Longest serving Airman also longest serving African-American in Do
2/26/2012 - FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (AFNS) -- The
Air Force's longest serving Airman, who retired this past January after
nearly 47 years of service, is also the longest serving
African-American service member within the Department of Defense.
Maj. Gen. Alfred K. Flowers recently retired from the Pentagon where he
served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget for Headquarters,
U.S. Air Force.
Originally from rural Jones County, North Carolina, Flowers enlisted in
the Air Force shortly after graduation from high school in 1965. He
began his career as a supply warehouseman at Grand Forks Air Force Base,
N.D., and after two years, transferred to the air transportation career
field and was sent to Da Nang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam. It was
there he had the unenviable task of collecting casualties, taking both
wounded and deceased soldiers out of the jungles during the middle of
the night.
After his tour to Vietnam, Flowers was reassigned briefly to Norton Air
Force Base where he met his future wife. Shortly after they were
married, his wife, who was also in the Air Force, was reassigned to
Clark Air Base in the Philippines. He followed several months later.
When Flowers returned to the U.S., he continued to work towards his
degree, as well as retrain into the accounting field with stints in San
Antonio, Texas; Charleston, S.C. and Iraklion, Greece.
Flowers finished his bachelor's degree in 1975 and a year later earned a
master's degree. While at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., he was
selected from promotion to master sergeant, when he was approved to
attend officer training school.
In 1978, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the financial
management career field and spent his first assignment as an officer at
Moody Air Force Base, Ga. Over the next three years he would go from
deputy finance and accounting officer to accounting and finance officer
to the base's budget officer.
He would begin his first stint in the Pentagon in 1985 as a budget staff
officer and would go on to take the role of executive officer. After
graduating from the Armed Forces Staff College, he would then go down
the road to Langley, Va., in 1990 as the chief of the Air Combat
Command's budget operations division.
From there he would continue his education, attending the Industrial
College of the Armed Forces, where he would earn a master's degree in
1994. He would then head back to the Pentagon, this time with the Joint
Chiefs of Staff as a budget officer. In 1996 he would head back to
Langley this time as the ACC budget chief and promotion to colonel.
The halls of the Pentagon welcomed Flowers back in 1999, this time as
director of budget programs in the office of the Assistant Secretary of
the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller. After a
three-year stint, Flowers headed to San Antonio, Texas, to be the
comptroller for the Air Education and Training Command. It would be
during his next assignment, with the headquarters of the U.S. Special
Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., where he
would pin on his first star.
In 2007, Flowers took command of the Air Force Officer Accession and
Training Schools at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and pinned on his
second star in 2008 before moving to Keesler Air Force Base in
Mississippi as the commander of the 2nd Air Force.
In a special farewell commentary following Flowers' retirement, Brig.
Gen. Joseph Ward Jr., commandant of the Joint Forces Staff College, and
long time friend, said of Flowers: "I fear that he will solely be
remembered for having been the longest serving Airman...but those of us
who served with him must keep the spirit alive...must continue to tell
his story as he passes the torch. His simple and straight forward
blueprint for success is something we can all learn from...a strong work
ethic coupled with an earnest desire for self improvement and a genuine
concern for others while maintaining a positive attitude..." |
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