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Yes, 'They let girls do that'

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By Col. Laurie Richter
355th Mission Support Group


As you’ve probably heard once or twice in your career, there is no single path for any career to follow.  Each of us has an Air Force story to tell and here is just a part of my 22-plus-year career.  

I attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and started as an electrical engineering major. I switched to civil engineering after my sophomore year and was commissioned in March 1994. I entered active duty at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, in June 1994 and was assigned to the environmental engineering flight, where I learned how important environmental actions are to new mission beddowns.

My first squadron commander was Lt. Col. Lavon Alston, who saw something in me and challenged me from the start. Within my first week I became the base lead for the Commander in Chief’s Installation Excellence award. Little did I know I would learn the base and its mission inside and out while helping the base earn “most progress made toward facility excellence.” Fast forward about 17 years and my second lieutenant would not have believed that my lieutenant colonel self would again be leading the installation excellence award efforts, this time enabling Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, to win for the entire Air Force in 2012. 
  
After a year in environmental, a year running AETC’s largest military construction program and about eight months as the squadron section commander, I decided to attend explosive ordnance disposal school. This wasn’t an easy decision for me, and it shouldn’t be for anyone considering EOD school. My husband had died the previous year, and I had to ask my parents to care for my 1- year-old son, but becoming EOD qualified was a personal and professional goal I set for myself while in college before I even knew Air Force civil engineers could become EOD qualified. 

Without an EOD flight at Sheppard, no mandatory preliminary course and not much personal preparation, I arrived at Eglin AFB, Florida, in February 1997 for 25 weeks of EOD school and was thrown into a class with Air Force, Navy, Army and Marine Corps personnel, both officers and enlisted. After completing Phase I training, I headed to Indian Head, Maryland to complete Phase II, where one of my most memorable stories I like to share was born.  I was at the local hardware store with some of my classmates, including my future husband, to buy electrical tape, and when we told the owner of the store that we were EOD students and what that meant, he asked, “They let girls do that?” My polite reply was, “Yes, Sir, they do.” EOD school made me a part of a new joint “family” that I’m still connected to today.

Opportunities often come when you least expect them.  I had my dream job of being the EOD flight chief at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, working with the nuclear experts from Sandia National Laboratories and blowing up ordnance items and even explosively dismantling a plane, thanks to the great leadership of Master Sgt. Mike Kollo. I was learning so much as a young officer leading a flight of enlisted Airmen when my civil engineer group commander asked me to also assume squadron commander duties as a young captain. What an eye-opening opportunity that was, but also a great responsibility having Uniform Code of Military Justice authority over Airmen. 
   
While I hated to leave the squadron and doing hands-on EOD work, I decided I would go to the Air Force Institute of Technology to earn my master’s degree in engineering and environmental management. I found AFIT to be one of the best professional development opportunities in the Air Force.  Our class of   about 25 students worked together and really got to know each other for 18 months.  We worked problems and wrote a thesis (I wrote mine with a 2-year-old at home and a deployed spouse) with a direct tie to Air Force civil engineering issues.  I’m happy to say that I am still in contact with most of my classmates. I crossed the graduation stage in my maternity jumper and gave birth to my second child three months later.  

While I was an AFIT student I had the pleasure of being an on-call instructor for the CE and Services School, specifically to discuss my EOD experience with our Management 101students and others. I applied for and was accepted as a full-time faculty member after graduation.  I taught with some amazing people, including Col. Dave Wilder, Col. Shawn Moore, Col. Paul Cotellesso and so many more dedicated officers and civilians. They taught me about planning and what great mentorship is. The culmination of that assignment was being the course director for MGT 101, our civil engineer officer basic course, and giving birth to my third child.  So many of my former students are now lieutenant colonel squadron commanders, and I hope that I and my fellow instructors played a small part in their professional development.

After AFIT and the CESS my husband and I took our three children to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and the U.S. Air Force in Europe staff.  I was the chief of the emergency services and plans and requirements branches. I had the pleasure of working for now retired Brig. Gen. Dave Howe during the “Combat Proud” days, and his leadership was instrumental in developing the expansion of our European infrastructure while also maintaining our esprit-de-corps during some very demanding and challenging times. I had the wonderful opportunity to deploy to Iraq and help stand up Combined Joint Task Force Troy, Counter Improvised Explosive Device, with the amazing now retired Chief Master Sgt. Jeff Schley. This was a phenomenal opportunity to be connected first hand to our deployed mission and to work with and learn from our joint and coalition partners.
  
My next assignment was Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Army liked to say we were “taking a knee” for a year, but we were really focusing on professional development and learning more about the warfighting capabilities each of the services brings to the fight, mostly through endless reading and war gaming. Not insignificantly for our family, our daughter received a bone marrow transplant during this year after being diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia prior to my transitioning to the headquarters, Air Force  staff.  
 
We often joke that our reward for going to in-residence professional military education is a trip to the Pentagon, but I gained such a broad, strategic perspective working for now retired Maj. Gen. Timothy Byers and the entire staff.  I was able to establish new policy and guidance for the Air Force EOD program and work closely with sister service EOD programs as well.  One of the many things our career field does well is preparing officers for command, either through instruction and networking at AFIT or professional development seminars and prep sessions, and I was a definite recipient of that support after being selected for command.

Squadron command truly is a wonderful opportunity and Davis-Monthan lived up to its great reputation. I followed in the footsteps of some phenomenal leaders but I was still able to be myself in this new leadership role. I was reminded of how amazing our civilian professionals are and how networking with the local community, providing continuity and training Airmen is par for the course.  

My next stop was back to the Pentagon, but this time working chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear requirements on the Joint Staff. I learned to take off my Air Force hat and focus on joint warfighter needs while still sharing the Air Force perspective and capabilities. If you ever find yourself in a joint assignment, figure out early how to stay connected to the Air Force and functional community.
I was blessed to stay in the area for an additional year and work for Maj. Gen. Timothy Green on the HAF again, where he promoted me to colonel. I learned I didn’t know how to spell FIAR but quickly learned how important accountability is to the Air Force and civil engineer community. The biggest honor was being the 32E career field manager, focusing on the health and requirements of our officers and attending the development team last July.

Opportunity knocked one more time, and I have the honor and privilege to be the mission support group commander at the same installation where I was a squadron commander. I’m able to see the results of our 2010 planning and design as well as some projects we still can’t get funding for. More important, I’m back leading Airmen and applying all that I’ve learned along the way.

Leaders talk a lot about balance, but it may be the hardest part of your career. Your path might not be the same as mine, but you will face similar challenges and be presented opportunities when you least expect them.  Don’t forget to share your Air Force story. I’m not sure what the Air Force has planned for us next, but we’re ready for the challenge. I’m on MyVECTOR, if you’d like to connect and learn more about my career path and what I learned along the way.