Class of: 1967
Brick: yes

I graduated from Stetson in the spring of 1967 and my wife Nina (also Stetson Class of 1967) and I both started graduate school at the University of Virginia (UVA). As you may know, our class was the first for which draft deferments for graduate study were eliminated. It took a while for me to be reclassified as 1-A, but that happened in the fall of 1968. I got my draft notice in December (Merry Christmas from Uncle Sam). I still have a vivid memory of taking my draft physical. After the examination, we were seated in a room and given questionnaires to fill out. A sergeant moved around the room to help us complete the final items on the forms. He came to the guy next to me and asked him .Were you born in the United States?. This seemed to puzzle the fellow. He contemplated for a few seconds and then said confidently .No sir. I was born in San Diego, California. I think that was when I decided to join the Air Force. I spent the next few months finishing my Master.s thesis at UVA and went on active duty in March 1969. I completed basic training and Officer Training School at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. I was commissioned in August of 1969 and spent the rest of the year training for my job as a Weapons Controller (also known as Intercept Director). Nina and I spent most of 1970 in Clovis, NM, where I was stationed at Canon AFB. I actually volunteered for duty in Southeast Asia (it seemed better than Fairbanks Alaska or Thule Greenland, the other likely options) and I spent most of 1971 (Jan. – Dec.) stationed at three different sites in Thailand. Mostly, what I did was to sit behind a radarscope and give directions to fighter pilots to hook them up with tankers for air-to-air refueling. It was a challenging and stressful job, especially when there were many aircraft to deal with and/or the weather was bad. Today, the use of computers makes this sort of work much more manageable, but at that time it was just us and our vintage WWII radar scopes and a lot of good short term memory skills. Many of the aircraft engaged in combat in Vietnam were based in Thailand and most of them refueled in the air during their missions, so we were usually quite busy. During the year, I directed more than 1000 air-to-air rendezvous. Of course, no one was shooting at me and I slept in an air-conditioned barracks at night, so it was really nothing compared to our classmates on the ground in Vietnam. Toward the end of my tour, I was awarded a Bronze Star. I don’t usually talk about that because I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I think I was some sort of war hero. Bronze Stars are given for saving lives. Some of them are awarded to soldiers who have risked their lives to pull their comrades out of the line of fire. They are heroes. Mine was given for basically just doing my job. When pilots faced emergency situations, they contacted us. We helped them to get clearances for emergency landings, got them to tankers before they ran out of gas, or sent rescue choppers to their locations if they went down. Like I said, basically doing our job. We took great pride in doing it well.

After returning to the States, I spent a several months at Homestead AFB (a few years before hurricane Andrew destroyed it) and in May of 1972 (on the very day that Nina found out she was pregnant with our first child), I found out that I was eligible for an early out. I actually considered staying in the Air Force, as there were many things I liked about military life, but my job as a Weapons Controller didn’t really fit very well with my interest in psychology, so I decided to take the early out. We returned to UVA and I finished the work for my Ph.D. in 1975. I took a job teaching psychology at what was then Northern Kentucky State College, a new part of the Kentucky state system. Now called Northern Kentucky University (NKU), the school has grown to 15,000 students. I just completed my 40th year at NKU and am now Professor of Psychology and starting into a Phased Retirement Program in the fall. Nina and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary next year. We have two grown children and one grandchild. Nina retired six years ago from her position as Assistant Dean in the College of Business at the University of Cincinnati (just across the river from NKU for those of you who are geographically challenged.) She enjoys her work as an elder in our church and also spending the winters at our condo on Siesta Key.

I have found that this short biography has been oddly cathartic to write. I don’t think about this stuff very often and am often somewhat taken aback when I see men our age wearing “Vietnam Vet” caps, but I do realize that the war was an important part of my life experience. I think I have begun to get a little more “in touch” with it in the past few years as a number of vets from Iraq and Afghanistan have shown up in my classes, virtually all suffering from some level of PTSD. My experience was nowhere near what theirs was, but it was just close enough for me have a little appreciation for what they have gone through. Our campus has a strong Veterans Center and is often recognized for the services it provides to the vets on campus. I enjoy having them in class. Thanks to all of you who worked on this project. I look forward to visiting the campus and seeing the memorial.