It was a well-planned and organized event, which propelled CMSgt (Retired) Tommy V. Marshall into the civilian sector last Thursday evening and Friday morning.  All of the AETC superintendents where on hand for both events. The dinner Thursday evening was casual and reflected the charm and concern of the hostess, CMSgt Marshall's lovely wife.  As the family and friends settled into the evening the retiree table in the back of the ballroom became the life of the party.  Tommy Tompkins, Joe Lynch, Rob Darter, and Bill Wood where in attendance to represent the Retired Life Support Chief's group; Alfonso Gonzalez and Skip Goodman where also on hand.  The dinner was superb and reflected well upon the Randolph Enlisted Club.  Chief Marshall's last official act of leadership was to disperse each table to the buffet line....he did this in his traditional commanding fashion.  However, many of the attendees are still wondering why he had them cha-cha single file around three sides of the room only to end up ON THE SIDE OF THE ROOM FROM WHICH THEY STARTED!  Many gifts were presented, including a gift from our LG brethren (egress and survival) and his four children. The night was highlighted with his Mother's address to the audience concerning her son...whom she could not recognize based on the honorable descriptions rendered by the previous speakers.   Also worth noting was the comment made by his son, "Dad I guess this means we don't have to do open ranks inspections anymore". 

On the following morning at 10:30 hrs, Chief Marshall was retired by Maj General Welser  AETC/DO.  The General did an outstanding job recapping specific names and phrases from past reports on Chief Marshall.  Not once did he rely on anything but memory.  His efforts spoke volumes concerning his respect and admiration for the chief.  Before the ceremony ended, the chief spoke of his past experiences in uniform and the importance of taking care of the young troops, or as he called them, "the future Chief Master Sergeant's".  He challenged those following him to replace him in the ranks. His challenge was accepted by one young NCO who until then was committed to separating from the Air Force. The chief attributed his successful career to a firm but loving mentor program filled with many outstanding NCO's and SNCO's.  He specifically wanted to thank SMSgt (R) Lazarus G. Ellis a.k.a. Old Soldier, for his leadership and guidance.  He spoke of the special bond between life supporters and the legacy our retired brothers left us. When he spoke of the retired life support reunions he shared his pride in the group he was about to join. As they presented Chief Marshall the American flag (our symbol of commitment and sacrifice), the emotion ran high.  On more than one occasion he closed his eyes gathered his intestinal fortitude and moved on.  When the flag was delivered and the orders read, Chief Marshall took his rightful place among so many other unsung hero’s that have committed most of their lives to the protection of those magnificent men (and women) in their flying machines.  To Chief Marshall's credit he has produced a young officer cadet and a young Airman Marshall to complete the next phase of military history in the Marshall household.  

I for one will miss not having him in the pattern but as he came in for a landing on Friday and engaged in his final post flight I thought of all those past life supporters who lead the way and those of us that are not far behind Chief Marshall.  One thing appears to be certain; the cycle of life support doesn't end unless you want it to.  As the life support wheel continues to grind out its future, I'm sure others will step up to the challenge and embrace the philosophy so aptly expressed in our motto "YOUR LIFE IS OUR BUSINESS". Al King

Our 2001 Life Support Retirees Reunion Golf Tournament was long on fun but a little short on participation. Due to the terrible events of September, many of our regular attendees/golfers could not participate. However, we still managed to get the round in. Ed MacKenzie outdid himself once again. We played the Mojave Resort Course, which is a beautiful, challenging golf course. Ed, we all thank you for your hard work.

Our sponsors, as always, were most generous and we'd like to acknowledge the following:

Gentex Corporation Gentex West

Survival Inc Scott Inc

Skip Clawson Tommy Tompkins

Bill Wood Joe Lynch

Rob Darter Al Loving

Tom Rooney Brenda von Kleist

The support we receive every year from the active duty Life Support community is significant. With everything that’s going in the world today, our Chiefs still found time to drop something in the mail to support our Reunion. The continued support of the gentlemen below is greatly appreciated.

 HQ USAF/XOO, CMS Todd Nelson

HQ ACC, CMS Brian Bailey

HQ AMC, CMS Rich Robichaud

HQ PACAF, CMS Chris Holt

HQ AFRC, CMS Bob Mendez

This year three teams participated in "The Scramble" and each participant received prizes based on the order of team finish. The order of finish was as follows:

First Place: Ed MacKenzie, Mike Rossmiller, Dave Nelson and Bunny Haig

Second place: Jim Rooney, Tom Rooney and Shirley Farkis

Third Place: Al Loving, John Weir, Bill Lynn, Will Oost

In recognition of their sportsmanship, sense of humor and ability to survive the day, our two lady golfers, Bunny Haig and Shirley Farkas, were presented special gifts donated by HQ PACAF Life Support. Prizes were also presented to the following individuals:

