Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes

From Detroit Streets To Duty And Film (Glen Wilkewitz)

• Bill Krieger

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A childhood reshaped by an expressway, a career born from a newspaper ad, and a camera that followed him from training fields to a war zone—Glenn Wilkewitz’s story is a masterclass in showing up when it counts. We sit down with Glenn to chart his path from Detroit neighborhoods and ROTC hallways to 30 years in the Air National Guard, where he learned to love both the hum of computers and the craft of photography.

You’ll hear how a young bagger turned data operator rode the evolution from punch cards and mag tapes to mainframes and 286 desktops, then retrained again to keep pace with early networks and hospital IT. Glenn explains how a remote job entry terminal made him an early “remote worker,” why Pensacola’s photography school became a turning point at 42, and how an eye for images helped him navigate base politics and tell the stories that would otherwise stay in a drawer.

The centerpiece is his decision to volunteer for Iraq at 52. Glenn breaks down the unseen work of video exploitation: pulling 15-second clips from F-16 tapes, labeling mission data, and pushing files over secure networks to shape decisions on the ground—all while rockets and mortars bracketed his days. He balances those memories with the moment he came home, the quiet truths about prestige after the uniform comes off, and the purpose he found serving the Michigan Flight Museum—keeping vintage aircraft flying and communities connected with a few well-aimed antennas.

Threaded through are the personal anchors: his wife Debbie’s grit and grace, a faith journey that began in a bunker, and two daughters who turned skills into futures—one teaching STEM, the other helping touch the moon with Orion and Artemis. Glenn leaves listeners with practical, generous advice: build a marketable skill during the narrow window, stay curious, and do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.

If this story moved you, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves military history or tech, and leave a short review with your favorite takeaway. Your note helps more people find conversations that matter.

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SPEAKER_01:

Today is Monday, November 24th, 2025. We're talking with Glenn Wilkowitz, who served in the Air National Guard. So good morning, Glenn. Yeah. And uh thank you for sitting with me through all the technical difficulties that we've had this morning. No problem. But I think we're on the right path at this point. Okay. Great. So we'll start out with something really simple. When and where were you born?

SPEAKER_04:

I was born in Detroit. At the uh at Salvation Uh Army Hospital that was there. Um I lived in Detroit about 24 years. Okay. What year were you born? September 10th, 1951. 1951. So tell me about growing up in Detroit. What was that like for you? Well, my neighborhood was the usual kind back then. Kids down the street you played with, you did things together, um, go golfing occasionally with them. Uh park was down the street, uh near Gomper's uh uh elementary school, and the park there is where we would play softball or hardball, uh do skating when the winter was there and such. Um what basically happened to my neighborhood is the expressway came through. Oh, that'll change things. That was on in schoolcraft and Burt Road area, just wiped them out.

SPEAKER_03:

Um so most of my friends went away.

SPEAKER_04:

They moved, and so there wasn't that much activity after that. Uh-huh. Now, do you have brothers and sisters? I have one brother, name is Mark, and right now he lives in Tennessee uh and such.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, are you very close in age?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh he is just turned 70, so he's he's about three years behind me.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. All right. So not not quite close enough in age to be best pals then when your friends all moved away.

SPEAKER_04:

Or or did you or did you Well, my brother uh left, moved out when he was 18. Okay. As soon as high school came around, he's gone. Yeah. I hung around till I was 24 before I finally moved out. Okay. Now tell me a little bit about your parents. Uh what did your what did your parents do? Well, my dad uh joined the Navy when he was 17. Uh he didn't um really like the way he had to go in, but he uh ended up uh going to boot camp in uh Chicago at the induction center there. My mom uh lived on a farm with her twelve brothers and sisters in Bonertown, Tennessee. And uh when she turned about 17 or 18 in during the war, uh she too left the farm and went down to Maxwell Airbase in uh Alabama. Yeah, Alabama, where she repaired bullet holes on airplanes. Oh. And such.

SPEAKER_01:

So she was kind of a Rosie the Riveter then.

SPEAKER_04:

In a way. Yeah. Yeah. She uh never talked about other than to say there were a lot of cute pilots down there. And pretty much with my dad as well. He uh served on a cargo ship, kind of like in the movie of Mr. Roberts. Okay, uh except his was an ammunition ship ammo.

SPEAKER_03:

But I have um map at home that shows all his journeys. He was a plank, means that he was the first crew to serve on the ship. And basically they only had two battle stars because they would be floating around in areas where uh the Navy Army had already taken over the island. So they didn't see much action there. Um he never graduated high school. And she and my mom they met in a bowling app. Got hooked up that way.

