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NEWS | July 15, 2008

Saying goodbye after thirty years

By Staff Sgt. Misty D. Slater 1st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

It all began in September of 1978 when Ellis Q. Clark decided to join the U.S. Air Force. 

Q: Why did you decided to enlist in the Air Force instead of any of the other services? 

A: I kept hearing about the better quality of life provided to Air Force members.

Q: What was your career field? 

A: "When I originally joined, I came in as an Attack Avionics Firepower Weapons Control System specialist on F-111 aircraft and later rivetized to work A-10, F-15, and F-16 aircraft."

Q: Did you ever contemplate getting out? 

A: Yes. Within my first enlistment ... because I was trapped -- I mean stationed -- at Cannon Air Force Base and didn't really like it. But then I had a great superintendent, Master Sgt. Willie Childress, who took me under his wing and mentored me."

Q: Did you ever think you would be in for 30 years? 

A: No, I didn't.

Q: At what point did you know you were going to make this a career? 

A: When I hit my 10-year mark and visited my hometown. I ran across a neighbor of mine who had been in the Air Force and got out after nine years. He always told me that had he thought about it through and through, he would have stayed in and reaped the benefits of retiring. That always stuck with me.

Q: What do you like most about the Air Force? 

A: Having served as an Air Force first sergeant, because I love working with people. My job is people, everyone is my business.

Q: How long have you been a first sergeant? 

A: I started back in 1994 with the 74th Air Control Squadron -- right here at Langley Air Force Base. Well ... at least it was here back then. I resigned after three years and was later asked by my command chief at Kadena Air Base to return to the first sergeant career field because he needed me in the 18th Medical Group. That was back in the year 2000, and I've been doing it ever since.

Q: Why did you choose to become a first sergeant? 

A: My first sergeant, Master Sgt. Willie Douglas, groomed me while I was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base, Colo. When he first asked me about it, I specifically remember telling him "I saw your job and I don't want it." In 1994, I remember it being a Tuesday morning and my former commander requested I stop by his office. He explained that the current first sergeant's father had passed away and that he wanted me to fill in for two weeks while he was away. Two weeks turned into a month. By the time Master Sgt. Douglas returned, I was hooked. He practically had to chase me down to get back his pager and keys to the office.

Q: Is there a difference between being a first sergeant in maintenance and other career fields? 

A: Absolutely! Did I mention I'm a maintainer? I love working with the many diverse organizations that a first sergeant can work in, but I'm a maintenance person at heart. I lived what they're currently living -- with all the craziness and chaos that surrounds doing maintenance. Accomplishing the mission is an awesome feeling at the end of the day.

Q: How has your family helped you throughout your career? 

A: My family sacrificed tremendously when I decided to put my head into the books to study for promotion, and they supported me in many ways when I moved to Korea. Those were definitely career impacting support events.

Q: Any advice to the new Airmen? Noncommissioned officers? Senior noncommissioned officers? 

A: Senior NCOs: Continue to provide structure, training, equipment and guidance. Know that your right decision may not make you popular, but folks will always know that it was right.

Junior NCOs: Follow the lead and guidance of the Senior NCOs. Also, find one that you aspire to emulate or succeed -- then do it.

Airmen: follow the junior and senior NCOs that are doing it right. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Remember, there's no such thing as a dumb question, but there is such a thing as a good person who gets stuck in a dumb situation because they didn't ask a question.


Q: How is the Air Force different now from when you joined? 

A: When I joined back in 1978, there were a lot of folks in the shop. The orderly rooms and Consolidate Base Personnel Offices worked predominately with typewriters and later the popular word-processing computer was a Wang.

Back then, when your supervisor gave you a letter of counseling, you knew they were really upset. Do you know what it's like to draft a letter of counseling without spell check and cut and paste?

Today, the Air Force is smaller, but the mission has not decreased. There are fewer face-to-face interactions and a much greater reliance on computers. Rather than paying a visit to personnel or finance, we visit virtual MPF and My Pay Web sites to accomplish things. We've brought several new weapons platforms on line, to now include the F-22. Langley didn't miss a beat through runway closure, major deployments, relentless Operational Readiness Exercises, and then our most recent Operational Readiness Inspection, where we didn't just get by, but were rated "Excellent."

Now when I look around and see the folks that are pulling this off, they're just as young, if not younger than my son, who's in college, and I say to myself "That's just awesome." I feel confident that when I render my final active-duty salute, that today's Air Force is being passed along into confident hands from our newest airman basic to our next chief of staff.