John Meyer:  

Life After HS, I attended UW-Whitewater for about a year and a half until the draft board caught up with me. Instead of shooting people in Viet Nam, I enlisted as a medic and was initially trained as an ophthalmology surgical technician. My first assignment was Vandenburg AFB in California -- great spot for a Wisconsin boy! Within a two years, I was reassigned to Incerlik, Turkey. When we were not operating on eyeballs, I just passed out glasses and contacts. Not too challenging. So I decided to travel -- I visited Israel, Jordan, Russia, Greece, Finland, and England before going home to Wisconsin to finish my degree in Counseling Psychology (UW-Oshkosh). I was recruited to go back into the Air Force as a psychiatric counselor -- now stationed in Colorado Springs. Soon I earned my officer commission and I was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant to lead a Substance Abuse Counseling Center in Biloxi, Mississippi. Counseling isn't considered to be a hard core "war-time" skill; so I had to also train as a Load Master Crew Officer. I learned the careful math and patience of loading large cargo planes for flying war missions. My main job was still counseling when we were not deploying troops. When I was a captain, it was strongly recommended I earn a masters degree to be competitive for senior officer positions. At the Air Force expense, I attended Oklahoma City University and earned an MBA in Quantitative Analysis (industrial engineering). Later, I was retrained again into "Manpower." I was promoted to major and became the commander of a 28-man industrial engineering squadron at MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida. As you may know, the Pentagon approves all major missions, but the "Pentagon of the South" coordinates all the details between all the branches of the military --United States Central Command. My squadron was involved with the mathematical models of the military mix, the manpower needed and the equipment needed -- based on the world-wide location. It was fascinating attending the top-secret meetings. However, I was recruited to return to counseling and head up the largest treatment center in the Air Force: Tinker AFB, back in Okalahoma City. While I was there, I grew frustrated by the complexity and the awkwardly written regulations governing our career field. I called HQ USAF (Randolph AFB, San Antonio) and suggested a rewrite -- hint: don't suggest anything if you don't want to do it yourself. I was interviewed and then reassigned one more time to become: USAF Director of Professional Education in good ol' San Antonio -- a Lieutenant Colonel's position. I was the commander of professional editors and writers that published training manuals and promotion guides for all the enlisted members world wide. I love to write and edit and now I'm being paid for it! Great assignment and great location! But all great things have to come to an end; President Clinton's decision to cut our military strength forced me to retire early at the age of 45. So after almost 25 years in the Air Force, I became a "civie" once again. Back in Madison, I was hired as an executive recruiter -- hated the job. Now I'm down here in Chicagoland as a part-time optical trainer for Luxottca. To fill the rest of my "retirement" days, I returned to school and I have completed two years toward my doctorate in behavioral medicine. Ask me when I'm 85 if I ever finished it. :) I have two boys: Scott is up in Canada trying to get into the Canadian Armed Forces and Sean is recently out of the Air Force (Avionics Specialist) and is now attending college full time earning his degree in Computer Science. As far as my marri...Expand for more