Richard Dabney:
CLASS OF 1964
Capuchino High SchoolClass of 1964
San bruno, CA
Richard's Story
RICHARD DABNEY
Currently live in WARNER ROBINS, GA
Retired from US Air Force and Civil Service
After graduation from Cap, I went to CSM for a semester (played football) and realized that there was a world to see so I enlisted in the US Air Force. Oh what a career and challenge that I experienced. My first assignment was in Texas where I was introduced to the IBM key punch machine and the start of my IT experiences. I traveled a lot within the US and Europe and found that I really liked Europe. I had the opportunity to be transferred to Germany and gained knowledge in weather forecasting, intelligence and administrative duties. During my time in Germany, I travelled throughout Europe inspecting weather units and I played football for the Ramstein Rams. I didnât realize that the military services played tackle football (semi-pro quality). Oh what fun this was as I had great success playing football. I was selected for 2nd team all USAF Europe the first year and was selected for 1st team the second and third year for USAFE and all services Europe (Army, Navy, AF).
While in Germany, I met this beautiful young lady in church, who I convinced that she should marry me. That was 47 years ago, 6 children (5 girls and one boy), 25 Grand-children and one Great Grand-child. During this time, thatâs another story.
My next assignment was to Great Falls, Montana and a special duty assignment. Went to Viet Nam next, and through my year, experienced many difficult times avoiding rockets and bullets while also assisting with body recovery and intelligence gathering. During this time, my wife says this caused my PTSD. Next assignment was to Cheyenne Wyo. Next a special duty assignment to the BYU ROTC. Biloxi Mississippi was our next assignment where I gained further knowledge of computer and communications operations. At this point, my wife asked if we could find a place to call home and I transferred from Active duty to AF Reserves and moved to Logan Utah.
Went back to school and between jobs and college, worked as a dept. manager in a retail store, then became a Logan City police officer (degree in Police Administration), was in patrol for 7 years and was selected for detective duties (3 years). While doing all this, I also continued my military duties. An opportunity came for me to get into Federal Civil ...Expand for more
Service, working in the AF Reserves (Military and Civil Service combined). Great experiences were obtained in several fields of Communications and Information Technology (IT). I also advanced in my military rank and civil service grade during the next several years. Also moved from Utah to Turkey where I again was placed in harms way when I went to Northern Iraq. There I made a good decision to stay and complete the work of re-engineering communications equipment at an unknown site in Northern Iraq. I was asked to take a chopper flight with some high ranking military and foreign officials of which I declined and two hours later, those helicopters were shot down in southern Iraq. Spent the next four days dodging bullets etc. While in Turkey, became the supervisor and manager of the base communications computer systems (networks) and gained further knowledge of IT systems.
Next assignment was to Atlanta, GA area where I put the experiences of IT networking into practice and was the Chief Network Administrator for the base I was located. Four years later I was selected to return back to Germany and became the manager of all deployable communications in Europe. High tempo and extreme pressure to ensure AF communications was operational and I was responsible for people and equipment to support the IRAQ war. I than was selected to become the manager of all communications and IT in Europe. Very gratifying position and responsibility. After five years in Germany, I was transferred to Montgomery, AL and became the supervisor of Plans and Programs at Air University at Maxwell AFB, AL. Two and a half years later I was selected to take over the base tele-communications systems at Robins AFB, GA. While in Alabama, AF informed me that I must retire from the military with 40+ yearsâ service (1965- 2005) at the rank of Chief Master Sergeant (CMSgt). I continued my civil service duties until Feb 2014 at which time I retired from Federal Civil Service (28 years, GS-13).
Now retired, we can spend our time travelling stateside and overseas or just spend our summers and fall in Utah with our 3 children and grand-children and our winter/spring in Georgia where we also have 3 children and their families. (We own a home in GA and AL). Iâve had a great life and career and plan to continue through retirement.
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