Sabrina+B.+-+Henry+Killian

__ **Biographical Narrative:**  __
 * Biographical **
 * 1) Where were you born and when?
 * 2) Did you grow up in a particularly militaristic family?
 * If so, did any of your relatives inspire you to join the service?
 * 1) Do you have any siblings? Did any of them join the service?
 * 2) What were the occupations of your parents?
 * 3) How was your childhood?
 * 4) Before you entered the military, did you have any other jobs? Or did you enter right out of high school?
 * Early Service **
 * 1) Were you drafted or enlisted
 * If you were drafted, how did you feel about that?
 * 1) When you entered the Air Force, did you know you wanted to go into Radar?
 * If not, did you just enter to enter?
 * 1) Where was your training base?
 * 2) Did you know what you were getting into?
 * 3) Can you recall day one? What was it like?
 * 4) How many others were with you?
 * 5) Did you get along with your fellow training members?
 * 6) What kind of specialized training did you receive?
 * 7) How different is military life from civilian life?
 * 8) Was the transition difficult for you?
 * 9) Did you make any friends during training?
 * 10) Did you ever feel like the military wasn’t your thing?
 * 11) Did you have a uniform?
 * How did it look?
 * Did you like it?
 * Wartime **
 * 1) Where did you serve during the Vietnam Conflict?
 * Did you have a choice in the matter?
 * 1) When did you enter the Vietnam Conflict?
 * 2) What was it like getting to your base of service?
 * 3) What was your base of service?
 * 4) What was your Mission of Service during Vietnam?
 * 5) Was radar an easy job?
 * Before, or after, he elaborates, ask about other duties.
 * 1) Did you have any of your training friends, if you had any, join radar with you?
 * 2) Did you ever feel pressured or stressed?
 * 3) Did you ever feel like radar wasn’t for you?
 * 4) Were you ever out on the frontlines?
 * 5) (Follow up to 12) If you weren’t, did you see any action anyways?
 * 6) How did you feel about the Conflict?
 * Opinions concerning the events; bombings, raids, etc.
 * 1) Did you stay in touch with your loved ones at home?
 * Were you able to contact those at home?
 * Vice Versa?
 * If not, why was communication not allowed?
 * 1) When there was any sort of lull, how did you keep yourself entertained?
 * Hobbies, games, etc?
 * 1) Did you earn any metals during Vietnam?
 * Home **
 * 1) Where were you when the Vietnam Conflict ended?
 * 2) How did you feel when the war ended?
 * Overjoyed, neutral, angry?
 * 1) When did you return home?
 * 2) How did your family receive your return?
 * 3) How did the community receive your return?
 * 4) Did your family do anything special for you in celebration of being back?
 * 5) How has being in the military shaped you as a person?
 * 6) What lessons did you learn in the service?
 * 7) Are you still in contact with anyone you served with?

Sabrina Bottomstone Biographical Narrative

Mr. Henry Spades Killian was born on September 5, 1955 at the Good Samaritan Hospital. He had many brothers and sisters growing up, and his sister Nancy was another Air Force veteran. Before he entered the service, Killian worked at shoe company in Richland making boxes for packaging, and then later at a yarn factory in Womelsdorf. He went straight into the service after high school, eventually achieving the rank of Master Sergeant before retirement. He enlisted, and was not drafted, as the year he entered, there was no draft. He entered with a six year enlistment plan and had a guaranteed job. Killian began his basic training September 12, 1973 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Killian recalls that although military life was and is much different from civilian life, he had very little trouble transitioning from one to the other. However, he did mention that “military life is a lot more regimented, a lot more disciplined... we all understood why we were there, and you were an adult where someone asks you to do something, you do it.” Killian was later sent to another base called Keesler Air Force base in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was at Keesler that he began training for a job that would last him his entire military career: radar. From around February of 1975 to May of the same year, he was taught how to operate the Plan Position Indicator and how to interpret the icons shown on the screen to be able detect objects. “They taught you how to operate the radar -- what they call PPI, Plan Position Indicator, which is basically a display where you look at a, uh, picture tube -- a TV tube, and you make sense of the different icons on the picture tube -- what are they, and what they represent.” Having been guaranteed both a job as an Air Control and Warning operator, and having completed basic training, Killian was sent off to the Philippines at the beginning of the Vietnam Conflict. Unlike his guaranteed job, Killian had no choice at this point of where he would be stationed, however he mentioned that the moving process was mostly quick and painless as a payoff. “When I was