NEWS

For retired USAF colonel, service was 'a calling'

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 12/16/21

By JOHN HOWELL After a 32-year career in the US Air Force, retiring as a "full bird" colonel, William A. Neri says his enlistment was "the best decision I've made in my life." That's not to say his tour was without stress, the most acute being in his

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NEWS

For retired USAF colonel, service was 'a calling'

Posted

After a 32-year career in the US Air Force, retiring as a “full bird” colonel, William A. Neri says his enlistment was “the best decision I’ve made in my life.” That’s not to say his tour was without stress, the most acute being in his deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2003 when the eldest of his two sons was 2 and the other 6 months old. There was no knowing how long he might be there and since it was in the beginning of American involvement there wasn’t an infrastructure in place. “It was Dodge City in the wild West,” he said.

When deployed to Iraq in 2009, the operation was in place and “it was a bigger mission and a lot was going on.”  Neri was one of two commanders overseeing hundreds of flights daily in support of troops on the ground as well as overseeing noncombatant operations. He said a lot of planes would be in “hot spots,” ready for action that required fueling tankers for them to remain within range. Those spending their work day in front of the radar screens were drained by the time they came off duty, he said. It was no less stressful on him.

Neri was 24 when he enlisted as the member of the Rhode Island Air National Guard.  A Warwick native, Neri attended Hoxsie and John Brown Francis elementary schools, Aldrich Junior High and Bishop Hendricken before moving on to St. Michael’s College in Burlington, VT. He is the son of Michael and Patricia Neri of Warwick and now lives In Southbridge, MA with his wife Tristen and sons, Jack a senior at Quinnipiac University and Luke, a freshman at Providence College.

Neri received his commission upon graduating from the Academy of Military Science, McGhee-Tyson ANG Base Tennessee in February of 1991.  He has served as a member of the Connecticut Air National Guard since 1996 and is a 1999 graduate of the USAF Weapons School.

In his most recent position, Neri served as Commander, 103d Mission Support Group, Bradley Air National Guard Base, East Granby, CT.

Neri said he was fortunate to have his service extended by two years beyond the required retirement of 30 years. Now 57 years old he’s not ready to retire and apart from having two sons in college wants to remain actively engaged.  He would like to find something with the kind of experience he had in the Air Force.

“It was more than a job, it was a calling a sense of service,” he said of the Air Force. What he loved was “being around people of the same mindset.

“The people I worked with were high quality, (focused) on getting the job done and the mission.”

Col Neri has deployed numerous times in support of Operations NOBLE EAGLE, ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM.  He deployed to various locations throughout the United States in support of NOBLE EAGLE, to Kandahar Airfield Afghanistan as a Senior Director, Al Udeid AB Qatar in 2007 as Squadron Commander, Joint Base Balad Iraq in 2009 as Director of Operations, and Al Dhafra AB UAE in 2012 as Squadron Commander.

Neri recommends the military service as a career path.

He talked of being a member of a team as well as the leadership opportunities it offers.

“There’s always a challenge,” he said. “It is a brotherhood and a sense of family.

Neri, USAF

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