Wayne Heard:
CLASS OF 1970
North Clayton High SchoolClass of 1970
College park, GA
Wayne's Story
Hello NCHS Friends,
As I've scrolled through the names and pages of those of you who attended NC from 64 to 72, I have landed on name after name and wondered what you have been up to since leaving NCHS. Maybe some of you have been curious about my life after high school. If so, here goes...
After graduating in 1970, I headed off to GA State. I got involved in ROTC while attending GA State and after my Sophomore year, I enlisted in the Army. My wife and I had two sons (Brian and Jason) while we were living at Fort Bragg. I served in the 82nd Airborne Division for a little over 4 years and was selected for Officer Candidate School. After a year at Fort Benning, where I attended Ranger School I returned to the 82nd. In 1979, I had the opportunity to go through Special Forces training and served with the 5th Special Forces Group as a Team Leader.
With 3 sons now,(added Michael) we moved back to Fort Benning for advanced officer's training and I also completed my degree (only 12 years after I started).
With 3 sons in tow, we moved to Hawaii for 3 years. On return, we brought back our 1 year old daughter (Maryanne).
Our next assignment was with GA Southern College in the ROTC department. The cadets I trained are now lieutenant colonels and beginning to retire...whick makes it apparent that I'm getting old. Before my next assignment, which was with the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany, my marriage ended.
Being stationed in Germany near the Austrian border, in the Bavarian Alps was fantastic. I met a school teacher (librarian) from Acworth, GA who was teaching the Army "brats" in Bad Toelz. A couple of years later we married and will have been together for 20 years next year. She was transferred to Naples Italy the year after we met, which was the same year that Iraq invaded Kuwait. I ended up serving in Southern Turkey / Northern Iraq for the first six months of 1991.
I returned to the states in 1991, married the...Expand for more
librarian and we moved to Fort Leavenworth. I retired from the Army in 1992.
Brian, my oldest son, joined the Army in 1992 and in Oct 1993 he rode into Mogadishu on the back end of Chief Warrant Officer Durant's helicopter in the raid that became famous as Black Hawk Down. He ended up fighting a pitched battled at the first crash site. He turned 21 the day after the battle. He is now 36 and has a beautiful family and lives in North Georgia.
The number 2 son, Jason, is married and his wife just had their first child. They live in Boston, MA.
The number 3 son, Michael, is living in Colubus GA and has 2 beautiful little girls. And the daughter, who was born in Hawaii, Maryanne, just spent a year in China working with the pandas. She was there for the earthquake and returned a month after that event. She is now attending school in Edinburgh Scotland.
I was retired for 12 years and in August of 2004, I received a call from someone at the Pentagon who asked me to come to DC for a project that they wanted my help on.
I was asked to write a "how to" book (in the Army, it's called a Field Manual)on Personnel Recovery (PR). That's a mission that has to do with recovering downed aircrews. After completing the book, I worked in the Army's PR office for about 3 years. Now I work in Tampa doing the same thing for another military organization.
I own a home in Acworth but I travel quite a bit in this job so I don't get home very often.
For those of you who remember my parents, (Mom was very active as a room mom), both parents are well and living in Conyers. The old house is under the new runway at the Atlanta Airport. What ever happened to the Blue Lights?
My brother (class of 66) is also doing well and living in the Atlanta area. My sister (class of 76) and her family moved to Minnesota with Northwest Airlines many years ago. They are doing very well also.
That about wraps up my story.
I would love to hear about you.
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