SPEAKER_01:

All kinds of places to meet people, isn't there?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. As a side note, how I met my wife.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh well, it seems to have worked out, yeah. Yeah. So your uh your parents met, and then um how did they end up in Michigan?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, well, that's a bit of a story, I think. Originally, they were uh living in clear Winter Haven, Winter Haven, Florida, and this was at the start of the Korean War, and he got a note from his mom about wanting the Navy to him to report in.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it just later he just mama wanted her his her boy back in Michigan. So they came back to Michigan, they bought a house, Gielding Street, school craft area.

SPEAKER_01:

And the rest is history, as they say.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_01:

So talk to me a little bit about school. And I know you uh lived at home until you're 24, but so you graduated high school?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Um I was rather unremarkable and I did that time I was suffering from allergies and asthma. I never really participated in sports. Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

So I joined ROTC and such, which I kind of liked and such, because we had activities we would do, things like with plays, that among those.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. So graduated when I was seventeen. Mom and dad never really harped about going to college or anything. So I kind of floated around, you might um so that was my high school.

SPEAKER_01:

You uh had joined the uh ROC. RCC. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, we did the usual thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh had a rifle range, the basement of Redford High School, and we have marching competition against other trade schools and such. So that was extra career curricular activity.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, do you think that that uh kind of fired up your interest in being in the military?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh actually it was it's a little weird.

SPEAKER_03:

We would always go visit my aunt at Okie in the north, one of the suburbs of right. And we would with my dad and uncle, we would c occasionally watch watch Walter Conk 20th century. It was all war movies or news. Right. And I wasn't so much curious about that. I was just thinking about the people who were doing that, filming it. And I thought that was that was so um, anyways, I had interest in photography then negative. Right. And um so, anyways, uh after I I did work locally at one of the DNC markets. Uh-huh. That was blocks with Walter Strom in it. And I was just sort of an innocent guy packing bags. Right. And I didn't know at the time that Walters was well known about his meeting good butchery. And apparently what they called back then, this was 1968, what they call the production line for Bedwick, they would come there. Oh. I would pack it. I don't know who the hell you were, because I never watched hockey. Right. Wasn't your thing. It wasn't my thing. So that was probably one of the highlights. Uh-huh. After that, I started working in Hudson's apartment in Northland. And the guy there that would be in charge of me acted as if I was gonna work there for 30 years, like, yeah. So but basically all I would do is break down. And I had a few incidents where I got chided for after three months I got fired. Oh, well. So so much for that career.

SPEAKER_04:

So I um collected on the for a while.

SPEAKER_03:

I did have other part-time jobs that I did. One of them was delivering flowers. That was just a couple change. And another time I worked part-time for Sears that was bonia that. Then one day I was looking through the paper um and they had an ad for computer training.

SPEAKER_04:

So um I had money saved, went to it. I did couldn't afford the programming.

SPEAKER_03:

So I just learned l operations Honeywell computer and such. So I started looking for jobs after I graduated. I got one at what's called Plymouth where they had the old um TV gun factory. Oh, okay. Um my teacher wasn't that great at showing me how still work. I got released fired and such. But I did end up with another job on Greenfield Road and Street Call of the Data. Basically their main thing was printing out paper coupons with Paul purchased new cars. Okay. Right. They still do it. Uh huh. Other companies. Right.

SPEAKER_04:

So I would be uh worked in data control, got in because I wanted to be an opera.

SPEAKER_03:

So they had an opening on the midnight as a printer operator, print out 10, 12 boxes of stuff, then go over to the mail room and uh make a long story short, eventually got on afternoons, then on days, and they had a computer operator thing open there. So I went started training there. Unbeknownst to me, there was this union thing going on where the warehouse joined the team and all of the operators grew in with them. So the work rule used to be I could if I was called in like I did on it on Saturday, I could work four hours because I had done it before to get eight. Right. Because it was Saturday called in. Well apparently somewhere they uh changed the rules, and I ended up being fired for falsify falsifying my time card. I'm out of working still living at home. And leading up to joining the international guard for that, Vietnam, I had a pretty good draft. Yeah. But unbeknownst to me, my mom talked to my allergy. He submitted the letter to the draft. They labeled me 4F.

SPEAKER_01:

So mom did not want her boy going off to basically moms have a way of doing that sometimes.

SPEAKER_04:

This ties in later when I went there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So, anyways, uh, I didn't know all that. So I was uh at Cennial Library, Dearborn, Ford City.

