JI was a remote assignment.  So once again I packed up and left my wife and daughters.  This time they moved to Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Kingsley Field had a small fighter aircraft detachment and, as a result, had excess housing.  We applied for and were accepted for their housing.  The house was quite nice, a three bedroom with a carport and just a couple minutes walk from school.  The base really looked out for their “waiting wives” and gave them much needed assistance.  It made “going remote” a little easier.

JI was an interesting assignment.  From the air it looked like an aircraft carrier.  It was 2 ½ miles long and 1 ½ miles wide.  The mission of the island was storage of chemical warfare weapons.

JI was a very laid back assignment.  It rained every day for about 10 minutes.  When you went outside and saw the rain clouds you simply went back in and waited for the rain to end.  No one was ever in trouble for being late.  It was just a fact of life.

 In February of 1975 I was notified of my selection to Master Sergeant.  It was effective the First of June.  Not long after my selection I was offered an assignment to Berlin, Germany.  I jumped at it.  But shortly after that I received a call from an instructor I had in broadcast school.  He asked if I would like to work for him at the Squadron headquarters that was moving to Ramstein.  I said yes.

I left JI in July, picked up the family and moved to Germany.  The 7122nd Broadcasting Squadron Headquarters was located at Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden not far from where our oldest daughter was born. Because my orders read Ramstein, I was sent to Lindsey to go to work for about three months.

Ramstein gave me an opportunity to travel extensively throughout Europe.  I was assigned to the Operations Section and to the inspection team.  I thoroughly enjoyed inspection trips and giving guidance to the stations.  I was also in charge of the Mini-TV program.  The concept was to send a package of 20 hours of TV on ¾ inch videotape cassettes to the first site.  The following week they would send it to the second site and receive a new package for that week.  The next week site two would send to site three, etc.  The last site would return it to AFRTS in Los Angeles.  My job was to keep track of the units and ensure they moved along smoothly.  I was also tasked wiht issuing each site a VCR and TV and to inventroy them lperiodically.

 In February of 1980 I received my next assignment:  Colorado Springs.  We were all elated, even though I was going back into Hospital Administration.  I wrote and told them I thought I had a good chance of getting promoted but their response was no problem because the position I was slated to fill was a Chief Master Sergeant slot.  On June 1st I was notified of my selection to Senior Master Sergeant and we moved into temporary quarters.  On the 8th I was told our assignment was changed to Beale AFB, California.  We were crushed.  I called headquarters to get it changed back but to no avail.

My job was as the Hospital Sergeant Major…. the senior enlisted administrative specialist…. again.  I was also the senior enlisted advisor to the Hospital Commander.  The assignment only lasted 18 months and then it was back to Ramstein.

This time I was assigned as the Chief of the Regional Production Center.  I had four people working for me.  Our job was to produce a monthly fifteen-minute news show and spots (commercials) for AFN.  The staff quickly grew to eight people and within one year we had increased our programming to two thirty-minute shows a month.  Our commercial output doubled as well.

After three tries at Chief and falling further in the standings each time I knew it was time to retire.  On May 31st 1986  retired with an effective date of June 1st. We weren’t ready to leave Germany yet so I started applying for civil service jobs.  Just before Christmas I was called for an interview.  It was with Training Support Activity Europe (TSAE).  Two hours after the interview Civilian Personnel offered me the position.   Six months after I started working at TSAE the unit was transferred to 5th Signal Command.  That gave us a chance to change the name.  While brainstorming one day I jokingly said we should call ourselves Ktown Vise (A take off from the TV series “Miami Vice”).  The idea caught on and we became Visual Information Services Europe (VISE).  Two years later my boss left and I got promoted to GS-12.  The unit was reorganized and Photo and TV Maintenance were put under me.

Desert Shield broke in 1990.  As the command’s documentation unit we were tasked to record the command’s preparation for war.  I organized five three-man teams (a videographer, still photographer and engineer) and began sending them out on missions.  In 90 days we recorded over 250 hours of video and 10,000 still photos.

Desert Storm started in January 1991.  I had a funny feeling.  I felt like I should be there or at least be directly involved.  I felt like the NFL Quarterback who spent his career preparing for the Super Bowl and not going.  And having his team go to the Bowl the year after he retired.

Once Desert Storm ended we then had to document the return of the units.  Another huge mission!

We did the same thing as we did for Desert Shield.

 I retired on October 1, 2000.

We moved to Michigan to be near our (then) five grandkids.  We now have seven.