By Larry Chandler, PhD, Colonel (Ret) USAF
When I enlisted in the Air Force my initial rank was Airman Basic, I had no AF Form 623 (On-the-Job Training (OJT) record); it was only after I graduated from the Munitions Maintenance Technical School at Lowry AFB that my supervisor gave me an AF Form 623. After graduating, I was classified as a 3-level (skill) in the Munitions Maintenance Career Field. The first assignment was to Tyndall AFB in Air Defense Command (ADC), and even though I was a conventional AMMO troop, I worked in the missile shop and the nuclear weapons shops doing all the storage, handling and transportation tasks. These tasks were perceived as manual labor and below the station of the much smarter Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) 463 (now 2W2) Nuclear Weapons Maintenance Technicians and AFSC 316 (now 2W0) Missile Maintenance Technicians. However, it was a big deal as a 3-level to get each storage, safety, inspection, handling and transportation task signed off and initialed by my supervisor. There was a lot to learn and after I had been signed off as having the knowledge and skills required to perform all these tasks unsupervised, I was awarded a 5 skill level. This was a big deal! I could then work unsupervised and even train those unfortunate enough to be only 3-levels. The next sequence of assignments covered a great deal of professional AMMO jobs, Thailand, to Hill AFB (OO-ALC), to RAF Lakenheath and then back to the USA at George AFB. By this time I had been signed off on all the tasks and knowledge requirements and been working as a 7-level for a couple of years.
Then came the big day when I became the NCOIC of a Munitions Inspection Section… a shop chief! I thought this was as good as it could get, but there was still more to learn and more sign-offs to get. Managing a shop just seemed a natural thing to do, and I loved it! The biggest thrills were acing major command inspections and helping others experience the thrill of victory on a personal level like; your guys knocking the socks off the SKT and PFE tests, getting promoted, and winning special top-performer awards during MAJCOM inspections… this was just great duty and we all stayed in touch. The common thread through all these experiences, that I had never known before I joined the Air Force, was the recording of my career field progress in knowledge and skills attainment. In addition to the AF Form 623 technical training entries there was the professional military education and civilian education courses. My first supervisor and all of my subsequent supervisors encouraged me (all of us really) to take every military and civilian education course you could…never say no. That was great advice. Even after having been a munitions inspection shop chief twice, I took the USAFSE which was the first promotion test for SMSgt and scored 93%...wow, was I excited. Then before I could enjoy the spoils of my victory, my Squadron and Wing Commander both decided that I needed to attend Officer Training School (OTS). I had applied and been rejected three times already, so I was not excited at the prospect of adding yet another rejection, but my squadron had just been recognized as the “Best Munitions Maintenance Squadron (MMS) in Tactical Air Command (TAC)” for 1976 and my bosses would not accept my reluctance to try again. Strangely, I was accepted on this fourth application and went off to Officer Training School (OTS), even though I already had a Masters Degree and had scored 93% on the USAFSE?
After graduating from OTS, second in my class behind Dick Hitt who graduated #1, things began to move fast. Dick was also an AMMO troop, a friend and fellow 35th MMS troop from George AFB (Two AMMO troops grads # 1 & 2…wow!). It seemed aircraft and munitions maintenance was a great career field to have remained in from enlisted to officer and I lived a charmed life of great assignments. After a 335th Aircraft Maintenance Unit (AMU) at Seymour-Johnson, I went to Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) School and then onto command the 7008 EOD Flight at RAF Lakenheath for three years achieving the first & only “Outstanding” Nuclear Surety Inspection (NSI) rating in the command. Then two years of USAFE NSI inspector duty, inspecting guys doing the same job I had just finished doing myself… I learned a lot in two years. Back to the states as the maintenance supervisor of the 3098 Aviation Depot Squadron for three years…my two previous years as an USAFE NSI inspector were great preparation and we did very well. The next three officer ranks came very quickly. I spent a year-in-a-tent in Saudi as the 4404th Logistics Group Commander earning the distinction of the Best Large Logistics Group in the AF. I spent the last two years of my service as the HQ USAF Munitions, Missiles & Space Division Chief and had the distinct honor of resurrecting the Munitions Officer AFSC (it had been merged with Aircraft Maintenance in the 90’s) as the 21M Munitions and Missiles Maintenance Officer career field. It was the right thing to do, but I really hosed up by including the big missile maintenance officers; it was not a good move for them or the munitions officer career field. There are times when compromising what you know to be the right thing, just so you can get some of what you think the AF needs is a huge mistake… better to keep arguing for the absolute right thing to do. MY MISTAKE, sorry for that one! The big missile maintenance officers have more in common with aircraft maintenance officers… they maintain the missile platform, not the bombs bullets and warheads.
I retired and left the fight to the younger officers. However, the old AF Form 623 habit of always striving to get another knowledge or skill signed off never left me. Having completed all the correspondence courses, graduated from all the levels of NCO and officer PME, and having completed my B.S. (for AMMO guys we obviously got that one), an MBA/Aviation from Embry-Riddle, pilot certificate with instrument rating, FAA A&P/IA certificates while still on active duty, I was looking for something else for my AF Form 623. Since I was teaching for Embry-Riddle (ERAU) at Andrews AFB, the center director told me that I should get into the PhD program with Northcentral University, an online program, because they had a special joint program that would accept all my ERAU MBA coursework. Ok, another AF Form 623 entry, I signed up and looked forward to signing off another entry. Well that was five years ago…five years is a long time and although there were many times I thought about throwing in the towel… too many stupid requirements, revisions and arbitrary rules of format and citation management. However, finally it is over, now I have completed another AF Form 623 entry… almost all of these entries in the very same career field of aircraft and munitions maintenance and EOD. Now that I have finished, my wife Margaret and I are off on our RV for a nice long trip, but Margaret dreads hearing what she knows she will eventually hear, “well what’s next?”
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