Bruce Christopherson:  

Welcome to my story, simple as it may seem. :-) I attended Notre Dame International as a boarder from the fall of '73 to the summer of '76. My father was in the U.S. State Department, Foreign Service, and decided to retire in '76. So, we moved back to the Denver, Colorado area, and I finished up high-school at Smoky Hill High School, in Aurora. I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and shipped off to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in October of '77. After basic, I went to technical school at Lowry AFB in Denver, to learn about aircraft armament. My first regular assignment was to the 358th Aircraft Maintenance Unit in the 355th Aircraft Generation Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson Arizona. As my first duty assignment, I couldn't have asked for a better place to be. It was very hot on the flightline in the summer, but we enjoyed our work, and the comraderie of our team. I met a lot of really good people, and have kept in touch with a few through the years. I worked on A-10/a aircraft there, until I was reassigned in November of '79. I transferred to the 601st Aircraft Generation Squadron at Sembach AB West Germany. I arrived in late December, and worked on OV-10/a aircraft. I had the pleasure of doing some temporary duty to Zaragoza Spain in the summer of '81, and I had a great time in Germany. I left Sembach in December of '81, after applying for special duty as an instructor. I arrived at Lowry AFB in January of '82, this time to become a technical instructor. I completed the instructor course, and started teaching in the 3460th Technical Training Group. After a couple of months, I was assigned to train new airmen on the A-10/a armarment systems. I picked up golf full-time here, and also started taking my college courses in earnest. I really enjoyed my time at Lowry, and made several friends, some from my military side, and others I had met while in high school at Smoky Hill. I managed to earn my Master Instructor badge while at Lowry as well as take a few college courses. I was reassigned in February of '86, and received my orders to England. I arrived at RAF Bentwaters in March of '86, and was assigned to the 510th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, 81st Aircraft Generation Squadron. This was part of the largest wing in the USAF at the time, the 81st Fighter Wing. I met up with some friends from my previous assignments, and made some new friends while I was there. Turns out that one of my fellow NDI'ers was there as well, Mike Maier. Mike was a pilot, flying A-10s at RAF Woodbridge. I didn't find that out until much later. While at RAF Bentwaters, I went on temporary duty to Germany several times, and also back to Zaragoza Spain. We worked hard, and we played hard. I'm proud to have worked with the folks I met there, and I hope I didn't work them too hard. I was transferred again, and left Bentwaters in January of '88. After spending some time on leave back in Colorado, I arrived at RAF Alconbury in March of '88. I was assigned to the 10 Aircraft Generation Squadron, and ended up in the Weapons Standardization Section. I only spent a year there, but I helped to set up the flightline weapons program, and trained a lot of people. That part of England was also quite nice, and I lived not far from Cambridge. That was my last assignment on the A-10. I departed in March of '89. I arrived in April of '89 at Tyndall AFB, in the panhandle of Florida. I was assigned to the 325th Aircraft Generation Squadron, and spent time in the 1st and 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Units. The Air Force underwent a significant reorganization while I was at Tyndall. In the five years I was there, the base went from Tactical Air Command, to Air Combat Command, to Air Education and Training Command. So we were busy moving our patches around on our uniforms. I worked on the F-15 while I was there. ...Expand for more