SPEAKER_03:

And I picked up a uh postcard saying, join the guard, build it out. They uh ran me through the ASVAB test that you have to do. Yep. And to make sure it's into the air. Somebody will take a different score. So, anyways, I passed all that. Um and I think I called my mom. Well, my told my parents, hey, going to the airport, give me a ride. Because I joined. Yeah. Raised the right hand, all that good stuff. So I was in boot camp uh six weeks. Yeah, down in uh Texas, right? Uh Lackland Air Force. Uh-huh. The only one where all the Air Force people go to. And then after graduating, um went up to Wichita Falls Airbase there, and went learned the B 3500 Burroughs computers.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. So this is what, 1975?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, this is 1975.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. All right. Yeah. So computers haven't quite aren't quite what we have today, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_04:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm I as I explained to one of our volunteers here, I'm a I'm a fossil.

SPEAKER_03:

Because I started out practically at the beginning of it. So I graduated from there. And anything else? No more.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, no, I mean we can continue talking. Yeah, we can continue through.

SPEAKER_04:

So as a result of all that uh education, I got a job at St.

SPEAKER_03:

Joe's Mercy Hospital. And uh I was there 37 years.

SPEAKER_01:

So you finally figured out how not to get fired.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah, basically. Yeah. Know your stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So so let's talk a little bit more about your time in the military. So you signed up to work in the in data systems then for the Air Force.

SPEAKER_04:

Of course, what they trained me on, we they didn't have it, the base.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

We had something called RJ. And that's remote job entry terminal. Basically, it was a typewriter. You'd load the program on a paper tape.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And they would then transmit their information up to Niagara National Guard in New York. It would process there and send it back to us and print it out on green bar paper.

SPEAKER_01:

So you were one of the original remote remote workers, then really.

SPEAKER_04:

Basically, there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And what we did locally there is we one of the people in our unit knew Fortran.

SPEAKER_03:

So he wrote a program so that uh at the theater we'd have roll call.

SPEAKER_04:

And everybody had to drop their little bit of paper in a bag, and then we would get it and check off who was there.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. Print out local program and then give it to whoever makes personal.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Like that. Now, how long were you there? 30 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, in in but you were, I mean, in Wichita Falls.

SPEAKER_04:

No. Oh, Wichita Falls.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

That was two months of training.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And then after that it was just regular National Guard, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, after that.

SPEAKER_01:

And then so was Selfridge where you went or was Selfridge. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

And so back in those days, we were like a foreign body when we did our drill. So couldn't go to the liquor store. The only time we could go if we were on two weeks. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So for a long time though, in the National Guard, like during that period, there wasn't a lot.

SPEAKER_04:

It was really one week in the we would we would be training mostly.

SPEAKER_03:

It's was mostly your ancillary job. Right. And such.

SPEAKER_04:

So our basic uh duty for the 191st, then, was defending the northern tier.

SPEAKER_03:

The Russian bombers. F-106. So we would practice shelter making. And we would pretend we're in a shelter. We'd be in the basement.

SPEAKER_04:

We'd have all the imaginary decontaminants.

SPEAKER_03:

Because you'd be outside, have to take your boots off, your uniform, and put in a closable bag.

SPEAKER_04:

So not taking your clothes off during practice. Right. But we were simulating it, certainly. Simulating. That would be usually on a Sunday, we do it half the day. So bring up and such.

SPEAKER_03:

My I was and all that. That would it went on for about till the Soviets play. Right. Um, the other thing we would do, we would uh deploy for two weeks, usually in February down to Florida.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that sounds really rough.

SPEAKER_04:

We'd go there, and I I I was real good now at operating IBM 3040.

SPEAKER_01:

So you've moved up into into different so you've really watched the progression of I mean, back when they had like punch cards, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, all the way through Polarith cards, yeah, tapes, mag tape, paper tape, and such.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And that's I could talk at that for a but that's so but you've seen that like it's I've seen the evolution. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04:

And I keep up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Because I don't want the No, you don't want to be the guy still doing DOS programming when everyone else is using point one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So um I would basically sit there while the other Air Force guys.

SPEAKER_03:

Maybe I get a little bit like go hang the teeth. Right. Right. And so um I did that till uh I had a career change in the 90s, late late 80s. Okay. As an admin. Oh. And we would uh train people on computer using their gosh awful software called enable.

SPEAKER_04:

And they would use laserdisks.

SPEAKER_01:

And this was like the the old green CRT machines, is that what you were using for the time?

SPEAKER_04:

In a way, yes, they were green.

SPEAKER_03:

But you know, we had the uh what we call the 286 processor.

SPEAKER_01:

That was the stuff, right?

SPEAKER_04:

That was That was high end then.

