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Wing's facility manager retires after 52 years of service

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Amanda Farr
  • 53rd Wing public affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  In 1963, Beatlemania was only beginning. Troll dolls were the rage.  Gas was only 30 cents/gallons, and for less than a dollar you could go see Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra at the box office.  In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream speech," and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

And in 1963, a 17-year-old boy from Boston, got permission from his parents to join the Air Force. This decision would set more than five decades of military and civil service in motion.

Charles "Chuck" McBay, the 53rd Wing's facility manager, retires Dec. 31, after 52 years of dedicated service to the U.S. Air Force. His journey began as an active-duty Airman in February 1963 and will culminate as a DOD civilian this month.

"Challenging, exciting, rewarding," said McBay, choosing those three words to describe his time in service.

"I graduated from high school, but I didn't have any training," said McBay, on why he decided on a life in the military. "I really just joined the service for a good job. I knew I would have a job that I could afford to get married and support the family."

Naturally, McBay's returned home when his first duty station turned out to be Westover AFB, Massachusetts, about 90 miles West of Boston.  He spent his first four years on the flightline working in aerospace ground equipment during the "chilliest" parts of the Cold War.

"Any time we would see the B-52's launching, they were fully armed, and we would immediately start worrying because I worked on the flightline," said McBay. "For each and every launch, we knew we could be entering the "end of the world" as we knew it. Thank goodness that never happened."

The life on the flightline under Strategic Air Command was extremely strict according to McBay. When he was given the opportunity to retrain into civil engineering, McBay jumped at the change.

"It was really like going from the Marines to the Boy Scouts," said McBay. "Of course, I loved that interaction and that major change."

McBay also retrained to posture himself for other career opportunities outside of the Air Force.

"At one point I was going to get out early," he said. "I didn't have plans to spend 20 years. But as it turned out, I learned the electrical career field in CE, and it has help with me for many, many years."

During his time in electrical, McBay had a memorable encounter with the four-star general. He had to replace a light bulb over the general's desk. Much to McBay's surprise, the general was actually sitting in the room when he arrived.

"I was up there changing the bulbs, and I dropped the bad bulbs," said McBay. "Some hit his desk. I felt for sure, 'my goodness he's going to get me fired. I'll never be up in that building again. I don't know what they're going to do to me down in CE.'"

McBay quickly closed up all his tools to rush out, grab a vacuum, and clean up the glass, telling the general he was extremely sorry and embarrassed.

The four-star sat him down and said, "Young man, you came up here in a very timely manner; you were very professional. Things like that happen, and don't let this slow you down. Continue on your path. This is between you and me. Nobody else will even hear about it. Keep doing a good job."

McBay recalled that story when considering one leader who had influence on his career.

"That made me feel he had a lot of trust in me and I was doing well," he said. "Even if he had no idea who I was, just those few words with him were very nice."

McBay was only in electrical CE for a short period of time before reassignment to Vietnam. He spent a year in DaNang Air Base, the largest northern base in Vietnam.

"They didn't like us there and would tell us very, very often by sending rockets to us," he said. "It was a very stressful environment. I learned a lot. I grew up a lot."

Enduring the assignment in Vietnam required support on the home front.

"If you don't have the support of your family, and you don't support them, you're going to have some extreme difficulties," said McBay.

The Airman and his wife wrote letters often. The mail was so unreliable, that sometimes his wife would receive six at a time with two months in between.

"It was very difficult, but I knew in my heart she was at home taking care of the children and the house, and she would be there for us," he said. "That's the way it's continued throughout my career."

In 1978, McBay and his family arrived here. He spent nearly eight years at Eglin building relationships within the CE community, something that would serve him well upon upon leaving active-duty and transitioning into civil service.

After 26 years of active-duty service, McBay retired as a senior master sergeant in February 1989, and returned here to begin his civil service career. He began as a construction inspector with the base CE team, but also had a chance to work at Site C6 radar near Freeport.  In 2008, he moved to the 53rd Wing.

"This position needs a lot of CE [connections]," said McBay. "As long as you have a good relationship, and you know those folks, you'll do well."

McBay has seen numerous changes in the last 50 years. When asked about the Air Force 'then versus now,' he said the quality of Airmen is much higher now.

"Nowadays, the Airmen and the officers are much more educated," said McBay. "Because of the training you're provided, we get a much better perspective on asking harder questions. You see the bigger picture now. You didn't see it back then."

He also said the Air Force is taking care of people much better than 52 years ago.

"We try to make them grow, and help them grow. They didn't seem to do that much then," McBay said.

His perspective on then versus now also gives insight to the new generation of Airmen joining the service. McBay had some parting words of wisdom for these new service members.

"Be respectful to everybody, not just their leadership," he said. "Respect their ideas, their thoughts, and their way of living... and support them in any way you can. Don't be negative to them or in front of them, that doesn't help at all. Get as much education and training that you can. Try to better yourself, and if you have all those together, then you'll probably do well in your life."