single it was very easy. You just pack yourself up in a suitcase and you went. As I gained a family and kids and everything it would take a whole month to complete the process. From the time you got notified and got your orders to go and packet up all of your household goods all the kid’s toys, everything; all the clothing, all the furniture. They moved it, and when you got to the new duty location, it got unpacked. All the boxes -- cleaning up all the boxes. It took about a month.” Throughout the Vietnam era, and even beyond that, Killian was a radar operator. His primary job was to monitor air flight equipment and to make quick fire decisions on the fly. One of the most stressful parts of his career was having to handle inflight emergencies. “Uh, the aircraft, when something goes wrong with it and it’s gotta land now -- it can’t land in 10 seconds, it’s gotta go now -- ah, some kind of aircraft malfunction, you do everything you possibly can to get them clearance go where they need to go, and the whole thing happens in 15 seconds, and it’s a lot of pressure, and you’ve gotta do it right the first time.”He, in all of his career, did this successfully and without losing a single person. Inflight emergencies were a part of what was known as Feast and Famine. The field of radar was like a rollercoaster. For a period, there could be little to no work available, with operators bored out of their skulls. In an instant, that could change to people running around in a frenzy, trying to get their work done without interfering with other people’s job. Working during famine was akin to hanging wallpaper with a single hand -- difficult with a person’s attention spread thin with a million other things to worry about. Worrying and stress were part of the job, but one would simply learn how to deal with the pressure, and if one failed to do so, the were transferred to another program. At the time, Killian had many hobbies to help him deal with the pressures around him. He could “play every card game known to man,” he enjoyed gardening, and learned how to build computers. Writing home, a commonplace now, was not one of Mr. Killian’s hobbies, however. With the area he was stationed in, and with the lack of technology available to him, writing home was not possible. The occasional analog letter was able to reach the states, but beyond that, his family was left mostly in the dark about Killian’s whereabouts. “We didn’t have emails or Facebook. We didn’t have all those conveniences we have today. Uh, I mean I wrote letters home every once in a while, but no. It wasn’t as easy as it is today when you go somewhere and I can text somebody and no matter where they’re at or where I’m at they can get the message instantaneously. We didn’t have that kind of thing back then, so it was writing the old analog letters.” Even returning home, it was not as warm for a welcome as one would expect. The Vietnam Conflict was not a popular war with the people of America by any stretch of the imagination. His family welcomed him back, and life resumed as it was before. No grandiose party and no welcoming committee. “When you have someone coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq, everybody, uh, goes to the airport and meets you and things like that. You have to understand that the Vietnam Conflict was not a very popular conflict. There was a lot of rioting in the country over it. Uh, it was very unpopular. It was just something where you did your job and came home, versus today with the climate and the way the American people view the military today. When the guys come back from Afghanistan and Iraq they’re cheered, they’re given parties, and, uh, just something that happened during those times.” Regardless, Killian states himself a much different person then if he never entered the service. He believes he is much more disciplined as a whole, and very knowledgeable about his chosen field -- ie weather, machinery, airplanes. “Be-Because of the way the military operates, it makes you more responsible, because if you’re not responsible, they will deny you reenlistment or even kick you out. And you can be very irresponsible as a civilian at some jobs and your employer doesn’t even care as long as you come to work. Or if you’re responsible on the job but irresponsible off they don’t care, versus the military where they care about that. It’s called the whole person concept.”He also states himself as being a responsible person thanks to his time in the service, and that if he had to go back, he would not change a thing. Even with only being in the actual Air Force for a total of twenty-one years, he remains a radar operator and works with the US Customs Service twenty-one years later for a grand total of forty-two years of working with radar and its applications. He even stays in contact with his friends from the service through Facebook, a luxury he could have only dreamed of during Vietnam. Currently, Killian lives in California with his wife Mary, and is a father of many. To this day he is a radar operator, and would not have it anyother way.

