AMOC — Rantoul, IL.

I graduated from Officers Training School and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force on April 1, 1980. I was commissioned as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer, mostly because the Air Force needed maintenance officers but also because I had almost nine years in that field as an enlisted airman. The technical school for aircraft maintenance officers was at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, Illinois. The base, which opened in 1917, closed for good in 1993.

The school was about six or seven months long and was divided into various blocks of training. Everyone had to complete the first block, which was basic orientation to aircraft and the aircraft maintenance field. I was not alone as a prior-service aircraft maintainer. As I recall there were about 14-15 people in our class. All but two were prior-service maintenance technicians of some sort. One guy and one girl had never before seen or touched a real Air Force aircraft. The instructors were obliged to teach to the lowest level so this block was extremely boring. We jokingly said, “the pointed end goes to the front and the fire comes out the back.” We added it up one day and found that we had almost a hundred years of combined maintenance experience among the students in our class. Once we finished the first block we could test out of up to three other blocks of instruction and graduate early. I tested out of two.