Men's Longest Drive: Jim Rooney and Dave Nelson

Closest to the Pin: Ed MacKenzie and John Weir

Next year we hope to rebound with a larger turnout. Plan to attend the Reunion and join Ed and me for a little golf. Please remember to send your golf fees in early so Ed can get us the best deal. Best Wishes for the Holidays – Jim Rooney

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On October 6, 1980, I entered the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. Not many days after that I had my first encounter with "Life Support." While the instructors were greatly enthused with their job of training us things like water survival, egress, hanging harness, and various other life support related items, we, the crew members just took what they had to say with a grain of salt. After all, life support isn’t something you ever use. These thoughts stayed with me through the years. As crewmembers, you would look at the schedule and see you are scheduled for some type of life support training. You could only hope that the class would get canceled, you’d be scheduled to fly, or maybe you could get a waiver. Most of the time though, you had to attend. If the class we attended was ACDE or hanging harness, our goal was to either not dress out or just have the new person do it. After all, as "experienced" crew members, we had dressed out at least once in our career, so why do it again? Most of the time, that worked. I can remember only once in my 20-year career when crewmembers actually wanted life support training. That was when Operation DESERT SHIELD/STORM took place. As word got out that there could be a possibility of chemical warfare, people where doing all they could to get an ACDE class. Even people who had just taken the class within two weeks wanted the class. And guess what? They all wanted to dress out. But then things changed, we didn’t die from chemicals and for crewmembers, life support training was again a burden.

My background is SAC until AMC come about so my understandings of an LSO was zero. We didn’t have them in SAC or in the AMC unit I was associated with. I had never heard of an LSO until my assignment at HQ AMC/DOT. This was my first experience to meet an LSO and this is where I changed my thoughts of life support. While in my assignment at HQ AMC, the current Command LSO received orders and I was selected to replace him. My only experience with life support was attending the life support classes and not really paying much attention then. I first attended the LSO course at Randolph. It was an eye opener. I learned what went on in life support and not just the training aspect of it. We learned about aircraft accidents and life support management. I didn’t know there was so much to know. Once I completed the LSO course, I was the LSO for AMC. I now had 2 weeks of experience. Fortunately, I had the experience of senior NCOs like Chief Morrow, SMSgt Chewning, and others to teach me life support. As Chief Morrow and I began to take visits to AMC bases and visit the life support facilities, life support took on a different light. I could see how much the life support technicians and supervisors took their jobs to heart. They truly cared about their jobs. At the HQ I could see how each and every life support manager wanted to make sure crewmembers had the best equipment available to do their jobs. I also saw people that thought the way I use to think about life support. I remember during the POM cycle, we were trying to get funding for a new passive life preserver. This preserver wouldn’t puncture like the current adult/child ones. However, the POM officials would rather use the money for other requirements. After all, how many C-5, C-141, or KC-135 aircraft have ditched and we needed to use the devices. I remember the fight to remove parachutes from the KC-135. The people wanting to remove the chutes never flew on the KC-135. If you had asked the crewmember, the answer was to leave them on. But the crewmembers don’t make those decisions. It’s been a while since I’ve been in AMC so I don’t know the parachute status; I only hope they still carry them. I have thought about life support and came up with the following analogy.

Life support is like the spare tire we all have in our vehicles. As operators of those vehicles, we never check them (tire pressure, serviceability) we just assume that they are in the trunk or under the bed of the truck and will be operational in case we need them. As a matter of fact, we don’t even think about them unless they are needed. With tire technology like it is today, we never have flats, so the tires go unused. Now if we do have a flat, we expect to be able to get the tire, put it on the vehicle and drive away. It’s then that we wish we had checked the tire’s serviceability. Because you see, it is either flat or rotten or missing and now we’re stuck. Worse case is that it is operational, but you don’t know how to change it. Life support equipment is that spare tire. As crewmembers, we know that there is equipment on the aircraft, but we’re never going to use it. If we did have to use it, we could probably figure it out. I’m sure we vaguely remember attending a course on how to use it. One thing we can be assured of that is not like the spare tire. The equipment is operational and serviceable. This is because technicians work on this equipment on a daily basis to ensure if that equipment is needed, it will work. The world of life support hopes the equipment is never used, but they are confident on its ability if it is used.

Life support technicians have a thankless job. When crewmembers return from a flight, they don’t tell the technicians that their helmet worked great or the parachutes looked good hanging in the back of the aircraft. I’m not even sure they would be thanked even if the equipment was used, but they are there on a daily basis ensuring that crewmembers always have the best equipment possible to survive.

I would like to thanks to all the past, present and future life support technicians. Even though I never had to use the equipment you provided me for my safety, you always give me the tools need to return home to my family. Keep up the great work.

Maj (Ret) Tim Martin