SPEAKER_01:

So I want to stop for just a second. So at the same time you're doing this in the military, you're working for the hospital system, and you're seeing the same evolution there, aren't you?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, a little bit faster.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Well, but yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_04:

Um the thing is where I worked at uh they were gonna move, we were up to the latest version of mainframe computing, big iron. Yeah, they called it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's where you had rooms full of computing equipment, right?

SPEAKER_04:

So we were still not connected to the outside world yet.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. Were later on. But um higher up because we started to incorporate my hospital. And before that, I could get all my work done at two o'clock. I worked afternoons the most. Uh-huh. And it'd be all done by eight o'clock because nobody had hardwire connection. That l changed later on when we become a twenty-four-hour. Right. So, anyways, the powers to be decided to move the mainframe from here in Ipsy to Mount Clemens. So they said, Glenn, you could have a go with the mainframe and drive an hour and fifteen minutes every day, or you can learn something.

SPEAKER_01:

Is that a hard choice?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh no. It took a it was a though.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

But at that time, I said, okay. So started out learning IBM 8088, two floppy disks, green monitor, even some Apple II computers for PBI, brain function, coordination.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. And they had something of a network there, but it was mostly word processing.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'm just curious. So did that career change take place right around the same time you went to work admin in the guard? Were those fairly close together?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, pretty close.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. I was just trying to picture how this was going for you.

SPEAKER_03:

So when I was in the guard or also at the hospital, um, I developed my interest in photography. Okay. This was um about nineteen ninety, bring my camera to all film back then. Right. And we so my I think it was '92, my first sergeant Gary Wright uh decided, okay, there's an opening. And I had book learning I had to do with one of the people with us I became friends with, he was a AP photographer. And so um but the Air Force changed the where we had to go to school. No more buckle. So I had my paperwork in to go to school. So did my friend, but why does he need to go to school? So he got the school, right? But he wasn't gonna go. And he said, Okay, then here you go. So this was in 1993. Okay. And in August I shipped out to Petsacola Naval Air Station March was in August. And it was a seven-month pool. All from the beginning. My first day there, I came in, sat down, the other students came in.

SPEAKER_04:

They all asked, I'm 42 now. Right. You you know spring chicken. And they asked me, Are you your are you RT? I thought no. So we had it was a group of towards the end of eight people.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh-huh. We had one person that got set back. It was a Marine. And he thought it was more interesting seeing his girlfriend in Jackson, Florida, than being at school.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, he's probably a young Marine, so who could blame him, right?

SPEAKER_04:

So eventually he I guess the Navy calls became a a chain dragger.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. Some physical work. But um all this time my wife is pregnant with her second child, Christmas. So the doctor had set a date for her birth in October, and I flew down because I had uh I think it was holiday. No, just for the weekend.

SPEAKER_04:

So I was going to be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So the doctor screwed up.

SPEAKER_03:

And I had to leave missing her being born we call it born day.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh 20 minutes after I left.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, that's too much. So my youngest Brittany was there and basically while I'm away she mimicking just to be back home. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04:

So, anyways, um graduated.

SPEAKER_03:

I was uh top of my class, of course. I also had the top score for the month of October. But we had to go to a second call the versatile.

SPEAKER_04:

This was uh learning how to do 80 millimeter tape or film that came off the SR 71. Okay. The spy planes. Yeah, yeah. So we had to learn how to keep the everything balanced in the and all that.

SPEAKER_03:

I was hoping to get my silver certificate, but we had one drill where we had to do it as a oh no, so I didn't get that. Um my mom and dad came down to watch me graduate from school in January, and then I drove home. Uh-huh. And such. So I became a photographer on the base, and kind of impressed them that I did want to work, because I guess some of the guards there did not do much. I wanted to do much. And so I had a bivum there based visual. And it was all about him. Uh you didn't do anything without his approval. But having just I knew I didn't really have his approval to maybe basic stuff, go there and put that metal on the chest or change a plans. The flag one time I was out and about, the army was gonna do a drop over set it up and go ask. And he said no. He photographs as such. Sort of like from if you don't put your pictures out there to the bureau up in Washington, nobody's gonna know what to do out here. Right. You gotta tell your story. So and they haven't done so. There was one time I went to water survival, through it all, take pictures, people doing being taught. Got to do the parachute drop from eboat, and um we so photographing all that stuff. Uh huh. And so on a drill weekend, I scanned my negatives because it's all film and sent everything up to the hero remarkably forced. How did that feel? That was great. Yeah. Didn't make my live on happy. He threatened to throw me out of photography. Because it wasn't about him. Right. He didn't get credit. Yeah. So um after that, um, I can continue on doing stuff. Uh-huh. The rolling around 2001 now. I had been thinking, well, I got twenty-four years in what you want to do.

