RICHARD D. EDWARDS Colonel, USAF (Retired)

USAF OCS Class 57C, OC TSGT, 6th Squadron

RICHARD D. EDWARDS
Colonel, USAF (Retired)
USAF OCS Class 57C

Some relevant demographic points would be these: I was born in Pipestone, Minnesota on October 25, 1931. Hometown is Sandstone, Minnesota. I graduated from high school at Sandstone, Minnesota, and attended the University of Minnesota, until I enlisted in the Air Force. My USAF dates were March 3, 1951 to January 1, 1984 (thirty-three continuous years).

I served “in the ranks” from March 1951 until being commissioned through Officer Candidate School in 1957. During this enlisted time, I served as a supply specialist and supply supervisor at squadron, group, wing, and air division levels in the Military Air Transport Command (MATS), Strategic Air Command (SAC), and Air Defense Command (ADC).

After OCS, my first assignment was to flight training at Moore Air Base, near Mission, Texas. It was obvious, almost immediately, that my flying abilities were extremely limited. I received more “pink tickets” than I could bear. I met a flying evaluation board, and they put me back into the program with a statement that read, “All that is needed is a hard-ass instructor.” After six more “pink tickets,” I was placed before another FEB and was eliminated from flight training. I was very disappointed at the time, but in retrospect, this was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I would no doubt have killed myself, and perhaps killed others, had I somehow made it through the program!

I next went to the 794th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron at Cape Newenham, Alaska, as the squadron supply officer. This was a typical “pilot washout” assignment, and was the worst assignment of my entire Air Force career – thirteen months in remote Alaska!

From July 1959 to September 1962, I was assigned to the 3610th Maintenance and Supply Group at Harlingen Air Force Base, in Texas. During this period, I held various positions that included being Officer in Charge of Materiel Control, the Base Supply Materiel Facilities Officer, the Base Supply Management and Procedures Officer, Consolidated Unit Supply Officer, and Officer in Charge of the Marketing and Redistribution Division. I was one of the last ten people to depart Harlingen when the base closed.

In October 1962, I was assigned to the Amarillo Technical Training Center in Texas, as an instructor in the Base Supply Officer Course. From there, in October 1963 until July 1966, I was with the 3320th Technical Training School as the OIC of Mobile Training Team 64-2, working with the Royal Thai Air Force in Thailand. On my return to Amarillo, I was caught in the midst of a base closure – again. However, during all of this, I was fortunate to be selected for a below-the-zone promotion to major, and moved to Randolph Air Force Base.

From August 1966 until July 1968, I was a member of the Headquarters, Air Training Command logistics staff. My positions included Chief of the Procedures Branch, Command Equipment Management Office, Chief, Supply Policy and Procedures Branch, and Chief, Supply Systems Management Division. This was a very good assignment that was cut short when I was selected for the Command Staff College in Toronto, Canada. I attended this professional schooling from August 1968 through June 1969, and was subsequently assigned to the 1st Canadian Forces Supply Depot in Toronto, as an exchange officer from July 1969 to July 1971. In that assignment, I served as Chief, Depot Movements Division, Chief, Depot Processing Division, and Chief, Property Accounting Division. This was a good assignment – not only difficult to learn a different supply system, but also an entirely different military organization. Much to my surprise, I found that Canadian forces unification was a nightmare.

I was selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel during my third year with the Canadians, and was named to attend yet another professional school, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, graduating in June 1972.

I was then assigned to Headquarters, USAF in the Pentagon, as Staff Supply Action Officer, Chief of Supply Systems Branch, and Chief, Logistics Policy and Procedures Division in the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Systems and Logistics, in the Maintenance and Supply Directorate. This job was quite a challenge, since it entailed both supply and aircraft maintenance policy and procedures.

I was selected for promotion to colonel in March 1974.

Unfortunately, as I was completing my Pentagon tour in 1976, my wife contracted medullary Carcinoma (thyroid) – and at this writing is a twenty-five year cancer survivor. It was my turn to go overseas again, and I felt that I had to make a choice: Either retire from the Air Force, or request an in-place extension on humanitarian grounds. After several sleepless nights, we decided on the latter option. The humanitarian extension was approved, and we added eighteen months to my Pentagon tour.

After the doctor released Val, I received orders to Taegu, Korea, where I served from January 1977 to December 1978 with the Joint Military Assistance Group, Korea, as the Senior Materiel Officer to the Commander, Republic of Korea Air Force Logistics Command. This was a good tour, even though we had to evacuate Val back to Malcolm Grow Hospital at Andrews AFB, Maryland and then to John Hopkins in Baltimore for follow-up testing. She returned with a clean bill of health.

In January 1979, I was assigned as Assistant to the Director of Distribution, San Antonio Air Logistics Center at Kelly AFB, Texas, and served in that capacity until I assumed the role of Director of Distribution in 1979. I held that position until mid-1981. In this role, I led a workforce of 2,500 personnel in the receipt and storage, inspection, accountability, and air/surface shipping of a quarter-million line items, an average value of two billion dollars, and an annual turnover of some 2.3 billion dollars. I also directed two unique AFLC activities: Detachment 37 (DoD Dog Center) and Detachment 40 STAMP/STRAPP (Standard Air Munitions Package/Standard Tank Rack Adapter Pylon Package), both located at Lackland Air Force Base. I retired from the Air Force in January 1984.

I spent my entire Air Force career in the logistics field. My military decorations include the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster.

Valerie and I have been married for fifty years, and we have three children – one boy and two girls.

My best assignment was as Director of Supply for Headquarters, Air Training Command, where I served from April 1981 through January 1984. In this job, we furnished major command supply guidance to fifteen Air Training Command bases with some 1,300 aircraft to support, six major flying tenants, and four non-flying bases, with a command population of 130,000 people. A great command and great people!

In addition to OCS, my military schooling consisted of Squadron Officer School, Canadian Forces Staff College, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and many varied logistics short and long courses.

Interesting Assignments/Locations: 1) 120-day TDY with 92nd Bomb Wing, the first time a B-36 wing was deployed overseas. 2) Additional duty as base mortuary officer when we lost a T-29 with nine people aboard, deep in Mexico. Recovery included all of the worst things one can think of. 3) Took a five-man team to Thailand to train sixty Thai recruits (right off the back of a water buffalo), the basics of supply. 4) The two years (mentioned earlier) with the South Korean AF Depot as the senior advisor to their logistics commander. I probably learned more from them than they learned from me. The ROK is ready!

Retirement: I worked for several logistics service companies, doing supply and maintenance technical writing, mostly policy and procedures, and then spent a year with a big generator manufacturing company as their material manager (which means I was responsible for everything except hands-on manufacturing). I finally did some consulting, developing supply procurement policy and procedures -- again, mostly technical writing. Finally, in 1994, I had to give up any real work due to illness. We waited for Val to retire and then sold everything and moved to AF Village II.

Comments: I have no big complaints about my Air Force career. The Air Force was good to me, and I was good for the Air Force. We really enjoyed the people, the mission, and the challenges. I would like to have had one more promotion, but that’s the way it goes.

Dick