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Today's Featured Biography

Mike Williams

Hello to All,

Since 1981 I guess it would be a fair statement to say I've been busy. After graduation I was working at the Shell station on the corner of Overland and Curtis. I liked the job, but, I saw that as a go-nowhere position so in December I followed my friend Don Lindgren into the Air Force, heading off for Basic Training in April '82. After six weeks in San Antonio TX it was off to Keesler AFB, Mississippi for six months of electronics school (Ground Radio Maintenance). My first duty station took me to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma which is right outside Oklahoma City. Stayed there for a little over two years. Received a rather unexpected assignment to Iceland and so in April '85 I flew up there for 13 months. Since I was now overseas, I decided to stay overseas and got a follow-on to Japan. Arrived at Yokota AB (in Tokyo) in June of '86 and left in February of '90. While there I got married and had my first son. Finally had enough of the restricted lifestyle of overseas living (there is no place like the good 'ol USA folks) and got an assignment to Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. Stayed there for almost eight years before finally getting another assignment. Shoot, I liked it so much in South Dakota I would've happily spent my next eight years there! But all was not rosy and my first wife decided she hated it there and so we got divorced. I got custody of my boy out of it and two years later I got re-married. In December '97 the Air Force said it was time to go again and I was sent to Luke AFB, Arizona. Luke is on the west side of Phoenix and I spent a bit over four years there. All along in my career I worked on a huge variety of communications gear (not just radios). I hated the Phoenix area (too hot and too crowded) and the job I was stuck doing in my new squadron. Up til then, I'd loved all the jobs I had ever been tasked with, probably because I had always worked with good people. Anyway, I finally got a lemon with this assignment and for four years it was a struggle. The only good to happen in Phoenix for me was the birth of my second son. No one was happier in the entire country than I was when I received notice for my current assignment in April of '02: Elmendorf AFB, Alaska! I felt like I had just had my sentence commuted! Located right outside of Anchorage, Elmendorf has been my dream assignment. My job here is to serve as a quality assurance evaluator and make sure the contractors who maintain the electronics at the radar sites (of which there are 18 scattered throughout the state) do what we're paying them for. We fly out to a couple sites twice a month to see how things are going. It's a very exciting job. In October '02 my third and last son was born (I say last because, um, 'steps' were taken to prevent anymore)! Last year I finally got tagged to go do my part for the war and I spent five months in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. My job there was to coordinate comm equipment installation projects (radio, radar, aircraft navigational aids) and to keep a bunch of colonels and generals up to speed on all bases' communications capabilities and needs in the region. I hated being away from my family. But, when I look at how the Army folks are being rotated in and out over there, I had it pretty easy. I'll finally retire from the Air Force next spring. That'll put me out at a bit over 24 years and I'll be moving back to Idaho sometime in '07 after my oldest son graduates high school up here. I've been to and through a lot of places over the years and for me, there's no place like Idaho. Hopefully in a couple years, I'll see a few of you. Perhaps at a reunion. I never made it to the 10th or 20th. Mike

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