Joseph Runyon:  

This is our updated life story - Lily and me - hope we don't bore you too much. For background information, I attended St. Anthony’s school from Kindergarten through the 9th grade and then transferred to Steinert early in the 10th grade. Due to a lack of transferrable credits and my unwillingness to go to summer school, I repeated the 11th grade; however, as I had started school early in life, I still graduated at the age of 18. I didn’t care too much about doing well in school as I was one of the punks who hung out with black leather jackets and high collar shirts with no hope of going to college. But that attitude was soon to change for the better after I left Steinert and joined the military. Following graduation I enlisted in the Air Force (AF), they put discipline in my life, and based on aptitude tests made me a weatherman. I finished training and an assignment in Cape Cod and then I volunteered for Vietnam. One day while visiting stores near the Saigon USO, I met a girl who took my breath away; her name was Hue (pronounced “Whey”) which translates to Lily. Lily was an English major so we communicated well and for me it was love at first sight. We were married by the Catholic Chaplain during my second tour there and our daughter Mary was born and Baptized in Saigon. We first met in Saigon in 1969, thus our email name - saigon69. Later, I passed on a Trenton policeman job offer as, with a new spouse and a child, it seemed an AF career was a better move. So, I took a $6,000 (1971 dollars) tax free reenlistment bonus and made the AF a career. During the following years we moved around the USA and Asia. With Lily's support, I had a successful AF career in the Air Weather Service and was promoted to the top enlisted rank, Chief Master Sergeant, in record time. Over the years we had three more children. Michelle was born in south Florida, Timothy in Illinois and the last, Kevin, was born in northwest Florida. Lily had difficulties with the last pregnancy and Kevin was pre-mature. We lost him 20 minutes after birth and almost lost Lily at the same time. But, we are grateful to God for the three wonderful children He blessed us with and we moved on with our lives. I attended night school until I had enough credits for a bachelor degree and upon retirement from the AF after 20 years, we returned to our home in Niceville, Florida where I completed my Master of Business Administration degree at the University of West Florida. Lily worked and provided support as I transitioned to a new career. The new career was as a Contracting Specialist with the AF Armament Center (AAC) at Eglin AFB, Fl. The AAC develops non-nuclear munitions for the AF, including the "Smart Bombs" we all saw going down elevator shafts of buildings in Iraq. During these years I worked on billions of dollars of contracts and was awarded the Department of Air Force Outstanding Cost/Price Analyst Award in 1993 at a Pentagon ceremony for over a hundred million dollars in cost savings on the AMRAAM Missile Program. During this time period we sponsored Lily’s brothers and sisters from Vietnam – it was a 12 year wait as we did it legally. They came with nothing and had no English. We helped and today they are citizens with their own businesses from California to Ohio to New York and Florida. Their children are professionals – engineers, a pharmacist and two are in medical school. Lily is a true patriot and believes in the American Dream – this she impressed upon her family and their dreams are now coming true. Then, one day shortly before 9/11 while surfing the net, I came across the State Department career site for Foreign Service Officers and it said, "Be the face of America to the World." Happened that they were giving the written exam at the University of Florida (UF) where Tim was a student on the same day we had tickets for the Mississippi State game. So, I signed up for the fun of it. Didn't prepare or care when I took the five hour exam with about a hundred others. A few months later, I got a surprise letter stating, you passed! Interviews and situational testing followed during exercises they called "Orals." (I thought of it as the modern version of the Inquisition.) Of the twelve of us that made it to Orals, only two of us made it through and I was offered a commission in the Foreign Service as a Diplomatic Officer. After some debate, Lily and I said, "why not" and accepted. After being confirmed by the Senate an...Expand for more