TOP STORY>>¬40 years of service: Col. Pierce retires from the Air Force

By Airman 1st Class Regina Agoha
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

In 1972, under the presidency of Richard Nixon, the United States Army was drafting young men for war. Seeing many of his friends leave and return injured, in boxes or mentally disturbed, a 19-year-old Mike Pierce, wanting to control his own destiny, joined the United States Air Force, thinking he’d only do four years and get out.

Forty years later, now soon approaching retirement, Col. Mike Pierce, 19th Maintenance Group commander, reflects on the day he joined the Air Force, the moment he decided to reenlist, the many ways the Air Force has evolved, his greatest moment wearing the uniform and what the future holds for him.

“It all went by fast,” he said.

Looking back, Pierce said, “If you would have told me four weeks before I reenlisted the first time that I would retire a colonel, I would have thought you were insane. Back then, in the Vietnam era, you had three types of military people. You had the lifers, which were the old guys who had been in for a while; you had the trouble makers who weren’t in serious trouble, but were told by the court or judge that they were either going to jail or the military, and then you had the rest of us who were avoiding the Army and joined the Air Force.”

One of the reasons Pierce said he reenlisted the first time was because of his master sergeant/mentor at the time, Master Sgt. Murphy, whose voice Pierce says he remembers to this day quite vividly. Murphy persuaded Pierce by explaining to him the financial benefits of reenlisting, which was $25,000 and by promising him a flying slot. He agreed, reenlisted in 1976 and in 1978 headed to his next duty station in Iceland.

Over the years, as Pierce grew, matured and evolved, so did the Air Force. Pierce witnessed changes in the value of a dollar, men and women working together in the service, and the military realizing that for missions and for life there are no genders, no races, just Airmen.

Pierce also said military social gatherings were different years ago. In his early Air Force years, Pierce said every Friday the shops he worked at would get together, go to the back of the building and bring out nothing but beer. They drank, talked and had a good time, which is quite different from today’s Air Force. The biggest difference Pierce said was the community support of the military.

“I was in Sacramento, Calif., and I went into this little furniture store to buy a couch. I wrote the guy a check. I had an Illinois driver’s license, so I handed that to him. He told me that he needed another form of identification. The only other form of identification I had was my military ID card. When I handed it to him, he looked at and gave me back my check, my license, my military card and said ‘I’m sorry, we don’t provide service to the military.’ During the Vietnam era, when we came home from the war, we didn’t come back to these parades. It was very hostile. You never went to a bar by yourself if you were military. You were very easily recognized as a military person even with civilian clothes on because back then everyone wore their hair long except military men. It was so bad that we were not allowed to wear our military uniform off base for any reason at all. If someone lived off base, they changed before they left to go home. The public didn’t like us. But today, if I’m in uniform, I seldom can go somewhere without someone coming up to me and saying thank you. Huge difference.

After 14 years enlisted, as a technical sergeant, Pierce decided to do something that most enlisted members back then thought was betrayal, which was trading in his stripes for golden bars. Being knowledgeable in special ops, he was noticed one day at Edwards Air Force Base by a major who was an engineer. The major wanted to know how Pierce knew the things he knew.

Pierce had gotten his degree because hisexpectation was to make chief. “The way to separate yourself,” he said, “was to not only get your Community College of the Air Force degree but to also have a bachelor’s of science degree. Not too many people had it. I got it.”

The major was very impressed and explained to Pierce that if he commissioned, the retirement for a prior enlisted retired captain was significantly different than a retired chief. Back then, it wasn’t common for an enlisted member to exceed the rank of a captain once commissioned.

Pierce said he went home, mentioned it to his wife, looked at the pros and cons, and got the process going. After a couple waivers for age and other things, in 1986 Pierce became a second lieutenant. Though his squadron at the time offered him an immediate promotion to master sergeant if he didn’t commission, Pierce went forward. He catapulted himself above and beyond the expectations. Pierce said several key chiefs he knew were disappointed with his decision. He said they felt almost like he was a traitor.

“I wasn’t supposed to go beyond the rank of a captain,” he said. “So when I got promoted to major, everyone, including myself thought, ‘wow.’ I also got selected to go to school the same year. I’ve gotten three promotions beyond what I was supposed to.”

Two things Pierce said he misses about the enlisted side is the espirt dé corps and the thought of retiring a chief.

“Retiring as a chief, I could have probably said what I wanted to say, but as colonel I do that anyway. Every time they’ve promoted me, it’s given me a little extra latitude to be more honest and frank. A lot of people want to say what I say, but they’re afraid to say it,” he said smiling.

One doesn’t have the power to say what they want to say without the education and the experience to back it up, Pierce said. He said he believes very much that education goes hand-in-hand with advancing one’s career, whether it’s military or civilian.