__**Transcript:**__

Sabrina Bottomstone
*Disclaimer that says who is being interviewed (Henry S. Killian) by whom (Sabrina Bottomstone), the location (Myerstown PA), and for what purpose (Vet. History Project for the Library of Congress)*

__Biographical__
Bottomstone: Would you please state your name for the camera? Killian: Uh, Henry S. Killian. Bottomstone: Okay. Where were you born and when? Killian: I was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania September 5, 1955 at the Good Samaritan Hospital. Bottomstone: ‘Kay. Do you have any siblings, and did any of them join the service? Killian: *Pause* Yes... I have a sister, uh, Nancy. She was, ah, she joined the Air Force, and, uh, lives in Fort Walton Beach. Bottomstone: *Pauses* Before you entered the military, did you have any other jobs or did you enter straight out of high school? Killian: While I was in high school, I worked at the Richland Shoe Company, ah, making boxes on an evening shift. During my senior year I worked at the, uh, yarn factory in Womelsdorf, and right after I graduated from high school I then joined the United States Air Force.

__Early Service__
Bottomstone: Alright then. Were you drafted, or did you enlist? Killian: Ah, the draft was not active that year; that was the first year they had stopped the draft and went to an all volunteer force. Uh, previously when I was a senior, I -- my draft number was seven, and after I graduated I -- they went to the all volunteer force. Bottomstone: Alright, um, when you entered the Air Force, did you know if you wanted to do any particular job, or did you just kind of go in there to see what happened? Killian: I was in under a guaranteed job six year enlistee. So when I came out of basic training I was, uh, a two striper Airmen First Class, and I was guaranteed an Air Control and Warning operator -- which I had no idea what that was -- but it ended up being a career thing for me where I spent 42 years doing the same thing in radar. Bottomstone: Alright. Um, where was your training base? Killian: My first training base was Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, and my second training base after that was Keesler Air Force base in Biloxi, Mississippi. Bottomstone: Do you recall what your first day was when you entered? Your first official day being an Air Force... member? Killian: September (I just looked that up), September 12, 1973. I don’t -- I don’t know what day of the week it was, uh... no, but it was in San Antonio and it was hot! I remember that well. Bottomstone: How many others were with you? Did you -- were you in a training group of sorts... Killian: We were -- we were in -- we were together, but everybody was in the same part of the United States, but I knew -- I knew -- I didn’t know anybody there. It was all just a bunch of us together; some people from Philadelphia, some people from Pittsburgh, some people from Boston, but I didn’t really know anybody. Bottomstone: Did you -- did you get along with anybody? Any of your teammates? Killian: Ye -- we got along with everybody because you had to to survive. Bottomstone: Um, did you receive any kind of specialized training? Killian: When I was, uh, at Keesler, I learned how to write backwards. Which has no application today in the modern world, because everything is done by computers now. But back in the day, writing backwards was, ah, the thing to do *chuckles*. Bottomstone: Um, when did you receive your radar training? Killian: I received radar training at Keesler from... I want to say February of 1975 to -- ‘til about May of 1975. Bottomstone: What did you do during your training -- like what was required of you to know... and... of the like? Killian: They taught you how to operate the radar -- what they call PPI, Plan Position Indicator, which is basically a display where you look at a, uh, picture tube -- a TV tube, and you make sense of the different icons on the picture tube -- what are they, and what they represent. Bottomstone: Okay, um, how was, um, military life different to civilian life? Like, what differences are there? Killian: The military life is a lot more regimented, a lot more disciplined. You, ah, you have to do what they tell you to do, versus in, ah, civilian life you -- in civilian life you can say that “I’m not going to do this, I’m just -- I’m just not going to do this, and I’m just gonna walk away from it,” but you can’t do that in the military because you signed a contract saying you would cooperate and you will, ah, obey the orders of the superiors over you. So, you basically, you, but the way the Air Force ran... ran is that we all got along. We all understood why we were there, and you are an adult where when someone asks you to do something, you do it, unless it’s a so outrageous, outlandish order where you say “are you sure you really want me to do that?” But I was lucky, uh, we had some good people, and uh, we all survived. Bottomstone: Was the transition difficult for you? Going to civilian life into military life? Killian: *Pause* Not really. ‘Cause it -- it, the Air Force is not the same as the Marine Corps or the Army where you go out there and they’re constantly doing the same thing over and over versus in the Air Force, every school I went to was different. Uh, radar squadron. Even though we were using radar it was different -- different application of it. So it kept you, um, uh, *pauses* how should I say? I don’t want to say the word entertained, but it wasn’t dull, ‘cause you learned a lot, and you really enjoyed the job. It was quite interesting. Bottomstone: Did you ever make any friends during your training? Killian: Yes, a lot of ‘em. I still see some of them on Facebook every once in a while. There are groups on Facebook called US Staff Radar Veterans Group. There’s the Enlisted Weapons Control Facebook Group. Since I joined Facebook, I’d probably connected with 50 people that I haven’t seen in 35 years. Bottomstone: Did you ever feel like the military wasn’t your thing? Like, did you ever feel like ‘I should be doing something else.’ Or hesitant about doing it? Killian: No. Believe it or not, no. Bottomstone: So you were very sure about your position? You were sure you wanted to do this? Killian: Yes. And once I learned how to do it and got good at it, I got promoted and got to do some really interesting things. Bottomstone: Did you have a uniform? Killian: Yes, I did. Bottomstone: Did you like it? Killian: Ah, it was a uniform. *Pauses* It was blue... um... ah... yeah. I never thought about that question. Yeah, It was okay. I mean, it was a uniform. It was like a pair of blue jeans -- like a pair of sneakers. I mean we all looked the same, so... Bottomstone: So you can’t say you really disliked it or liked it -- Killian: I’ve never thought about it. No, I’ve never really thought of it that way. You’re the first person to ever ask me that question, which is interesting. But, ah, nah. It was a uniform.

__Wartime__
Bottomstone: Okay. Where did you serve during the Vietnam Conflict? Killian: During the Vietnam Conflict, I was in the Philippines Islands in Wallace Air Station. We used to refill -- fuel airplanes going in from the United States that were going to Vietnam. Uh, the Vietnam actual conflict ended while I was in the Philippines. Uh, but after that everything just... shut down. Everyone left Vietnam and came to the Philippines, or went back to the United States. So, ah, it was a very short period of time. Bottomstone: Did you have any say in where you were going to be stationed? Killian: Not until I got a higher rank. Once you get a higher rank, you can act -- what they call a functional manager where you can call somebody and they’ll give you three choices and you can pick from one of those three choices. Ah, there’s other ways to get where you want to go, ah, there’s a base of preference. I did that when I went to Hancock Fields, and I got to stay there for a very long time because I did a job called the Listed Weapons Controller which kept me at Hancock for five years which is very unusual. But again, you got up and you got to know the people and know the situation and you could, you could really dictate -- not dictate, but say where you want to go. Bottomstone: But initially, you really didn’t have a choice in the matter. You were told to go somewhere and you went. Killian: Exactly because in the beginning because I had no idea where all the places I could go. Bottomstone: Um, when did enter the Vietnam Conflict? Killian: The day I joined the military. The way the military looks at it is that the day you enter basic training, the day you joined, is the day you were a part of the Vietnam era, so September 11 and that until the government said -- they gave a date (I think it was 76 or 75) that the Vietnam era is over and, uh, but the day I joined is the day I entered. That’s how the military looks at it. Bottomstone: What was it like getting to your base of service? Killian: When I was single it was very easy. You just pack yourself up in a suitcase and you went. As I gained a family and kids and everything it would take a whole month to complete the process. From the time you got notified and got your orders to go and packet up all of your household goods all the kid’s toys, everything; all the clothing, all the furniture. They moved it, and when you got to the new duty location, it got unpacked. All the boxes -- cleaning up all the boxes. It took about a month. Bottomstone: What was your mission of service during Vietnam? Killian: Radar operator. This is before computers and this is where we wrote backwards on a big piece of plexiglass so the people making the decisions in the front could actually read where all the radar data was so they could make decisions. Uh, did that, and then after I came back from the Philippines, everything was computerized. Bottomstone: So could you tell me a bit about Command Control Radar? Killian: Okay, so you’re using the application of radar for the purpose of Command Control Aircrafts. Bottomstone: Okay. Killian: And what we did, as I was stationed across different parts of the United States including Alaska -- and Iceland -- our job was to make sure any threat coming to the United States was properly identified and if we couldn’t identify it, it was met with F-15s and F-16s. This was called Command Control. We also intercepted, while I was in Alaska, we intercepted about 50 soviet bombers when the Soviet Union was still around until they went under. As it is in the news today, the, uh, Russian Bombers are still out there flying around, but I was, uh, -- one aspect of the job that really made it interesting watching people making actual decisions. The information I supplied on my part of the battle staff was used to make other decisions. Uh, it really kept my