WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – An Air Force veteran who retired in Kingman was following a career maintaining our nation’s nuclear arsenal.
Air Force veteran Amo Beal isn’t a native Kansan, but he chose to retire in Kingman, and he says life in the Sunflower State is pretty sweet.
“Love it. There’s a lot of great spirit here, and I’m not just saying this to pump up the area,” he said.
Beal graduated in 1966 and decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps by joining the Air Force.
“The Vietnam War was on, and I didn’t know what I’d end up doing. I thought I’d be a linguist like my brother Howard, a year and a half older than me. That’s what he did in the Air Force,” he said.
Beal’s Air Force career took a different turn. He found himself training to be a nuclear technician and eventually specialized in targeting and aligning our nation’s nuclear missiles.
“I do believe they’re necessary because there are other weapon systems and technologies that are a threat, and it’d be nice to have a world where we could get rid of them, but they’re not the only threat, and you have to have countermeasures to make sure a possible enemy does worry about what you might do,” he said.
Beal was a sergeant when he left the Air Force in 1977 to go to college to study international affairs and geography. When he looks back on what made his time with the Air Force successful, he points to his teammates.
“I suppose you learn to work as a team a lot more than you learn as a youth, even though sports and some other activities help teach that type of lesson,” he said.
Beal says those teammates were a lot more than your typical co-workers.
“You look back so fondly at the incredibly close relationship you get with the others that you work with. There’s a close bond there,” he said.
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