Karen Allen:  

Hello, cool friends and dear grads from my past! I really like the way that this profile system lets us all catch up on the last "few" years! Can it really be 30 years since we graduted? Amazing... In late 2010 I moved to Olalla, just north of Gig Harbor, WA. My parents had moved back to Port Orchard,WA (near Bremerton) a few years ago, and I had cousins and friends up here in the Puget Sound, too, so I have been enjoying living up here again. I am still working with the Air Force Reserve unit in California, travelling for work and doing contract work for SAIC as well. I love the skiing, Sounders games, Seattle culture, and green, temperate Northwest. I'd love to connect with any of you that are also up here! I visit Colorado and California, too. So for those of you that are in the greater Puget Sound, another "alum" has returned home! As some of you already know, after graduation in '88 I made my way to UW (in Seattle, of course) for college, and worked hard/had fun through my BA in Math. I finished 4 years of ROTC and found myself with a flying slot once I graduated! I had a GREAT time playing music with some friends in a band & at church while I was there, and LOVED the culture/arts/music that the city had to offer. My first Air Force assignment took me to Osan, Korea and that was an amazing experience. My time was cut short when I was picked up from a talent contest to play for an Air Force tour group called Tops In Blue (Broadway-style show, 32-piece cast, 18 countries!) From there, I went to San Antonio, TX and Pensacola, FL for Navigator training- and graduated after 13 long months of work. Yay!! I was "tracked" into the B-52, and found myself flying a vintage bomber with some awesome history and a versatile mission. I spent time training in Shreveport, LA and was stationed in Minot, ND. It was a "character-building" experience, but was good to live in a new place and see how things are done in the Upper Midwest. I travelled to Guam and Diego Garcia in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, respectively, and really enjoyed the challenge and reward of that job. And then for something completely different- I went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to work with the 82nd Airborne (Army) and jump out of airplanes! I spent 2 years...Expand for more