COM M U N I T Y
BY: BILL MOAKLEY
First-Class Experience
PRESENTED BY
CENTURIONCG.NET
Air Force Recruit’s Service is Fond Memory
M
artha Higgins walked by an Air Force recruiting office in 1951, two years after graduating from high school. She was impressed enough with the office in Erie, Penn., so she stepped in and talked with the recruiter. “I had been looking for a job,” Higgins said. “I passed by the federal building and they had all these flags out and fliers about what the government could do for you. I was so excited. I went in and the recruiting sergeant made it sound like paradise. He sold me.” After hearing about benefits such as the GI Bill and a pension, Higgins signed up, took her military oath and boarded a train headed to San Antonio for basic training. “They sent me first class and I thought, ‘Wow, if my friends could see me now.’ The porter would make the bed for me and get it ready at night. The waiter would come through and get my meal order. They treated me right.” Arriving in San Antonio, Higgins immediately liked what she was experiencing 12 | January 2020
during her training days, finding a closeknit community among her fellow cadets. “You form a sisterhood and I loved that,” she said. “You cannot do basic training by yourself. You need that support from others. We wanted to help one another, so we could finish together.” Higgins graduated from basic training and received orders to join the Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs as a financial officer. “The government trusted me to handle the money,” Higgins laughed. “I had a lot of friends because I handled the paychecks.” From Colorado Springs, Higgins’ next stop took her around the globe to Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey, just outside Istanbul. While in Turkey, Higgins worked as a data entry officer, ensuring classified data was delivered securely. Everything she entered was in code, as were the destina-
