See The World

CMSgt Michael Lozon was in college when his draft number came up as 7, so he chose to enlist in the Air Force, on delayed entry, entering in October of 1973. After basic training, he trained as a Munitions Specialist in Denver, Colorado, then went to Germany for a couple of years. He has a fond memory of driving up along the Mosul River, and back down the Rhine, stopping at little places along the way that hadn't seen Americans in a long time. 

From Germany, Mike went to Mountain Home, Idaho, loading bombs onto F-111s, which flew at 1,650 mph. Mountain Home was surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges and even had ranches with real live cowboys! 

Mike’s next assignment was in Korea, which had much more activity than Idaho and many more exercises. At that time, Korea was rather backwards, with dreadful poverty. There were many restrictions when going anywhere off the base, with guards on every bridge, all carrying weapons. 

Then Mike went to Miami and the Keys, where the base had F-4s. He moved out of bomb work into wing training, learning about the other side of the Air Force, afterwards becoming a trainer himself. This helped take the training burden off the flight line and off the back shops. He supported the Field Training Detachment, which was part of Air Education Command, that granted certificates in specific subjects, such as aircraft engines. 

Near the end of his tour of duty, Mike went home on leave, but nothing at home had changed. “Joe Blow was still pumping gas at the neighborhood gas station.” There was no opportunity. So, he decided to re-up. He married Penny, a Reservist and told everyone they would be honeymooning in Okinawa, Japan, where they lived for two years. The culture was very different from Germany and Korea but they enjoyed it. 

Next, Mike went to Michigan for about six years with Strategic Air Command and B-52s, which were both conventional- and nuclear-capable airplanes. He worked in line delivery which took all the bombs and missiles up to the flight line to load the aircraft. He was in charge of the missile shop and had all the air-to-air missiles. He was also on the exercise evaluation team which developed scenarios to test the capabilities of an entire base and then went on the exercises such as: “What if you were delivering munitions out to an aircraft on a trailer, and the brakes catch fire? How will people react?” 

Next, Mike went to Saudi Arabia where there is a huge airport, and was there for the 100-day war, during Desert Storm. They were supporting B-52s and tankers. They had to build a bomb dump from scratch in the desert, which included building bunkers and building up pads. 

Next, Mike came to Tyndall Air Force Base, then went to Italy, then returned to TAFB, afterwards retiring from the Air Force after 26 years of service. 
Join the Air Force. See the world!