Greg Van Natten:
CLASS OF 1987
Schoharie High SchoolClass of 1987
Schoharie, NY
Schoharie Elementary SchoolClass of 1981
Schoharie, NY
Greg's Story
Life
I left the sleepy little village of Central Bridge to join the US Air Force in September 1987. After two months of basic training in Lackland AFB in Texas, I went through 4 months of data communications training at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi. While on leave during the holidays I married Stacey Thomas. My first tour was to Clark AB Republic of the Philippines. I arrived in country July 1988. There I was assigned to the 1961st Comm Group. My first home was off-base in the Carmenville Subdivision. My son was born in 1989. I moved onto the base late 1989. This made life a little more bearable since there had been lots of shootings of American GI's during this time. We left the PI in March 1991, about 3 months before Mount Pinatoubo blew its lid. My next assignment was to Hanscom AFB near Bedford Massachusettes. This is where I endured my first tour to the "sandbox". I was assigned to Riyadh Suadia Arabia lat e Nov 1991. I returned back home in March 1992. My daughter was born in 1994. We spent five and half years here before I decided I could make more in the civilian world. I joined MCI in Cary, North Carolina May 1996. While there I met some friends from the PI and they recruit...Expand for more
ed me into the North Carolina Air National Guard. I joined the 263rd Combat Comm Group in Feb 1997. This is where I experienced my second tour to the "sandbox." I arrived in the country of Qatar on Thanksgiving Day of 2001. I returned back home in April of 2002. After numerous other trips with this unit, I decided to find a position that was not as deployable so I move to the 145th Comm Flight in Feb 2003. This is where I experienced my third tour to the "sandbox." This time I was able to experience good ol' Afghanistan. Luckily I joined the AF and not the Army, otherwise my tours would have been at least a year long instead of a few months. :-) MCI has been bought and sold a couple of times, once by Worldcom or as most MCIers called it, "Worldcon!" We are now called Verizon Business and I am a Security Specialist working on the ABN Amro contract. We manage security devices (firewalls, load balancers, proxies, etc.) for this customer. My son is a senior this year and has been accepted to attend NC State University. He still has no idea what he wants to be, but that is no different than me at his age. My daughter keeps us veru active with sports, plays and other extra curricular activities.
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