20 Years Done

If you haven't read the first part of this story you can find it here . Even just reading the first of this story won't adequately prepare you for how I reached this situation. It's advised you read the blog from the beginning here . On the 17th of November 2015 SrA Tyler Perkie was scheduled to meet with his commander, Lt Col Dominick Martin. On the calendar it was labeled as administrative actions. If you've been following this blog for awhile you know that I've worked for Lt Col Martin for a few years. In those years I've had some pretty tense disagreements. I've only captured some of those disagreements in this blog. There are other conversations that either caught me off guard or I forgot key details to recount them accurately. However, the frequency of Lt Col Martin saying questionable things was nearly constant. I specifically noticed he had a pattern of punishing junior personnel that elected to remain silent or seek legal counsel. Lt Col Mar

This is the first post in the long final story that I will tell from my career in the Air Force. All the other stories up to this point were told so you, the reader, could understand how I was guided in my career to be prepared for the moment in this story. The main character in this story has had his name changed to protect his identity as he is still active duty. He has given me permission [read: excitedly asked when I will write this] to tell this story. In the summer of 2015 I was the specialist section chief in the 311th AMU at Holloman AFB. We had a few new arrivals to the section. Most of them were new avionics airmen, which we desperately needed. However, we did have an E&E SrA arrive who had a line number for Staff Sergeant. His name was SrA Tyler Perkie. He was respectful, polite and hard working. It was rare to not see him covered in aircraft filth, which is quite the compliment for the working sector of the Air Force. He was tireless at the job and his positive at

I had a hard time writing this blog. The more I wrote the more I realized that while I admired and tried to emulate his leadership, I never achieved what seemed to come so naturally to him. So my apologies for the tardiness of the post, but my writer's block was likely a result of prolonged introspection. I have met some amazing leaders in the military in my career. Each person had their own unique style, but a few stood out for being affable.  For me, the idea of working for someone that was approachable, compassionate and caring in a military maintenance environment was exceptional. One such person was Chief Master Sergeant James Tibbetts. When I met him he wasn’t a Chief. He was actually a Master Sergeant that had just returned from a 1 year remote tour in Egypt.We were both assigned to the 310th AMU at Luke Air Force Base in 2003. Chief Master Sergeant James Tibbetts (retired) Sergeant Tibbetts was a section chief in the other crew chief secti