Phil Ford:
CLASS OF 1988
South High SchoolClass of 1988
Wichita, KS
University of South Florida - EngineeringClass of 1999
Tampa, FL
Kansas State University - EngineeringClass of 1989
Manhattan, KS
Truesdell Junior High SchoolClass of 1985
Wichita, KS
Sim Elementary SchoolClass of 1982
Wichita, KS
Phil's Story
Life
After I left Wichita in 1989, I lived in El Paso Tx, Watertown NY, West Germany, Panama, Jacksonville Fl and Tampa Fl. After my time in the military and in school, I met a girl in church in 2002 and we married in 2003. We are expecting our first child in May.
School
After high school, I attended Kansas State University on a scholarship to study Electrical Engineering. I put my schooling on hold to join the Military. I returned to school in 1993 at the University of South Florida to finish an Associate's degree in Science.
College
Between my Studies, I was the secretary of the local Chapter of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. A highlight of that group was that we were given a yearly VIP tour of NASA's facilities at Cape Kennedy. We were able to see the Endeavour Space Shuttle in it's hangar, the Shuttle Launch control room and walked under the then empty launch pad structure.
During those years, I also joined the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and served as Vice President.
I was also a senator in Student Government for the Engineering college.
Workplace
After my time at the Univeristy of South Florida, I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Robert Thatcher at the Univeristy Diagnostic Institute. This involved helping him preprare digital MRI images of traumatic brain injury patients in order to perform localized statistical anaysis of the specific changes that brain cells in different parts of the brain exhibit after a traumatic brain injury.
I then accepted a position at the Verizon communications. I started as a technician in 1998 and am now a Project Manager in their Data services department.
Military
I started out in Basic Training at Ft. Bliss in 1989 in El Paso Tx. I went on to study Air Defense Artillery. My specialty was the Vulcan 20 mm Anti-aircraft gun. These were some of the last years that the Army used rifled weapons for Air Defence Artillery, as most Air Defence has moved to Ground to Air type Missiles,...Expand for more
such as the Stinger.
My permanent duty station was at Ft. Drum, NY. During that time, I was trained on how to drive an Armoured Personnel Carrier and was cross trained on the AK-47, the AT-4 rocket launcher, M72 Light Antitank Weapon, M203 grenade launcher and M16. I also spent two weeks as a helicopter door gunner on a UH1. We learned how to adjust artillery fire from a battlefield observation point.
During free time at Fort Drum, we would often travel to cities in Canada as the drinking age is 19 there. We went to Ottawa, Toronto and Kingston. In the US we would also go to New York City and skiing at Lake Place in the Adirondacks.
I had several deployments around the nation and the world, each lasting about two months.
The first deployment was to Ft Sherman, which sits on the Atlantic side of the the Panama Canal. This is where I learned jungle combat tactics at the Jungle Operations Training Center. Many of the missions in Panama involved flying our platoon out to a remote jungle hilltop in a Blackhawk helicopter, "securing" the area then making the 12 mile walk back to the base through thick jungle.
Several months later, I then went to Ft. Picket, VA to learn urban combat techniques at the mock city they had built to train for invading cities and towns. I leanred to sneak into a city through its underground sewage system.
I then spent two months in West Germany as part or REFORGER '91, which was the first NATO multi-nation military exercise that involved the Soviet Union. The exercise also involved 7000 British, German and Belgian troops. That happened right as the cold war was ending. I was able to spend time in Munich, Nourembourg and Bavaria, which I enjoyed immensely.
I then spent a month at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Chafee, Ak for Batallion size training.
I got out in 92 and often regret not staying in longer in order to have more adventure, but you don't have to be in the military to have adventures.
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