Sgt Darrin Green, U.S. Air Force (1985-1989)

One of the reasons I joined the Air Force in 1985 was to earn money for college. I signed up for the GI Bill, which required me to invest $1,200 and receive $10,200 later. Before my initial four-year service ended, my unit at Norton AFB shut down, and I was relocated to McClellan AFB. This was considered a change of station and required me to extend my service, which I did. However, I was allowed to separate early for college. Box 28 of my DD214 states my reason for separation was “ATTEND EDUCATIONAL FACILITY”. 

I separated in 1989 to attend Louisiana Tech University, and I was enrolled in their aviation degree plan to become a commercial pilot using the GI Bill as one source of payment. Changes in life required me to leave that program very early. Later, when life normalized again, I used the GI Bill again to enroll in a community college in their Telecommunications degree plan. I also used my Air Force skills to obtain employment, and one day I was in a client’s break room reading network trade magazines describing emerging networking technologies. This piqued my interest immensely, and I changed my degree program to “Computer Information Systems – Local Area Network Administrator”.

Changing and completing my degree program became the turning point in my career, allowing me to enter the Information Technology (IT) career field. Over the course of twenty-nine years at my company, I held positions of technician, network engineer, senior network engineer/architect, network manager, and senior network manager. I was the first African American in the history of the company in all those positions, with my pay starting at $29,000 and ending at $158,000 when I retired. 

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