, made a ton of money selling pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and now has a distillery in Tarpon Springs, FL.
Bob Mills and Pete Wangler were two guys I hung out with a lot. Both Navs, Bob became an expert at opening up and running airfields in combat and disaster areas. He retired to NJ. Pete morphed into a Air Force Doctrine expert, taught at Air University, retired as a Colonel, and then bacame a High School Jr. ROTC Instructor in St. Louis.
At Ellsworth, my first crew really is where I made my friends. Dave Bucknall was my Electronic Warfare Officer. Jeff Bradford was my second Radar Navigator, a couple years older, but close enough in age to be friends. Jim Veazey was my first Radar Navigator, and by far the person who mentored me the most in the Air Force. He and his wife, Pam, lived very close to us in Rapid City, and we kept in touch over the years. He ended up going to Edwards I think, then worked on the B-2 before retiring. Unfortunately he died a few years ago. Probably the nicest person I’ve ever met.
Chris Moore, Dave East, Jim Veazey, Me, Dave Bucknall, Lynn White.
Laura made friends with Barb and Chris Kenny, who were Civil Engineers on base. They moved to Cleveland and the Washington DC area, and for a while they were both reservists doing various things. They currently live in Oregon. We need to go visit.
At Griffiss, we became really good friends with Tim & Kathy Vinoski and Jerry and Jeannie Tshondikidis. Both had two kids about the same time as we had Kara, so we had a lot in common. Tim became really good at being an Exec, and ended up at the Pentagon advising on Bomber issues, then switched to Tampa working at Special Ops Command.
Jerry went home to work with the family car dealerships. Unfortunately Jeannie, who worked for GE and was a mover and shaker, passed away several years ago.
On my Griffiss crews, I became good friends with my AC, Dave Shunk, Tim Schuetz, Bill Hecht, Dino Perez and Ralph Davino.
When I moved to Stan/Eval, Dave Re and I became friends as we flew together as a Nav team for almost two years.
Here in Pittsburgh, I made friends with a lot of Navigators and guys I served on hard crews with during deployments.
Mark Prentice.
Navs include Mark Prentice, Joe Poznik, Ron Davis, Bob Shemer, Bill Estright, John Demaye (Who I worked with at US Airways), Pat McKenna, Bill Hertrick, Chinky Kochansky and Ray Toy.
Me, Chris Constantine, Bill Estright, Chinky Kichansky, Aldo Filoni, Ray Toy, Bill Hertrick, Craig Watkins, Wes Cranmer.
From my deployments: Tom Huzzard, Ed Tarquinio, Dan Ruediesulli. From my C-17 Conversion days, I became good friends with Sam Ewing, Chief William Andrews, Dawn Dixon, Dave Vanik, and Kyle Imbrogno.
And just from time in the Squadron, Jaime Carter, Bill Gutermuth and Diane Patton.
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