SPEAKER_01:

So for people who don't uh who aren't familiar with the National Guard, right, you get your 20-year letter, which means you could retire at any time. And when I got my 20-year letter, that kind of changed how I saw things. I don't know if it was kind of the same for you. Like you didn't have to be there anymore.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. We would get a letter because they still approve of me.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

So I would get a three-year extended another three-year extiry.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So But you're you're 24 years in at this point. Yeah. In 2001.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So what happens?

SPEAKER_04:

So um we would pull our kids out of school the first week or second week in November because they're they're a student. Right. And it's only review time for the first two weeks after summer break. So we pull them out and take them to Disney. So it's September 2001, and we're down in Disney.

SPEAKER_03:

And we're going to go to Blizzard, because they got the big slides, all that wonderful stuff.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yeah. And so we're going to leave about nine o'clock on the TV.

SPEAKER_03:

I say, Oh, burning buildings. Let's go to let's go to the beach. So we went there. And then about 10 30, 11 o'clock, we get an announcement overhead saying the world is closed. And I it's like you hear this all over about people talking aloud about build planes crashing buildings, the Pentagon, Pennsylvania. Right. And so uh we went back to our room, stayed at the pool, and I'm thinking, and it did. So in 2001, my buddy uh Sergeant Cleveland got a gig in Washington, D.C. for three months. All he did was edit PowerPoint. These PowerPoints go to the Pentagon, and they would see what's happening. That also in Kosovo. So he came back. He says, Glenn, you gotta do this. So I did. I put in for it. I got it. I was there April, May, June. So it was May, April, April, May. Coming home in August. It was fantastic. Because you could see how the war was progressing, how Hussef was doing, and such. That there for twelve hours. And you make sure the information that's feeding from the room next door from other guards, what the guard is.

SPEAKER_01:

So you really got like a good view of what was happening.

SPEAKER_03:

And I wanted to do again in 2003, but I turned down because they didn't have enough room on base, so I got put up in Georgetown. Nothing wrong with that. What happened is my kids got out of school and I can't visit for about three weeks. Uh-huh. And then I came home in August. And I tried to do that again in 2003, but because of some errors I made. Right. So we're getting to uh December of 2000. And so I'm into my computer career. I'm up to the point where I can repair laptops, plays, re-image the PCs, and help basic break fix problems, people having problems, logging on, and other hands. Right. And I do about 40k, basically myself. And another person we well, I clo I close forty.

SPEAKER_01:

So we'd have a little friendly competition.

SPEAKER_03:

Something.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And so I'm sitting there, it's after Christmas, and my buddy, Sergeant Cleveland, calls at work. Uh-huh. And well, we were hourly then, so I told my super waves all from the base. I go, great. Right.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, on unboked to me in my drill that day, in in the guard, and I imagine other services, you don't have a war-time job.

SPEAKER_03:

You're not in the guard.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Needed a wartime. And so uh Mike Cleveland was his full name. Uh he took me over to Intel and showed me what his job was. So I learned it in ten minutes. Basically taking video, digitizing it, transmit over the internet, analog to this digital. And I go, yeah, yeah, no problem. 10 minutes. So um also unbeknownst to me, my bivim went to a two-week school to learn what I did. Right. Knowledge of computers.

SPEAKER_04:

So um I'm sitting there in the office with my commander. And he says, uh, Mike here tells me you can do his job. You picked it up pretty quick.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, no problem. He says, Would you like to go to Iraq? I go, Okay. Sure, why not? So I volunteered to go there. I'm 52 right now.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, 52 going to Iraq with our one with the 127th fighter squadron called the Red Devils.

SPEAKER_03:

And twelve aircraft were deployed, such. Um told my wife, Bill Glanak. I was interested in being that other guy on the other side of uh World War II photos taking pictures. Yeah. But I wanted so not to throw God in with me. I prayed for a year at church, do this. And I go.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I I find that when God answers a prayer, uh you better you better move forward.

SPEAKER_04:

So I did that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And uh we went to a Air Force Base, Columbia, South Carolina, and went through about what we were mostly what Intel was mostly there. And they, you know, made comment people going to the green zone. Baghdad said, careful. Right. Well, guess what? When we were there, our base was hit sixty out of thirty ninety days. Rockets, RPGs, orders. They were bad shots.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_04:

They they they were bad shots. I did have one uh rocket land maybe 50 yards from me while I was in all the quiet zone there, where we could go ahead.