“Education is the pinnacle to what we have to do,” he said. “Education is not just your higher academic education. It’s also your professional military education. I always say, ‘I have to learn at least one thing new every day before I can go home.’ You can never have too much education, as long as you have experience to go along with it. You must have real experience to take full advantage of your education. The experience made me a much better officer. And education can help you once you’re in the civilian world as well.”

Along with education and experience, Pierce has countless deployments under his belt as well as numerous assignments. He said he looked at each assignment as something new, and each time he opened himself to whatever that new assignment would bring.

“Every assignment has been the best assignment that I’ve had,” he said. “I’ve gone into every assignment open eyed and open minded and made the best of it. There hasn’t been an assignment that I didn’t enjoy, whether it was Iceland or Pakistan, but if I had to pick a favorite base or assignment, I’d have to say the Rock because it’s the last one, and this is the highest job a maintainer can acheive.”

Pierce gives much credit for his successful Air Force career to his wife and children.

“Without my family, this wouldn’t have been possible,” Pierce said. “It’s a ying and a yang kind of thing. My wife saw the importance early on of why I had to what I had to do. I couldn’t have gone through this without family support. I probably wouldn’t have reenlisted the first time without my wife. Her vision was very important in my decision making.”

Pierce said he has encountered some events in his military career that he believes were orchestrated and divinely purposed for his life.

“I think the ‘big guy’ has sent me to every assignment,” he said.

“With every assignment I have had, there has al-ways been a significant series of events that has happened. I’ve afforded opportunities to either influence somebody’s life or participate in a major activity.”

There was a particular event Pierce said was extremely important to him. While deployed in Iraq, the Air Force had decided to sell three C-130’s to the Iraqis, and they wanted Pierce to set it up. Pierce agreed, even though he was scheduled to leave and go home soon. He said he realized this event was very significant and historical for the Air Force and Iraq.

“I was a part of the first Gulf War, and the Iraqis then were our enemies at the time,” he said. “This was amazing to know we’d be working together. We renamed the based from Ali to Tallil. The Iraqi general found it amusing that the name changed and wanted a picture by the sign where the name was. So we all, (the American crew and the Iraqi crew), got a picture by the sign of the base. We were in the middle of history then. Most people wouldn’t get the significance of this event, but it was a huge thing for me to be a part of.”

“They referred to me as the ‘Father of the Iraqi Maintenance,’” he said. “When these guys showed up, some of them didn’t even have shoes. They were barefoot, which is not uncommon in their culture. I couldn’t have them working around the aircraft without shoes on. I took them over to the supply squadron and got them steel toe shoes and coveralls. You would have thought I gave them gold. They were kissing my hand; it was unbelievable. The friendships and bonds I made there were amazing. And even though I was awarded the Bronze Star for that work, the attendance of two of the Iraq officials at the ceremony made it much more worthy.”

Once an Airman, always an Airman. Pierce said he will never take off his military uniform for the last time. Though he said he will always think about the troops once he retires, waking up and not having to think about the day-to-day mission or worry about troops would relieve him somewhat.

“Not having the phone ring five or six times a night will not be all that bad,” he said with a smile. “Knowing that you can make a difference in someone’s life… I don’t know if there is another job that does that like us. That will definitely be missed. The day-to-day interaction with the troops will be missed. There is obviously a level of stress and responsibility that comes with the job that will evaporate, and I’m sure that will be ok too. But then you have to go, ‘now what makes my day worthy?’ It’s easy now to make my day worthy, but as a simple retired civilian, how do I make my day worthy? I will never make my days as worthy as I did when I was in the Air Force, but I think I can figure out a way to enjoy retirement and stay busy. I have some grandsons that I have to spoil.”

Pierce says he plans to stay busy on his 40-acre ranch/farm in Southern Illinois. “We have a couple horses with us now, and we’ll probably pick up a couple more on the way along with some other farm animals we are kin to liking. There’s nothing like fresh eggs in the morning. There are probably years and years of little projects around that farm that will keep me going. I have no desire to go back into any type of Department of Defense job. If I get really bored, I’ll become a general contractor, but I’ll have to be really bored. I don’t know if I could do anything that will make me as happy as I am today.”

Pierce—a man who’s been in the military long enough for eight presidents to come and go, a man who’s been a part of major American events such as Vietnam, Granada, Desert Storm/Desert Shield and 9/11 to name a few, a man who participated in taking Kurds out of Iraq and delivering the baby of a Muslim woman on a 747, a man who came into the Air Force a boy, and watched it grow and mature just as he did—said it wouldn’t be hard to find one word to sum up 40 years of active duty military service to his country.

“Awesome,” is what he said.