interest in the radar because you could actually see the mechanics of how people made decisions at the executive level, and it was really an eye opener for me. Uh, sometimes the politics and sometimes a straight up decision -- yes or no -- uh, things you gotta consider while making those decisions. Eh, but it was, that was the last ten years I was in. It was fun. I did it in Alaska, I did it in Iceland, I did in down here in March Ford base here in California, and it was really a lot of fun. Lot of lot of fun. You’re just not sitting at the radar scope. You’re actually sitting behind a desk, uh, with your communications, taking phone calls, passing information -- quite the experience for me. Bottomstone: Would you consider radar an easy job compared to other jobs you could have taken? Killian: As a matter of fact, it’s a matter of attitude. If you have a good attitude, and you have a good attitude about what you’re doing, it’s a lot easier. Some people in radar didn’t like it. They made it hard for themselves. It’s not that hard, but it’s all depending on your attitude. Bottomstone: Okay, um, did any of your training friends join radar with you? Killian: No. Bottomstone: So you were essentially the only one out of your group of friends that decided to do radar. Killian: Correct. I made more friends when I went to Keesler to get trained, and as you go along in the service, uh, and when I went to different schools after that I made more friends, but by that time you were already in the radar group so every class you’d go to has some kind of radar connotation so everyone else is doing the same thing anyway. Bottomstone: Did you ever feel pressured or stressed? Killian: Yes. Would you like some examples of that? Bottomstone: I would, yes. Killian: Later on in my career when you’re controlling airplanes, they have what they call an inflight emergency. Uh, the aircraft, when something goes wrong with it and it’s gotta land now -- it can’t land in 10 seconds, it’s gotta go now -- ah, some kind of aircraft malfunction, you do everything you possibly can to get them clearance go where they need to go, and the whole thing happens in 15 seconds, and it’s a lot of pressure, and you’ve gotta do it right the first time. And I’ve never lost a pilot because of an aircraft emergency, but it’s just, uh, everything’s time compressed you’ve gotta do everything rapidly -- perfectly and quickly in a short amount of time. And that’s -- that’s the part of the radar job that some people couldn’t do. Bottomstone: So you would say at times that it was a very high-strung job? Killian: It was -- we called it Feast and Famine. Sometimes you had so much famine of nothing to do you so bored out of your mind. Uh, by the time I was at the end of my twenties I could play every card game known to man. Other times it was feast where you had so much to do you couldn’t, ah, we used to call it hanging wallpaper with one arm. You were so busy -- so multi-tasking -- 15000 things were going. You had to prioritize those things and you had to make sure you do the correct thing the first time and get to the second thing as quick as you possibly could. Bottomstone: Did you ever feel like radar wasn’t the job for you? Killian: No. Never. I’m still doing it 42 years later, even though I only spent twenty-two years in the Air Force. Bottomstone: How did you feel about the Vietnam Conflict? Killian: They should have let the military do what the military does well. There were too many politicians involved telling the military what to do, and that’s why it didn’t turn out as well as it could have. Bottomstone: Did you stay in contact with your loved ones at home during the conflict? Killian: At Vietnam, you mean? Bottomstone: Yes. Killian: Uh, no, because we didn’t have any means to do that. We didn’t have emails or Facebook. We didn’t have all those conveniences we have today. Uh, I mean I wrote letters home every once in a while, but no. It wasn’t as easy as it is today when you go somewhere and I can text somebody and no matter where they’re at or where I’m at they can get the message instantaneously. We didn’t have that kind of thing back then, so it was writing the old analog letters. Bottomstone: So you basically had no way to stay in contact with those at home? Killian: No. Not directly, no. Bottomstone: How did you keep yourself entertained with any sort of lull that may have happened? Killian: Any sort of what? Bottomstone: Any sort of pause in activity. Killian: We were allowed to sit in uniform, and we played a lot of cards. And we talked about a lot of different things, ‘cause we did have a lot of times where nothing was going on. We were just there at work waiting for something to happen. Bottomstone: Did you have any particular hobby you enjoyed the most? Killian: In the beginning when I was in, no. Later on I liked to build computers, uh, I grew a lot of plants when I was in Syracuse, New York. But, ah, no. Nope. Bottomstone: How did you feel when the war ended? Killian: Good that it was all over, that we could move on to something else. Bottomstone: Where were you when the conflict ended? Killian: I was in New Jersey. I was in Gibbs Borough 70072nd radar squadron in New Jersey when the conflict was finally, officially, ended. And it was just everybody came home and it was a good thing. Bottomstone: Did you earn any metals during Vietnam? Killian: No. No I did not.