SPEAKER_03:

Then the rocket hit and on the ground. Last over.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So uh basically my job there was taking digital taking uh video tapes off of i Sony Sony 8 recorders that are in the F-16s. Take those tapes, add a player, and I'd sit across from Intel, the pilot would be next, and the Intel person says, Glenn, I need uh 15 seconds. Uh-huh. So digitize it, my name, pilot's name, date, mission number, digitize it, then I turn around, upload it from the SIPRNet to uh guitar. So the job was 12 hours a day, 90 days a week for the for the three months I was there. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04:

No, no timeout.

SPEAKER_03:

Right?

SPEAKER_04:

And so I would uh walk the half mile back.

SPEAKER_03:

I got my full gear on, bulletproof vest, helmet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Gloves, goggles, all the fun stuff, right?

SPEAKER_03:

No, no, not at mop level yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

We did carry our gas.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. So you were there, you were there for 90 days? Yeah. And then where from where did you go from there? Oh. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh saw a lot of interesting stuff on the tapes. Uh-huh. Touch. Some of the bomb drops. Apparently, one of my videos or however it did, somebody released it to the net to uh YouTube.

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh. Just look up Lucia. You'll see 30 seconds bomb being released, then moved over because people in the building moved and were heading towards the day tag. Uh pilots can't take. They have to there's ground controllers.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03:

So um come home, and the big picture. Mom and dad, and kids running up to their dad. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I'm Colonel Bankstall was at my commander, and I'm the last one there at the welcome. And the base failed to tell my wife.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04:

But she is on base. Okay and she's shopping.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So she's nearby anyway.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So hey, I asked her, can I borrow your phone?

SPEAKER_03:

So I go, uh, dear, I'm waiting. So she comes over, kids are with dad and such, and uh such basic off to put it back another 90 days when leaving. Both kids are hugging me. Oh, yeah. My eyes are just dreaming. Get on the plane. Right. So after that, you get a full month off. And we went down. Where else would you go?

SPEAKER_04:

We stopped in at uh my mom and dad, my mom's farm house. They have a reunion at that time.

SPEAKER_03:

So we get to see the cousins. This is 2000. Oh. So 2005 rolls around. And I said, well, yeah. And after 30 years in August 2005, got out of the guard.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, can you tell me? I mean, that 30 years is a long time to be to be there. What was it like for you putting on that uniform for the last time? How did that feel?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, it it felt good. But uh my personal opinion, after you're out, your uniform. I I never was a person to dress up on Veterans Day and march with your pedals there.

SPEAKER_03:

Um after that, all the prestige hours gone. Right. From from you. And you're a civilian. So but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. No, no. And it's my wife will say never had a midlife crisis. Right. Something important. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyways, after that continued working at Trinity. I was really itching to get promoted. But I had a manager that was basically out there during the 60s protesting military. He knew I was there. Yeah. And I never really got promoted there. When I left to go to photography school, he told me to my face that I wouldn't even give a pregnant six months off little you. Right. You have to. So um what I did is I started putting in jobs at other places in the system. So I got a job at Detroit Mercy Hospital in Detroit. And I guess it a little bit more money down the mortgage. Right. And I was pretty good there. Then Trinity decided, well, we'll close Detroit Mercy. So this is uh the during the great Wi-Fi. So during that time, I had to be there to midnight before the clock over. Oh yes, Y2K. And nothing. Right. So, anyways, I'm closing down the hospital, packing up the computers and such. And the HR called and said, Well, we can put you back over in Ann Arbor. I go, Well, I want to work at Farmington. I'd rather quit than anything else. All the noise in the hospital. And so I started working there. I got certified in repairing computers, uh, ordering parts from them. It was a discount compared to them per buying it. And got to know thousands of people there repairing and such. And then in 2020, uh, I was given a box said, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I was time to retire is what they thought.

SPEAKER_04:

Basically, they they cut back a few other other people.

SPEAKER_03:

Um it's interesting. I have Lincoln edit, and and I can see how other people just moved on to other places in the health industry. So what did you do when you left? Well, um, I've never been one to have idle hands. And occasionally your wife wants you out of the house.

SPEAKER_01:

Because you're driving her crazy at this point, right?

SPEAKER_04:

So I've been a member of this place for 30 years, but only a member.

SPEAKER_03:

And then towards um the end, uh we were doing server routing and sorry, donating equipment.

SPEAKER_01:

Tim Nichols, Phil Kennedy were the team doing that, and they said well, and for people watching this, you were at the um the Michigan Flight Museum, right? Down by uh Willowrun Airport.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. You started really volunteering your time here.

