Vaughn Wasem

I spent a career of 20 yrs in the military; 3 yrs enlisted and 17 years commissioned. I began my career in Nov 1971 after my first year of college. I was doing rather poorly in college, so decided it would be better to do something else. I showed up at Lackland AFB, TX on 12.Feb.72 for basic training. I enjoyed the military, even basic training. I enjoyed the discipline and structure more than anything else.

Some people showed up at basic with a guaranteed job type, but I had no such thing. I was at the mercy of the AF to put me wherever they liked. Fortunately, I had very high scores on all 4 aptitude exams -- this was probably because I was raised on a farm and you tend to learn stuff when raised in that environment. I ended up at Goodfellow AFB, TX training to be a Communications Analyst, that is, a code breaker.

The training at Goodfellow lasted 6 months. My first operational assignment was back to San Antonio at Kelly AFB, Medina Annex. Breaking codes was a lot of fun and it was my first exposure to computers, "of sorts." Our connection to the main Security Service computer was via a 6 mile cable back to Hq. The computer was typically down if it rained or a spider built a web on one of the connectors. But, I was hooked on computers and began taking computer courses at San Antonio College -- this became very important later in my career(s).

The Vietnam War was going on at this time and the AF needed more pilots and navigators, so they put out a call for enlisted people to test to get a degree and commission. I passed all the tests and was released from the AF to go back to college in Sep 73. I guess they hadn't looked at my freshman grades from college as I was really lucky to get back in.

I came back to the U of Idaho, but I didn't stay at the Delta Sig house. By federal law, I had to get my degree before the year I turned 25, which meant I had to have a degree in hand by the end of Dec 1975. That gave me only 2 and half years to finish 3 years of classes. I pulled from everything I could think of to get credits; San Antonio College, Air Force Community College, and CLEP tests. I also changed my major from engineering to business.

As soon as I got back to school, I met my future wife, Marcia Hart, a Tri-Delt from Colfax, WA. She was in Air Force ROTC. We fell in love almost immediately and got married in Dec 1974. This gave the AF time to figure out how they were going to station us together, but it didn't work out very well. She got stationed at McDill AFB, Tampa, FL and I got stationed at Mather AFB, Sacremento, CA. Marcia was a Logistics officer and I was in training to be a navigator. The only way we were going to be together is if she got out of the AF and went into the Reserves, which she did.

When I finished navigator school, I was selected for additional training as an Electronic Warfare Officer again at Mather. I loved being an EWO, more computers, more electronics, more of everything I enjoyed. After finishing training as an EWO, I was assigned to B-52H's. Being in H models was important -- it meant I wasn't going to Vietnam, because the H model was our nuclear force.

My first operational base was K.I. Sawyer AFB, MI, but before going there, I had to complete several months of more training; Combat Crew training, woodland survival, and water survival. I flew operationally for about a year and then was medically grounded. I hated that I was grounded, but in the long run it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I was sent to Transportation school (only 9 wks) at Shepard AFB, Wichita Falls, TX, and then back to K.I Sawyer where I was the Traffic Management Officer.

I had a high number to go to a remote assignment, so in 1979, the AF gave me an assignment to the Transportation Squadron at Kunsan AB, Korea. It worked out real well for Marcia and I, because she was a reserve officer and she came back into the active Air Force and parlayed an assignment to Kunsan. It worked out nicely.

After Kunsan, both of us were assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH. She was assigned to HQ AF Logistics Command as a protocol officer and I was assigned to the Air Force Institute of Technology to get my MS in Logistics Management. After I graduated with my MS, I was assigned to Wright-Pat along with Marcia, so, our co-assignments were working out.

In 1983, I received an assignment to the AF Logistics Management Center at Gunter AFB, Montgomery, AL. The AFLMC is sort of a "think tank" for the Pentagon and was heavily involved in micro computers, which were a brand new thing at the time. While I was at Gunter, I picked up a BS degree in Computer Science. Since Marcia was pregnant with our first child, she got out of the active AF so she could become a full-time Mom, which is a job she totally excelled at. Once again, she went into the AF reserves.

In 1987 the Air Force selected me for a command position, so the family moved to Eielson AFB, Fairbanks, AK. All of us really enjoyed living in Alaska and I enjoyed the assignment as the commander of Transportation Squadron.

In 1991, I was selected for an assignment to the Pentagon as Chief, Transportation Systems Division -- all the computer training was paying off. I dealt closely with the automation people from all the major carriers; FedEx, UPS, Emery, and DHL. In 1994, FedEx made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I retired from the AF and moved the family to Seattle where I worked as an Advanced Automation Advisor for the next 5 years. Wanting to "come home", I quit FedEx in 1999 and moved the family to Pullman, WA where I was the network administrator for the College of Animal Sciences at WSU.

In 2006, both our kids were in college, I was 55, we were tired of snow, and we had enough money to fully retire, so I totally quit working and we moved to Clarkston, WA. Its 2026 now, we're still in Clarkston and, after 53 years, I'm married to the lovely lady I started out with. The military was great to us. Marcia retired from the AF with a total of 25 years. There is no favorite assignment -- they were all great.