__Home__
Bottomstone: When did you return home? Killian: I returned home... oh, I think it was February, oh God, 76? I think it was in February of 76 I came home. I remember because I came home and there was a big snowstorm in the east coast and I couldn’t fly into Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and I had to take a bus from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg ‘cause it was quite snowy. Bottomstone: How did your family receive your return? Killian: Good! Yeah, everybody was happy to see me. Bottomstone: Did your family do anything special in celebration of you returning home? Killian: No, no. “Hello, I’m glad you’re here.” Bottomstone: So you just arrived home and “hey, you’re back. Nice to see ya.” Killian: Yeah, yeah because it was a different time than it is today. When you have someone coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq, everybody, uh, goes to the airport and meets you and things like that. You have to understand that the Vietnam Conflict was not a very popular conflict. There was a lot of rioting in the country over it. Uh, it was very unpopular. It was just something where you did your job and came home, versus today with the climate and the way the American people view the military today. When the guys come back from Afghanistan and Iraq they’re cheered, they’re given parties, and, uh, just something that happened during those times. Bottomstone: So it wasn’t as large of a deal for soldiers to come back. It was more of an “okay, you’re back you did your job. Good job.” Killian: We didn’t even get a glad you’re back, good job from anybody. Like I said, it was a very unpopular war. People were just kind of like... I didn’t even wear my uniform around because people were, like, upset that we were even there. People were harassed back then over the war. Bottomstone: How has being in the military shaped you as a person? Killian: Made me more disciplined, uh, kept me focused on what I’m doing, what I was doing, what I am doing. Uh, it taught me a lot about the weather, airplanes, uh, radar. Something called Command and Control radar which I did towards the end of my career. Uh, kept me on task so I could do my 22 years and get out. Same thing for when I joined US Customs Service, but, ah, it gives you a lot of, ah, purpose because it moves you around a lot, and you have to keep learning things to keep moving up in rank and getting promotions. Bottomstone: So you would say that you’re a very different person than you would be if you hadn’t entered the military? Killian: I think so, yeah. That’s fair to say. Bottomstone: Did you learn any lessons while you were in the service? Anything that you, like, learned about yourself? Or any life lessons... Killian: Oh, I never thought of that one. That’s a good question... life lessons... I’m sure I have, but I don’t... I have to think about that one *pause* Be-Because of the way the military operates, it makes you more responsible, because if you’re not responsible, they will deny you reenlistment or even kick you out. And you can be very irresponsible as a civilian at some jobs and your employer doesn’t even care as long as you come to work. Or if you’re responsible on the job but irresponsible off they don’t care, versus the military where they care about that. It’s called the whole person concept. And it really does shape you because if you are not part of that whole you will not do well in the military, by promotions and getting along well with other people. Bottomstone: Are you still in contact with anyone you served with? Killian: Yes, like I said Facebook. I joined Facebook a couple years ago and I couldn’t believe all of the radar groups out there and all the people I haven’t seen for 35, 30, 25 years. Then all of a sudden there they are popping up, seeing their grandkids, seeing their kids and everything, and I remember everybody’s growing up. And it was fun to do that. It was fun to see all those people that I hadn’t seen for a very long time. Bottomstone: Okay. Alright. Do you have any pictures from your time in service? Killian: Yes I do. I have a whole bunch of pictures that I found this morning. All these pictures are from when I was getting awards. But, how do you want me to do this? Do you want me to put them in front of the camera so you can see it or what? Bottomstone: Ah, yes. Killian: Let’s start with the most current one. If you can see that, that is me retiring, if you notice all the stripes. That’s a Navy captain retiring me, and I do not remember his name, but that was the summer of 1995 -- 