SPEAKER_04:

Coming here, um, I would sit in that room I showed you.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh-huh. And they would ask him, okay, well. So I would I'd start doing things, people would lose files on the server, they would have problems scanning, have the same thing I was doing, but not in volume for the days. So then got to do we used to have different locations because our 1940 hangar burnt down. We were lost a lot of stuff. Right. A lot of world war. The one thing we didn't lose was the membership of the computer because they were having problems with it. So the person took it home. Next day the barn burned down. Oh. So that was lucky because we after that we had a couple homes last sandtop old building, and came here after they caught it and built all the delays back. We had a flying B-17, flying B 45, D-47, Huey helicopter. So we had to tell our B-17, not because it was brokering, getting our small inweight. You still have your helicopter, though.

SPEAKER_04:

We have the Huey, we have the D-47 and the B-5.

SPEAKER_03:

They all go to air shows and they then do rides.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. My wife and I actually rode uh in the Huey at the Freedom River uh event. So we loved it.

SPEAKER_03:

I just came out there to take pictures for the museum. Um they sold the museum, I guess they got because it's a flying and certified that year. But the person that bought it will have it disassembled, redone. Like it was brand new. Wow. Fully shipped it. New Zealand. So you've been volunteering here for at least eleven years.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, eleven years. And um actually, when I talked to you last week, you're you're getting ready to move and you'll be leaving the flight museum. Um, how does that feel?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I guess it feels like um try. Okay. But happens. Um lot of people here appreciate what I do. Yeah. You know, there's a hangar over there, not far from us, and we had to hook up internet there, but Tomcat says it'll be a million dollars.

SPEAKER_04:

We go, no. So what we do is we have a transmitter on top of that, and it links to it.

SPEAKER_03:

They get their internet. So that's one of the things I'm proud of. Um when I got uh retired from no handshake, no party, just out the door with charity. And uh they threw a party for me last week, which was fantastic, more than I had with Trinity and such. They're gonna have to find somebody. They have Tim Nichols, but before I came, he would come in in the evening. There's another guy here that I would love to talk to Tim do that because he's a docent. But it'll be different. Um they do have Tima out there. Everybody goes there. Fantastic. They have another consolidated air. I'll have to check them out. They need any computer.

SPEAKER_01:

So when you so when you get out to Arizona, you're not gonna, you're you're uh you're still looking at uh at that uh serving in in some capacity.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's um I know too many people didn't. Right. And they're grave. Gotta be busy. Yeah, for sure. You have to be busy, keep your mind active, whatever you're doing. Yeah. Um my kids, Brittany and Krista. Krista is out in Arizona and brother. Um real quick, I met my wife at the bowling act, like my yes.

SPEAKER_01:

We talked about that earlier, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And we've been married. Congratulations. So Polish half German, half Irish. And our serpents are 300.

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

So, anyways, um gotta be active doing stuff. I have a lot of videos out there of our trips. That's called all of the well, where can people see your videos if they want to see your videos?

SPEAKER_04:

They look up Hawkeye161.

SPEAKER_01:

Hawkeye161, and that's your your YouTube name channel name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And uh the so Krista teaches Al graduated a math degree, and now she's into doing students kindergarten but grade school STEM classes, being interested in right. My oldest, Brittany, uh graduated from the Toledo University as a chemical engineer. She had been working on the glass down there, and she has an interest in the space program. And so she went down to where Sandusky is as the world's largest vacuum. They had open house. She's wandering around and talked to someone saying, Hey, you got hired. Worked there about six weeks ago. Worked on the Orion spacecraft around the moon. And um she was able to Thorthrop called her and said, Hey, got stuff for ya. You can come down here watch Artemis rocket. We went down there, we got canceled twice because of problems. He got to go back the third time there as well, but nowadays great position he was in. So she got that. So Brittany's now teaching. You want to see her? Do yoga by beat on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So I gotta ask though, does she still do impersonations of of uh your other daughter being born?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh no. No, no. Although we do have video of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, and that has to come out once in a while, right? Yes. Well, Glenn, we've covered a lot in the in the last hour. We've talked about your your life and really your life of service, all the really amazing things that you've seen, simply, you know, from the beginning of computing to what it is today, and uh you're getting ready for that next chapter in your life. Um, so I want I really have two questions left. The first question is Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you still wanted to talk about? Uh is my first question.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, talk about my wife. Yeah. Uh Debbie Wilkowes. Debbie Lorbes. Uh 100% Polish and master of the kitchen. She has a culinary degree years, and had a variety of different jobs at the hospital. She got tired of cooking, then she did eight years as an ER escort at St. Joe's Hospital. And then she stopped doing that. And for the last 15 techniques, she's uh she's done driving people to the airport. Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

So kind of works as a contractor to other but she has her own people that will call her. So when she goes to Arizona, all of that.

