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Mission Support Director retires after 27 years of service

  • Published
  • By Carol Carpenter
  • AFNORTH/PA
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla --  It was, at least in part, a dare that prompted Col. Debra Skelton to enter the military―the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Connecticut―when she was just a young college student. Now, after 27 years of Air Force and National Guard duty, Colonel Skelton will retire March 12.

She smiles when she recalls those well-meaning taunts about her future.

"My friends didn't think I had what it took to do it, but I joined anyway and even became a Corps commander," she said with a touch of pride. But it wasn't just her friends who pushed her toward a military career; she also noticed in mid-1981 that many of her fellow college graduates were moving back home rather than finding a job. "I didn't want that to happen to me, and that's why the military began to look like a good option," she said.

Today, nearly three decades later, as director of Mission Support for the Southeast Air Defense Sector, 601st Air & Space Operations Center, Colonel. Skelton knows her decision to join the two-year ROTC program was wise.

"Being in the Air Force has been a great experience, and it has been especially exciting to see the changes for women, who are paid the same as men and who, if they work hard, can get promoted as well," she said.

Colonel Skelton's Air Force career has taken her from far-flung assignments in cold, barren Iceland to the sunny, warm shores of Panama City, Fla., with a few other stops in between, including the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado.

The remote Iceland experience in the mid-1980s was, perhaps, her most memorable. Stationed at the distant Hofn Air Station, she and her fellow Airmen regularly endured bitter, below-zero temperatures accompanied by high and equally caustic winds. Exposed to many long dark days when the sun never rose, the Airmen were forced to find their way around the station using colored ropes that guided them from building to building.

She also remembers being more than ready to finally put on a pair of shorts during Iceland's brief summer, when the sun never set and the temperature might reach a "balmy" 50 or so degrees. "It was a fascinating, stark place where we were stranded from civilization," she said. "I made the best of it, but I often felt lonely."

One of her favorite assignments was Langley, AFB, Va., where in the 1990s she had the opportunity to more fully see the "big picture" of the Air Force mission. "I was with Headquarters Air Combat Command and worked BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) issues," she said. "We had contact with everyone, even Congress. I liked the four seasons in Virginia and enjoyed the D.C. area, too."

Moving to 1st Air Force in 1996 as a member of the Air National Guard, she has been proud to be a part of the base's homeland defense mission, serving as chief for both C2 (Command and Control) Requirements and Integrated Command and Control Systems, and then moving to the AOC in 2001. "I will definitely miss my support people here," she said. "I am truly blessed to have worked with such a good, hard-working team."

For her service in the AOC's Mission Support Division, Colonel Skelton will be presented the Legion of Merit award at her retirement ceremony March 12. The prestigious award states, in part, that she has "distinguished herself by exceptionally meritorious conduct in her performance of outstanding services to the United States." Her 1st Air Force responsibilities included communications, civil engineering, logistics, unit training and security forces related to homeland defense.

Looking ahead, the colonel is pleased that, while she will miss her daily work in uniform and her staff, she is not leaving the area nor 1st Air Force for that matter. Beginning in mid-March, she will take a civil service position in the agency's Installations and Services Division, working on contingency planning. "I am looking forward to the new job, which I'm sure will be challenging," she said, adding that she is also ready to put aside her uniforms and buy some "real clothes" for the new civilian job. "I do love the color blue, though," she noted.

Another big reason she is happy to be staying at Tyndall is because of her family, which includes five children: Benjamin, 20; Samantha, 17; Eleanora, 6; Zacariah, 3; and Magdalen, 8 months. Benjamin is a junior at the University of Florida in Pensacola and Samantha, who will soon turn 18, is a senior at Bay High School in Panama City. Both Eleanora and Zachariah are adopted and hopefully will soon have a new "official" baby sister, when Magdalen's adoption is finalized, the proud mother added.

Considering her 27 years of military service, Colonel Skelton believes she has benefitted in many ways, both personally and professionally, by the experience.

On a personal level, she has come to realize that the individuals she has met and worked with during her Air Force years are very much an extended family. "When I lost my son in 2001, so many people reached out to me, sometimes people I barely knew," she said. "They were like a family to me through that very difficult time."

And, professionally, she understands that she was given many mentors and various learning experiences that helped steer her course to success. "I came in young and the experience has helped form the person I am today," she said. "It has shaped me in good ways, like my parents did, instilling integrity and service before self. I will always be glad I joined the Air Force."