19 years ago. I was a Master Sergeant getting my Meritorious service medal, and uh, yup. It was even colored. Then I’ve got this one -- this one is all black and white. That’s me receiving an Air Force commendation medal you can see I have a lot less stripes and I have a blue uniform... a lot more hair. And there’s another one. More stripes there. That’s probably about thirty years ago. That guy there is Paul -- Colonel Goshroch. He was, eh, my boss. I’m not sure what I was getting there. Some kind of plaque for doing something, but that’s Colonel Dan *unknown name*. That was in Syracuse New York. And the last one I showed you was in Syracuse New York. This one was in Alaska. That’s all I have. That’s all I was able to find. There’s a video somewhere I’ve gotta find and if I find it I’ll get a copy of it on a DVD and send it to you, but it’s of my actual military retirement ceremony, which we recorded because we had the technology back then. Um, because when I first got in of course we didn’t have that technology. But, ah, that’s all I have. Bottomstone: Is there anything you’d like to add about your service? Killian: Yes, I did a lot of research and development. Part of -- when you start getting a lot more understanding of radar, I was allowed to be in a lot of research and development projects. Uh, the two that were really fun was a thing called Meteor Burst. We were sending radar data, shooting it up into the sky and bouncing it off the ionized trails of meteors and hitting an Earth Station where we could bypass the normal, uh, communications, uh, what we did. ‘Cause normally you send radar data over of telephone lines, but in Alaska we had no telephone lines that stretched that far so what we did was shot it off the ionized trails of meteors. We did that project for three years. Uh, it was very interesting. The other projects I was involved was involved detecting and monitoring, with radar, small objects. How small of an object can you detect versus if you’ve got a Boeing-747 or a B-52 or something as large as that. Those are very easy to see on radar, but if you have something that’s the size of a... of a, half the size of a Volkswagen or a bicycle. Can you actually detect monitor something like that on radar. That took a lot... we did a lot of that. Besides, ah, my normal job of working with crews and uh, uh taking tests, and doing my normal air defence job. But that was really a lot of fun -- I learned a lot of different things on how things work, on how the internet works, on how networks work and operate. And, uh, it was a lot of fun. Kept me busy. Bottomstone: Do you have any final comments you would like to add on the Vietnam Conflict itself? Killian: Nope. No, I’m good with it. It’s in our past. We’ve learned a lot from it. Thank God we didn’t do it again when we went to Afghanistan and Iraq, so -- and *unknown* and all that stuff. We learned a lot from that. Bottomstone: Um, any final thoughts on the military itself? Killian: I had a great time. I would do it again. I -- the military is not for everybody. One thing I had advice for young people going to join the military, join on your terms. Just don’t go in there to go into the military. Go in there, learn a job -- learn a trade -- you don’t have to stay forever, and not everyone can stay forever because they have quotas on who can actually be in the military. Learn something, get out -- something that’s transferable to a civilian job, and do your civilian job. Because each military branch has its own unique set of disciplines. And, uh, Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and it all depends on what you want to do, but don’t go in there with the idea that they’ll pick something for you. You pick your job, get a guaranteed job -- get it in writing. That way, uh, you’ll have a little more focus on what you’re doing. Bottomstone: So you would recommend the -- who would you recommend the military to? Killian: Someone who knows what the military is about. There’s a lot of people out there whose parents were in the military so they understand military life. But like I said, it’s also a good place to get a civilian trade. A lot of guys I went through basic training with came in -- this one guy wanted to be a welder, so he joined the Air Force, got his four years, go to school, learn how to be a welder, and he was gonna get out. He already said that he was gonna get out -- that he wanted to go in and learn a trade. Just don’t go in the military to join the military Bottomstone: So don’t go in blindly. Know what you want to do. Killian: Correct.