SPEAKER_01:

I get the feeling that she probably will uh do it out be just fine.

SPEAKER_04:

She'll be fine. And she's already hinted that she may pick it up again, but just drive that one person, they'll get a referral.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Right. The reason we're moving to Arizona is we used to do a three-month ride where we'd go to Florida, over to Pensacola, then to Arizona.

SPEAKER_04:

And we did it first time we did it, we did an Airbnb, and we didn't really like where we were doing this for a month.

SPEAKER_03:

Then I found that this other house that was fantastic was bigger, had a bigger backyard, the pool. And my wife likes to swim every day when she can. So uh back then after that, uh I got to know who the manager was, and she said, call me. Save those Airbnbs. So I did, and we did that for four years, same house month. And because we had looked at other houses, there's nother, neither nor any of them we liked because they had a post-damp backyard. Right. And so this year we were down in Petsacola, got the call from her, says the owner says you can have the first bid on the house. Really? The last few years because he has medical. So I go, Debbie, do it. You want to do it? So we started the process while we were in Petzcola. We then had another house renting in because it was two-story and did have a pool, but so we did the VA loan through the whole process. Took a month. So that's the house we're going to. Nice. It wasn't like this house.

SPEAKER_01:

So you know you know enough about it?

SPEAKER_04:

You've been there and we know the area.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Her brother lives ten minutes from us, Queen's Creek.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. And um probably a year or two, my oldest will probably move out there. She'll have the family. Yeah. Nice. So I will not move because of I don't have any grandkids. Right. And people won't move because they have grandkids.

SPEAKER_01:

So I think they're if they want to live other than Michigan or well, it sounds like that next chapter is gonna be exciting for you. I'll I'll I'll be interested to uh hear how things are going.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I'll throw YouTube up there.

SPEAKER_03:

I think but oh as another thing. Uh I was originally a Baptist and I um since God answered me, I'll become Catholic. So um I was in a bomb shelter because we had the big siren going on. Yeah. And the Catholic with me and such. So I started attending Catholic services there. And then when I came back, I went to Chaddy.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. And so I I was lying to the kids where I was going at the time something left out. Um, I got a black belt and karate. So I was telling them I was going to school. Some different techniques. Then when my baptism time were really a little shocked. Yeah, because we had made them go catechism. I had right, right. So now now you're you're Catholic. Every Saturday, just like my wife. She was born Catholic. But yeah, go on Saturday because then you You don't have to get up early.

SPEAKER_01:

Because this is a Saturday service, like in the afternoon or about four or five o'clock, depending where you're at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So we we'll do that. And uh that's incredible.

SPEAKER_01:

Lots of great churches out in uh out in Arizona too.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we have one that we'll be going.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, good. Good. Well, that really brings me to the final question for our interview today, and that is for people listening to this years from now, maybe a hundred years from now, um, what message would you like to leave them with?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, um, what I'd like to say is there's a person on Jordan, and he did a video talking about kids, and it kind of fits me, and it also fits my two kids, where you have a time frame until you're about twenty four to learn a because you're leaving stuff behind as a kid, you're you're not partying, you're not doing stuff. Like if you're um a plumber, electrician, you're learning a that you can use, and you have this narrow window for learning. Once you're on the other side of that narrow window, you can do the things that you doubt as a kid, so you can go out and do other things, including your job that you but you can do other things. And if you're a couch potato and you're 30 years old still living at home, there's a problem. So my kids got out of the house quickly. Both of them got jobs out of college, they're both doing fine. Not calling dad or or mom, hey, I no, they're all self-confident as such what they're doing. So, like I said, my advice is that your children should get some skill to stop doing what they might have been sixteen or seven. When my daughter was sixteen, always wondered why she was leaving early for high school. Found out that set up the lamp. And so the same way with Krista. Wanted to teach you. So she went to Grand Valley and got her job by her connector. Uh Debbie's relatives were but she got a job. Right. So I'd encourage anyone who wants to be in the military to join the air. And of course, you have to have a good ASVAV score for that. And um do what you're interested in. I originally wanted uh photography art work at it. Right. I did, got it. All right, but the other thing I would say about my photography skills are good, but I never really could make a living at. Right. Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do, right? Basically.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, Glenn, thanks for taking time out this morning to sit and talk with me. I really appreciate it.

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Bill Krieger

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