Lauren Bracamonte
Louis Gutierrez
Period 6
Wendell Ashley
Airforce
28 Years in service
Wendell Ashley
Wendell R. Ashley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Prior to moving to California, he lived in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, which is approximately 9 miles away from Washington D.C. Mr. Ashley attended Tuskegee University and graduated in 1954, where he studied architecture. From 1955 to 1983, Wendell Ashley served in the Air force and became aBase Civil Engineering. Wendell Ashley is married to Elaine J. Ashley and has two children. His older son, Reggie, is a musician and his youngest son, named Ton,is an engineer. Both of his sons attended the University of Maryland in Munich, Germany. They both are graduates of Cal State Fullerton.
Wendell Ashley chose to be in the Air force because his college, University of Tuskegee is a land grant college and it is a requirement to provide two years of Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC). His college offered the Air force and Army ROTC. Wendell chose to be in the Air force ROTC. After serving the required two years of ROTC, Wendell elected to advance into the third and fourth year of ROTC. Students in their third and fourth years in ROTC were paid, which was an incentive for Wendell, as well as many other students. Wendell enjoyed ROTC and was part of band in college as a percussionist.
During his career in the Air Force Ashley traveled to many parts of the world including Alaska, Tokyo, Germany, and Thailand. For the first eight to ten years in the Air ForceCivil Engineering personnel get the chance to operate in their career field. Wendell chose engineering, since he had a background in architecture. As an engineer you can specialize in what you want, and Wendell specialized in the base civil engineering career field. During the early part of his career in base civil engineering, he was the chief of construction inspection in Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and Japan. He inspected blueprints, planned, programmed, and designed buildings. Joining the air force straight out of college, he was treated as a gentleman with a lot of responsibilities, respect, and expectations.
Wendell Ashley had many memorable experiences in the Air force.One of his most memorable experiences was in Takhli, Thailand during the sixties. During his assignment as the Base Civil Engineer, his number one job was to change the base from a jungle to a livable environment. Latrine facilities were one thousand yards away from the sleeping area and there were many wild animals in the area. A helicopter flew over their base camp one day and startled a herd of elephants which caused their “tent city” base to be trampled. Another memorable moment was during monsoon season in Thailand, Wendell started to plan a “snake-proof” portable office made out of teak wood. This led to the development of a “houch” structure which was first built by Wendell. In Thailand their APO address which is used to send and receive mailwas so classified that they had to change the APO address every week. Wendell says that Takhli, Thailand was the most memorable environment that he lived in. Another memorable experience was at Wendell’s first job wherehe had to redesign the front entrance of Brookley Air Force Base. This made him scared because it was a very big responsibility. He went back to one of his professors for advice and he was told to “rise up to the occasion and do whatever is needed to get the job done.” Wendell’s redesign of the base front entrance appeared on the front page of the Mobile Register Newspaper. In Alaska a memorable experience was seeing a special tree that was planted by G.I.’s. It is the only tree that grows above the Arctic Circle. Wendell mentioned that the rough climate and harsh conditions were also very memorable.Mr. Ashley recalls when he was the Base Civil Engineer at the Edwards Air Force Base, where many new aircrafts and space shuttles from around the world were tested. The base hsd a tremendous emergency rescue response capability in case of a plane failure; and Mr. Ashley remembers there would be a fire truck on each side of the runway in case of an emergency. He had nine radios in the back of his rescue vehicle and each one was set to a different station in case of an accident because he was also, the base Fire Marshal.
During his years in the air force, Wendell received the Air Force Commendation Medal with four oak-leaf clusters. He was awarded five different times, and also received a Joint service commendation. After his 28 years in the air force, Wendell had a formal retirement ceremony. Through the air force Wendell met many wonderful people,such as Colonel Rains, Colonel Daughrty and astronaut, General Tom Stafford. He now enjoys reading, coin collecting, and listening to music, especially jazz. He says that “music brings back memories”, almost like time travel. Through Wendell’s service in the air force he learned to become “a contributing person in society and have many responsibilities.” It was an honor to meet and interview Mr. and Mrs. Ashley and a pleasure to listen to their life stories and wise advice. It will be forever cherished as a memorable experience.