Jerry Shotts:
CLASS OF 1968
McAdory High SchoolClass of 1968
Mccalla, AL
Jerry's Story
All through school,I was the one that was skinny as a rail and all the girls didn't want to have anything to do with me.I could have been voted the one that would have not made anything out of himself,might even been the one to have showed up on skid road,but in the summer of 1969,when I was working at the A&P super markets as a butcher, I received my calling to join Uncle Sam's fighting force in the Army and decided right then that my future was in the United States Air Force.I went right down to the Air Force Recuiter's office and signed up to go in the Air Force and in August of 1969 I entered, begin a life of travel and adventure. Naturealy,everything started at Lackland in San Antinoi,TX,(69)from there I went to Calf,(69-70)for training,then it was on to Rapid City,South Dakota,(70-71)this is where I met my wife Darla,which we have been together for the past 38 yrs,then we were on to Misawa,Japan,(71-74) this was our honey moon,we stayed there for 3 years,time to move again(74-77)Alamogrodo,New Mexico,here is where the white sands range is at(pure white)by this time in my stay in the Air Force it is time for a remote,so I have to go to Kunsan,Korea(77-78)that is finished back to the states,but some one has it out for me because I have to go back to Clovis,New Mexico(78-82)but this area is where my wife(Darla) decides to find out what mother hood is all about and we have two children here,a daughter/Jamie, born in 79 and a son/Jeremy born in 80 almost 18 months apart,now it is time to move again and with two children this time also.So we all are off to MacDill AFB,in sunny Tampa,Fl(82-87)We stay here for 5 and a half years getting out of serveral assignments, sending us to all kinds of different places and then it happens the one assignment that I can not get out of,it is take it and go over sea's or get out of the service after 18 and a half years of service and the situation is go for two years by myself or take the family for three.My children had never known what military life was about but they were about to find out,so we all was off to our new home in Brindis,Italy(87-91)a very nice place to visite but a rat hole to live in for any lenght of time.We were in the southern part of Italy,where they grow all kinds of crops and once the crops have been gathered,you become the crop and they(Italians)would even steal the cromes off the floor,will our stay here is up and desire to r...Expand for more
eturn to sunny Florida to retire from the service but the Air Force has different plans for me and I'm off to Omaha,Nebraski(91-92)for ten months,just long enough to see one winter there.It started snowing the week-end before Thanksgiving and kept a snow cap on the ground till the end of April,by that time you are ready to break out the golf clubs and just hit something,you are tired of looking at the ice that is always on the ground.So I hung around Offuit AFB, till June of 92 to see if I got lucky enought to make another strip,this would have let me retire at what I wanted to but no such luck,I was retiring as a E-6(Tech Segrant)with 22 yrs and 3 months in the USAF,at least it was a retirement check and something that could pay the mortage on a house if I wanted.In July of 92 My family and I return to Tampa, Florida to make it our home.Upon returning to the Tampa area,I still was on what the military called terminal leave,in which I had built up almost 90 days of leave with the military before I was declared as out of the service for good.So I went straight to work,working with Walmart,in the garden center and also working part time with the Gasparila ware house.I did this for about nine months before the chance of working with civil service came around and then it was only available for about three years.They(civil service)decided to do away with the jobs that I was working at and let a contractor to it,that is when a bunch of my friends got together and created a job for me with the contractor in military family housing,but little did I know that the person that hire me to work in that company was going to go out and hire his friend to come in and run the company at Mac Dill and make it a living hell place to work at.This person is the one that stated that I was his floor man and that was my job,also he is the one that destoried my knees but actually he did me a favor,because I had both my knee replaced in July of 2003 and retired out in May of 2005,so that brings me to the current situation,I have a USAF retirement and I have a SSI disability retirement and life is great.I can travel,play golf,bowl and just about do anything I want to do and enjoy life altogether.We have four Grand children,my Daughter,Jamie has three; Makayla(8 yrs old),Devon(6 yrs old) and Jordan(2 yrs 7 mos old);my son Jeremy has a son,Justin(8 yrs old),our grand children keep us going when they are around.
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