139th News

AATTC's Harmeyer earns AMC honor

  • Published
  • By Capt. Brian Bowman
  • 139th Airlift Wing
You can't fault someone with 17 years on active duty for assuming coming to work at a small Air National Guard base would be slower than what he's used to.

Master Sgt. Christopher Harmeyer, an instructor with the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center, certainly had that idea before arriving here.

"I just assumed it would be kind of slow," he said. "Certainly I thought it would be less busy than what I was used to.

"Boy, I was wrong."

Harmeyer said he's never been busier than the year he's been with the AATTC, and he's also been productive. That production resulted in Harmeyer's selection as the Air Mobility Command's Air Intelligence Squadron senior non-commissioned officer of the year for 2008.

Harmeyer has been somewhat of a trailblazer as one of the few active duty airmen to work full-time at Rosecrans, although their numbers are increasing.

It is a different world for them, as Harmeyer found out.

"Even something as a simple as a (physical health assessment) has to be done at Whiteman (AFB) two hours away," he said. "So I took it upon myself to share what I was learning to the new (active duty) guys coming in."

But he and his family have enjoyed St. Joseph.

"The people here are great and this is a low crime area," he said. "With kids, that was important to us."

Harmeyer not only instructs, but supervises three other personnel. His team is responsible for 22 blocks of AATTC instruction, helping to train nearly 300 aircrew and intelligence personnel annually. He led this effort during the past year despite having only half of his allotment of instructors and being deployed numerous times for the AATTC to Ft. Huachuca, N.M., plus month-long TDYs to Iraq and Ft. Dix, N.J.

"It's been non-stop," he said. "It hasn't been boring, I can tell you that."