From military brat to military brass: lifetime of service to country, community

LILBOURN, Mo. -- James H. Russell is a self-described "military brat."

His parents met while serving in World War II. After the war, his father, who was in the Army, re-enlisted in the newly formed Air Force, eventually retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

"The military is all I know," Russell said. "I was a typical military gypsy."

Russell said his family moved every four or five years as his father was reassigned across the United States and overseas. He learned how to make friends quickly and how to leave them behind.

"It was an interesting life and I enjoyed it," he recalled. "I got to see the country and the world. I think you end up growing up with a wider perspective of the world and society."

Russell was a top athlete in high school. He participated in football, wrestling and track. He was good enough to draw the interest of several college football coaches, including at the Air Force Academy.

A realist, he knew he would never be a professional athlete. A good education needed to be his priority.

A trip to the Air Force Academy in Colorado sealed where he would spend his college years. Russell said even before he could see the football facilities, he had to sit down with a dean, who wanted to know about his academic interests.

"I think that put it over the top. I knew that I would get a good education there and it doesn't hurt to have a job for five years after you graduate because that is the minimum you have to serve after commissioning," Russell said.

In 1969 he entered the Air Force Academy, where he played football two years. He graduated in 1973.

While some of his classmates would take to the skies, Russell said his eyes weren't good enough to become a pilot. Instead, he opted to keep his feet on the ground and became an aircraft maintenance officer.

It was a job that would take him around the world, enable him to meet his wife and serve his country for the next 29 years.

"I jokingly said: 'When they quit promoting me, I would get out and get a real job and make some money' but they never quit promoting me," said Russell, who retired as a colonel. "But I have no regrets. I enjoyed the military, the people and the mission."

His missions would take him across the United States from California to Oklahoma to New Jersey and from Delaware to Florida and Texas. He served overseas in Guam and led maintenance operations in Africa.

Russell explained an aircraft maintenance officer is in charge of the enlisted and civilian workforce that maintain the aircraft. Without the maintenance, there is no flying capability.

"It tends to be very much a leadership-oriented career. When I was squadron commander I had 750 people under my command and my logistics group out of Dover had about 4,500. So you get used to leading and running large organizations," he explained.

Working on the airlift side of the Air Force, Russell would oversee the crews maintaining the Air Force's biggest planes -- C141s, C5s and C30s. These are used to haul military forces.

"They give the nation the rapid response capability to put a force anywhere in the world within 24 hours," he said. "We were always busy."

As an officer during the Cold War years, Russell said many of their missions were humanitarian, responding to natural disasters including hurricanes both in the U.S. and overseas. There were some "hot spots" as well.

He recalls the day in 1992 when he went into work and was informed of a new mission to aid Somalia.

"I called my wife to say, 'Pack my bag, I'm going' and she said it is already packed. I saw her six months later -- a typical military deployment," Russell said.

As the mission began, Russell was tasked with running logistics and maintenance for Air Mobility Command throughout the Horn of Africa. Planes would fly in and out of Cairo West then fly to Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti before returning to the United States.

He was also part of the movement of troops to Haiti and to Iraq.

"I was deeply involved in the Desert Shield air lift portion, and, of course, we had the follow-up activities in Iraq as peace keepers," he said. "The part about being an aircraft maintenance officer is every time you release an aircraft for flight you are putting the aircrew members' lives at stake. You always want to make sure you have done everything you could to make sure the aircraft was mechanically sound so the operators can do their mission and safely come back."

The job was stressful, but he quickly added, it was a job he enjoyed. He credits the officers and non-commissioned officers with making the job worthwhile.

"It is a high-pressure job, no doubt about that," he said. "You hopefully have a lot of successes. You will have some failures but how you handle the failures defines how successful you are."

His favorite assignment, Russell said, was his work as a squadron commander. He explained that is a job where he could mingle with the airmen and the officers on a daily basis and they could work together to solve problems and celebrate their successes.

As he advanced in his career, Russell developed a reputation as a problem solver. When a maintenance unit wasn't performing well, he was called in to find the problems and fix them.

Following 9-11, Russell was set to be deployed as part of Desert Shield. Before he could leave the U.S., he was called in to an East Coast air base where there were problems in launching the needed aircraft to move the troops to Saudi Arabia.

"I went up for a one-week visit to see what was wrong and came home five months later. I didn't get to the AOR (area of responsibility) in that war but I probably contributed more by getting the mission flowing through there well," he said.

According to Russell, his toughest stint was working with a C-5 production branch base at Kelly Air Force Base. The operation, led by six officers and employing 1,500 civilians, was suffering from cost over runs, quality issues and delays.

"It isn't just a matter of designing a new system process ... but figuring out the level of organization then basically leadership and selling the program. By the time we got done it wasn't my program rather it was their system," he said.

His greatest source of satisfaction is watching a C5, C141 or C130 take off. "To this day it gives me a sense of pride in the Air Force and the folks that make it happen," he said.

Retiring in 2002 as the chief of aircraft maintenance for Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, Russell took a civilian job with an international software firm in California. Then, in order to be closer to his wife Paula's family, they moved to Parma.

He notes it is his first time to really put down roots. They have used it as an opportunity to continue to serve as well.

Initially he and his wife, who also is a veteran, became involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post at Malden. When the Malden Post closed, they became active members of Lilbourn's VFW Post 7183, where he now serves as commander. Russell also is the District 15 commander, representing the 16 VFW chapters in Southeast Missouri at the state and national level.

He takes pride in the services provided by the members of VFW Post 7183. Their priority is to take care of the nation's veterans, providing assistance ranging from helping local veterans get the services they need to offering any visiting veteran a helping hand. Also they regularly donate to the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau.

Russell pointed out the local Post strongly supports local youth and communities in New Madrid County.

This month the Post will host a banquet and award some $9,000 to winners of the local Patriot's Pen competition, an essay contest for sixth through eighth grade students, and the Voice of Democracy, an audio program for ninth through 12th grade students, as well as naming the patriotic teachers of the year from an elementary, middle and high school in the county. Each spring, the Post awards $1,000 scholarships to selected students and stipends to those enlisting in the military along with presenting cash prizes for art contest winners.

The Post is a sponsor of the New Madrid County Youth Wrestling Program as well.

"Most people in the county know we are here and our primary focus is to help take care of the vets. However, part of charter is to be involved with our local communities and make the quality of life better for everybody. So if you get a chance, stop by the local VFW Post and talk to us. And communities who have a major project or need should come to us and ask," he said.

Russell said he enjoys his involvement with the Post. He admitted it makes him feel good when he sees the smile on the face of a student who receives a scholarship or the look of a veteran when they are able to get the care they need.

But at 70, he said his time of service will soon fade away.

"The VFW in my opinion is having a changing of the guard. For many years, World II and Korean vets ran the Post then over time, they were gradually replaced by the Vietnam vets and the Cold War-era vets. Right now we are in the process of passing it on to what I like to call the 'sand vets' -- those veterans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars, the younger generation. That is critical for the VFW to survive.

"That is a good sign for the Post to continue," he concluded. "The mission doesn't change; the people doing it change."