Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Goldsboro, North Carolina - 2nd time here!

I would find myself back at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina the beginning of June 2013.  If you’ve been with me since my earlier posts, you’ll remember that I left this North Carolina base the end of May in 2000.  So here I am, back where it all started some 17 years later after having left 13 years prior.  I arrived the first time as an Airman Basic (E-1), left as a Senior Airman (E-4), and now here I am all these years later back at SJAFB as a Master Sergeant (E-7).  I thought that this may be it, I may just finish my career where I started it all these years ago in 1996.  But, there were other plans in play, plans that I wouldn’t see coming for another two years.  Let’s recap on some quick history about this base. This was my 1st military assignment; I was here from 27 November 1996 to 21 May 2000 on that first tour.  This is where I learned my trade; I refueled my first aircraft, an F-15E Eagle at this base.  I still believe this is the best fighter jet in the world.  It will always have a special place in my heart! 

Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was established five months after the United States entered World War II when the War Department approved the establishment of a technical school two miles southeast of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Seymour Johnson Field was activated on June 12th, 1942, as Headquarters, Technical School, Army Air Forces Technical Training Command. The base is named in honor of U.S. Navy Lt. Seymour A. Johnson, a native of Goldsboro. Johnson, a test pilot, was killed in an aircraft crash near Norbeck, Md., March 5th, 1941. Seymour Johnson Field was deactivated in May 1946. The base was reactivated as a Tactical Air Command base on April 1st 1956 and has been home to B-52 bombers, KC-10 tankers from Strategic Air Command and F-4 and F-16 fighters from the Michigan Air National Guard. “Shady-J” is now the home of the 4th Fighter Wing, known as the Fourth but First, along with the 916th Air Refueling Wing flying the mighty F-15E Strike Eagles and KC-135 Stratotankers.

Honestly, I loved every minute of being back in North Carolina.  I loved interacting with the troops; I loved my off on and off duty time on my second tour here.  It was here that I was stationed, when I married my beautiful wife, Marilyn in October of 2013, not much longer after getting back to this little base!  In an instant, I would become a father to a little girl who I still adore to this day, Avery.  But as you’ll see later and as most of you already know, it wasn’t the last child for us!  But that’s still a couple bases down the road – we’ll get there I promise!!  We got married in Oklahoma City that October and she soon moved out east with me after our honey moon.

During my time here, we spent some time traveling, over to the coast to see where the Wright Brothers first took flight at Kitty Hawk, down to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, even on an amazing retreat weekend in the mountains of western North Carolina.  We went to NASCAR races in Darlington and Charlotte and caught a practice at Talladega; visited Elvis Presley’s Graceland, volunteered time at airshows, and college football games, and even went to a hot air balloon festival.  We ocean fished on a pier on the Atlantic Ocean, went deep sea fishing, visited the USS North Carolina battleship that’s now a museum, had a great time at an Air Force Combat Dining In, went zip lining – a first for both of us, and enjoyed a great evening at an Air Force Ball with my sweet wife.  One can’t stay in a state like North Carolina and not try NC style, vinegar based bbq either.  To this day, NC bbq is my favorite, hands down!  One huge accomplishment that I had always wanted to do was run and complete the Air Force Marathon up at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.  I trained as hard as I thought I needed with a goal in mind of a 4 hour 30 minute marathon.  What I wasn’t prepared for were the hills, and the raining weather that Ohio had in store for this Michigan boy in that late September 2015 run!  I’m still proud to say that I finished in 5 hours, 12 minutes, and 29 seconds!  I ran quite a few other great runs while stationed in North Carolina as well; Run For The Fallen, a color race(won’t do that again), Fire Cracker 4 Miler, and The 15^th Annual Oklahoma City Memorial Half, just to name a few.  I’ll have to make a post once I chronicled all of my bases for the races that I’ve ran and have been important to me.  That said, the Air Force Marathon wasn’t my first full distance marathon; I ran the Boston Marathon in 2010!  I finished that race in 5 hours and 36 minutes.  Ok, ok it wasn’t the real Boston Marathon– even better, it was a shadow race that I ran while deployed to Iraq!  But…..I finished Boston!  And now I can always state that I ran and finished the Air Force Marathon as well.  There are a few others I’d like to run, but as stated – I’ll leave those for another post all together!

I hope this was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to go through and remember all that we did on this second tour at Seymour Johnson.  I might add; we did all of this and probably much more in a span of just over two years. I received set of orders for my first official short tour (I was credited a short tour for my 7 month tour in Iraq in 2010).  See, I told you there were other plans. I’d be off to Osan Air Base, South Korea.  Well, that is until about 3 weeks prior to leaving – it was changed last moment to Daegu, South Korea.  “Needs of the Air Force” and it became one of my most challenging yet rewarding assignments – even though it was only a yearlong tour.  I left Seymour Johnson on 5 October 2015 (a day after my second wedding anniversary) for my next adventure to South Korea.  In total, I spent 5 years, 9 months, and 26 days in North Carolina between the two trips there.  This would prove to be the longest I spent at one location in my 23+ year Air Force career! The journey continues…….